The Soulz at Zero Graveyard

Soulz at Zero was an "internet lit group" that existed for two years, beginning in September of 1994 and ending in September of 1996. For twenty-five months in a row, I (Jack Flack), The Stranger, and a rotating gaggle of writers released monthly packs containing original works of horror-themed poetry and short stories, with everything from pictures, book and concert reviews, and horror news sprinkled in for flavor. Soulz at Zero's existance straddled the dawn of the World Wide Web. Throughout the first half of the group's life span, SAZ packs were distributed through bulletin board systems. By the time the group imploded in 1996, our monthly packs were being hosted on FTP sites and web pages.

After the end of Soulz at Zero, The Stranger joined another lit group, Candelabra. In 2002, Candelabra published a tribute to Soulz at Zero. Unfortunately, the viewer from our ouriginal packs had not aged well and would not run on most modern computers, which left new fans no way to view the original files. Because Soulz at Zero had never had an official home on the web, I painstakingly converted all of the old ANSI files to PNG files (to maintain the original layouts and colors) and created a home for them on the web. It was a lot of work and a royal pain in the butt to complete. It was also, turns out, not very secure. A PHP include shortcut I used allowed hackers to infiltrate my webserver. Everything had to be formatted and, in the process, all the Soulz at Zero work I had done was lost.

Fast forward fifteen years to February, 2020. Two days ago while going through some old CDs, I found a backup copy of the files I had put online for Candelabra's tribute to Soulz at Zero. I've spent the past two days updating the code and getting the files back online in a readable form. By using the left-hand menu, you can open each pack and view the contents. Each pack begins with comments from me and The Stranger, which were written back in 2002 for the Candelabra spotlight. You can also download the packs, although getting them to run on a modern machine is a challenge. Your best bet is using DOSBox or another DOS emulator to run the packs; even then, be prepared for XMS memory configuration challenges.

One final caveat; the horror literature contained herein is at times graphic, offensive, and perhaps worst of all, terrible. It should only be viewed in the context in which is was written -- a collective of teens and early twenty-somethings emulating their favorite horror writers, often poorly. Not a single poem or short story published by Soulz at Zero, even the ones written in first person, should be taken seriously. Many of the group's writers were only beginning to find their voice. Some poems were injected at the last minute to fill up space, while others were written as inside jokes. The packs are being posted online more as a time capsule than of a tribute to well-written literature.

Jack Flack -- February 6, 2020
Founder, Soulz at Zero

BONUS

SAZ PACKS

The Soulz at Zero Graveyard