Imagine your regular zine: eight-fold, maybe stapled along the spine. Maybe it’s made up of pieces of writing, photography, art, and random magazine clippings pasted together and then photocopied a few times over. Perhaps it's full of original photography, a collection of poetry, or an edition of an ongoing self-published comic. Now, throw all of those assumptions about what a zine is supposed to look like away. James Sime’s Neuroblast: Project Cytor is a cyberpunk daydream that blows zine conventions out of the water.
Neuroblast’s contents live on a floppy disk, built on old Apple Hypercard software. The original intention for this zine is that it should be accessed with a floppy disk reader, perfect for zine enjoyers who are nerdy about older computers. For the most authentic experience of Neuroblast (any of the versions; there are now at least three editions of this zine), you’d want to find, or build, a computer with a floppy disk reader. Sime sells this zine at Isotope Comics in San Francisco's Hayes Valley, at vintage tech conventions, and elsewhere. The zine speaks to the United Nations Sustainable Development Goal of Life on Land, as it considers how humans might live together in alternate futures.
To begin your journey, Sime's work in this particular edition of Neuroblast, simply click the digital button with "INTERFACE" written on it, to the bottom left of an original artwork by Sime. But stop and sit with this artwork before you do. Consider not only the skull and person outlined in more detail but also the background too.
While you could read this piece in a variety of ways, the most obvious reference is William Shakespeare's Hamlet, specifically the Danish Prince's contemplation of mortality in his infamous monologue. In Sime's reimagining of "to be or not to be," both the individual pictured and the skull they are holding have wires attached to their heads, with the implication (especially considering the backdrop of zeroes and ones) being that they are attached to a giant machine. This is our first taste of Neuroblast, imagining a future that makes a particular kind of sense if you live in the heart of the American technology sector: that in the future, our lives, and our mortality, will be inseparable from human-made technology.
The rest of the zine is equally as interesting. There's a "cyberdelic-inspired cocktail recipe" to essentially numb your brain (or "expunge surplus brain cells," as contributor Kirsten Baldock writes). There's also an interview with crustpunk and grindcore musician August Alston about his band LEATHER NOT PLEATHER, a mini-comic imagining a futuristic world and a climb to the 200th floor of a building, and several more sections. But frankly, it's worth seeing for yourself.
The zine's content, written by Sime as well as several other contributors, is equally critical and fascinated by future technological possibilities (which are partially influenced by Sime living for years in San Francisco). The zine itself feels designed to attract people who love technology.
Neuroblast ultimately grapples with the rift between technology as an interest that brings people together and technology as a force to destroy. This is a rift that cuts to the core of the Bay Area.