I'll be tabling BOXCARS: the Game and several other recent zines at the Lambertville Zine Fest this Saturday (July 26th, 11-5pm). The event is at the Acme Theater in Labertville, and we've been told it will be overflowing with vendors!
This is one of the few regional summer fests, so I'm excited to check out what everone has been working on!

I've been interested in ephemeral digital media for many years, and I have just released a tool that captures many of my ideas. enter link description here now hosts a editing tool that will take your micro-zines, articles, poetry or any text and turn it into a QR code to print or distribute.

Though this idea is not new, the interesting part is that the text is actually stored in the QR code itself. If the QR code is destroyed, the text is gone. Nothing is stored on stikki.cc or in any database.

The idea came from Nicholas Jitkoff's itty.bitty.site., though itty.bitty has a different reason for being: it can make content anonymous. While this is still true with stikki, I'm interested in what zine makers will do with it. 2000 words can now be condensed or distributed in a small package such as a sticker, bookmark or t-shirt.

Let me know if you make anything cool with it!

Late every Spring the weather always brings my attention back to capturing digital images. Inevitably, that is already bleeding into the zine work I enjoy.

For years, I’ve been interested in toy digital cameras. The word “toy” is a bit over punctuated, and many of what get called “toy cameras” cost over $100USD. A lot of people gravitate to these as a relationship to film photography. I believe that simply means unpredictability. Shoot now.. be mystified (or disappointed) later. This is counter to the cellphone, where we see the image before we decide if it’s worthy of a few bytes of memory.

For me, it’s a bit different. Most folks understand that the camera is simply a means of content delivery. I believe that the delivery IS the content. The device creates an aesthetic and a message that redefine the content by mixing with it. It does more than a filter; it is part of the content.

For a few weeks, I’ve been working with a toy camera ( The LETSHAHA Instant Print Camera that prints its results onto thermal receipt paper. It’s interesting to shoot with it and then wait a few seconds to see the result. It’s sort of a terrible Polaroid time-warped from the 70s. The shape suggests that its designer knew this.

It must be getting a following or tariffs, because the price has gone up 30% in a few weeks.

My first production with this has been Spoiled: Follow That Man a zine where I take random shots from a 1950s TV show using the LETSHAHA. Later I try to piece the story together from the images and bad memory. The process was a bit cathartic, as my memory capacity is low at best. For zinesters, there is something interesting about treating digital photos as physical objects again.

BOXCARS: The has left the development part of its journey, and is currently moving through print and fulfillment.

Having started as a Kickstarter project ( BOXCARS: the Game), initial packaging is going to a large group of supporters first. After that, the game will go on sale on my Shop Page: SHOP at Big Cartel.

I haven't had an active shop in almost 7 years, so expect a slow trickle of new zine projects, some dead media projects and possibly some DIY kits. Expect all new material and content there over the next year.

This week I have been focused on play-testing, as my key concerns have been easy access to tables and preventing nonsensical events that may pop up in the solo (GM-less) system. I’ve generally been pleased with the translation of my research as most events feel very plausible. I need to quiz testers on this, as picturing action and encounters on the rooftops of moving trains may seem a bit surreal to those not familiar with hobo literature.

When I play solo games produced by others, I notice a lot of required page-flipping to locate various tables and data. I’ve actively tried to reduce this, and it seems that best solution is using cards so that the main needs are already in front of the players. This may mean an increase in cards and reduction in pages to the final game-zine. I am considering some sort of cover pocket to keep the package portable and organized when not in use.

Though play-test session documentation can be far from interesting, I thought it might be fun to journal a short solo session to share here. One of the things that I’ve really enjoyed is that I’m using real historic rail maps. After documenting the story like this, I was able to pop open Google Maps and locate the actual path of travel. Though coal country in Central Pennsylvania doesn’t include rural roads in “street view,” I was able to dig into some satellite imagery and see the current landscape. A lot of these rail paths are still in there today. My character in the story below had a little issue at Graham Station, and sure enough there is still a crossing and repurposed building on “Graham Station Road” that is there today. What a great way to connect to a story!

(Satellite imagery provided by Google Maps: Accessed Feb, 18 2025)

The following section covers 25 turns of the game and took about an hour of gameplay including the distraction of taking notes.

PLAY NARRATIVE: FEB 16

I gave this character the moniker of "Ugly John” as he was quite uncharismatic and flat broke at the beginning of the story. He did have a blanket roll, tobacco, a cup, and a pocket-watch that he kept hidden in a neck pouch for fear of theft.

This session started with little event: The first cars I encountered were a caboose (manned), a passenger car, and a private car (also manned). I opted to walk up-train and discovered a boxcar was next in the string. Having not been noticed, I checked to see if the car was open. Unfortunately, it was not, so I hopped on the ladder at the boxcar's end. Having still remained unseen, I hopped up to the deck for a safer ride and waited for our departure. Other than being coated in soot as the train left the station, little happened for the first leg of the trip. As the train skipped a couple of smaller stops, one of the brakemen popped up to the deck for a cigarette. He was in good spirits and elected to chat a bit rather than eject me from my ride. I successfully regaled him with my tale of woe (all made up), after which he took pity on me and offered me a few dry matches for my tobacco.

After zipping past another station, a second brakeman popped up and immediately suggested that I should not be on the train at all. He was of the mind to remove me once the train stopped. Though the train was still moving, I decided to slip back down the ladder and safely crossed the pinch to the porch of the private car. He pursued me but eventually had to tend to his duties as the train was stopping at a whistle stop called Graham Station. The attendant on the private car spotted me on the car's porch, but after a quick frown, he went about his business.

When the train came to a stop, I hopped down and encountered a passenger waiting to board the train. She was kind enough to offer me a few pennies for my hardship, which I politely accepted before running off.

I attempted to run up-train on the ground to find a better stow. A yardman spotted me and waved me away from the train. Luckily, he was busy and didn't drop his work to pursue the matter. I arrived at the next car, a stock car filled with cattle, and decided to hide under the wheels until the train began to roll away. Unfortunately, I failed to grab the ladder before it steamed away and was stuck at Graham Station. Being only a few miles from a larger town on the tracks (Philipsburg) and seeing no nearby village, I decided to walk the tracks into town. Exhausted, I arrived in Philipsburg and looked for some sustenance before continuing on my journey toward Altoona.