Self-published magazines' success increases tenfold.

Byline: David Jackson

The basements of Chicago have spawned a noisy, pugnacious little industry: self-published magazines.

Aimed at the erudite and hip, attention-grabbing titles from The Baffler to WhiteWalls to TENbyTEN have won small but loyal audiences from New York to Los Angeles and beyond.

Now several of Chicago's upstart journals are dealing with an unexpected state of affairs: They are encountering small signs of success.

J.C. Gabel, the 28-year-old editor of Stop Smiling, can't hide the laugh in his voice. Gabel's art-focused bimonthly "for high-minded lowlifes" recently signed a distribution deal with Rider Circulation Services aimed at expanding its national circulation from the current print run of 10,000 to at least 25,000 copies per issue.

"There is a sense that this is the place to be right now _ there's so much talent here, and a do-it-yourself attitude," said Annette Ferrara, 31, whose color-splashed art and design journal TENbyTEN is closing a deal with a new publisher who plans to boost its print run from about 4,000 copies to 75,000, add more pages and put it out 10 times a year, instead of one or two.

"Usually these things fold after a couple of issues," said WhiteWalls editor Anthony Elms, 33, who has seen his most recent issue excerpted in Harper's magazine and featured on the public radio show "This American Life."