Julia Evans

Julia Evans is a Montreal-based software developer and the creator of Wizard Zines, a small business selling short, comic-style programming zines that explain topics such as DNS, HTTP, Git, SQL, Linux tools, networking and the terminal. Evans has written the blog jvns.ca since 2013, when a stint at the Recurse Center kicked off a habit of writing about whatever was being learned, and the blog became known for making supposedly scary topics like TCP, kernels and TLS feel approachable and fun.

The zines started as a side project alongside a full-time programming job. Evans incorporated a company in 2018, and the business brought in $101,558 that year according to a rare public revenue post. In 2019 Evans left the job to spend a year explaining computer things full time, and the experiment stuck: the work has since been funded entirely by zine sales, with no employees beyond freelance illustrators and editors. No Starch Press published Your Linux Toolbox, a box set of seven early zines, in 2019, and Wizard Zines began offering print editions in 2020.

Wizard Zines focuses on fundamentals that rarely change, keeps each zine to roughly 20 to 28 pages and avoids jargon. Many early zines are free, and paid zines often follow a give-one model where a free copy is donated for each sale. Evans also builds interactive learning tools such as Mess With DNS, Memory Spy and nginx and SQL playgrounds. The latest zine, The Secret Rules of the Terminal, came out in June 2025.