New Project! Made My First Zines

Finally did the thing I've been wanting to do for several years now and have begun making the zine versions of this blog! The first two issues are now up on my itch.io account and can be downloaded in both full-color PDF and printable PDF versions. I'll post a quick thing for each one I make but here are the links to both of them. I'm also going to post the full essay from Issue A-1 in its uninterrupted form as a bit of a taste of what to expect with this thing.

Ars Nihil Issue A-1: "Getting Started"

https://arsnihil.itch.io/ars-nihil-issue-a-1-getting-started

Ars Nihil Issue A-2: Quotes to Know #1

https://arsnihil.itch.io/ars-nihil-issue-a-2-quotes-to-know-1

Photo by Luke Porter (Unsplash)

"Getting Started" (Issue A-1)

This is the very first issue of a new zine series I'm putting together. I've been running a blog called Ars Nihil for the last several years. It's not very well-known (if known at all) but it's been a passion project that I've put a lot of time and heart into, probably more than was really necessary. This set of zines is both an extension of that blog and its own creature that I hope will flourish as time goes on.

So why not just post these things on the blog instead? Understandable but blogs and zines have different functions. Some of the things I'm putting in these issues have actually already gone into blog posts but blogging also, by its nature, can be fleeting. You see a post, often think "Huh, interesting," and then move onto something else.

Zines, though, require actual engagement. They're physical items at their core and much like books or magazines, their creators design them in a way that almost forces you to want to read the whole thing through (or at least bounce around while passing through the other points in the journey). You can't just be "one and done" with a zine. You're at the mercy of the zine creator's decisions.

This series of zines is basically a collection of things I've amassed during the last 20-plus years. It's inspired by a genre of books that fell out of fashion around 2013: the information reference book. I don't actually know what this kind of book is called but these things were everywhere during the 2000s and you really only see them in the bargain sections of your local Barnes & Noble. Desk references, infographic-heavy how-to books, almanacs, miscellanies, those "1001 Things Before You Die" books, those kinds of books.

People have made fun of those kinds of books but, honestly, I really liked them and am a little sad they're no longer a thing. Why they fell out of favor makes sense: they were intended as a way for the book publishing industry to contend with the rise of the internet and specifically Wikipedia. But Wikipedia won in the end and the industry overextended itself when making these things.

While they're not cool anymore, the underlying concept is still sound. People need information and they usually like digging to find it. I don't buy into the idea that we're hardwired to just eat force-fed slop all the time. Being passive might be easier but exploration is key to our nature. This zine is my own weird autistic way of both honoring the legacy of those books and by bringing interesting things to those willing to dig along with me.

As I'm making and distributing these, you should expect a series of zines collected by "volumes", each one marked with a letter. Best example of this is the one you're reading right now, Issue A-1, the first of the A (or "Alfa") series. Each series is named after the NATO alphabet (provided at the end of this issue) and is finished once there's enough issues (12 to 24) to make a larger book, which will have additional content in them once published.

The stuff you'll find in these issues are going to include:

• Album recommendations

• Recipes I like

• Quotes collected over the years

• Various lists and write-ups of all sorts of subjects

• Stories and essays I've written myself

• Anything else that piques my interest

There's no timeline for these, so I'll be releasing them once I've created them. I'll also have them available for free and online in two formats: the full-size digital version PDF and a printable copy. I may even have physical copies too to sell but that'll be reserved primarily for the "books." This doesn't mean that the blog is over or being replaced (far from it!) but I'm hoping these zines will inspire more readers to look around and find things they haven't either seen or though much about before with new eyes.

My personal belief is that information shouldn't be gate-kept. Making a zine is a great way to keep information free and open for those who want it. I hope you'll be up for joining me with this new endeavor and keep an eye out for the future issues. - A.B.