Pushpin Zines is a website all about zines! Pushpin used to be a zine distro (and may be again) but in the meantime I’ll be posting reviews of new zines I’ve bought and will be digging into my own extensive library of zines. You’ll also find some news and the odd post about magazines and independently published and out of print books. Enjoy!

who’s behind Pushpin?

Pushpin is run by me, Marceline Smith, a self-employed creative type living in Glasgow, Scotland. I have been making zines since I was 16 and have an extensive collection, bought over the last 20 years. In 1998, I founded diskant.net, an online zine bringing together all my favourite zinesters to write about music, films, gaming, culture and much more. I still make zines and recently self-published my first book, as well as designing a range of illustrated stationery, accessories and gifts as Asking For Trouble and working as a freelance web and graphic designer and blogger.

After running a zine workshop in August 2010, I discovered there was a whole new audience keen to learn about zinemaking and started thinking about opening a zine distro with the aim of making my favourite zines available to a wider audience. While the distro is no more, I still hope to help more people get started in zinemaking, offering advice and design services as Pushpin Publishing.

My big obsessions are Japanese kawaii, cute handmade things, cake tourism, secondhand books, printmaking and the Solar System. I like to travel, mainly in the UK, but I adore Japan and have holidayed there three times now. For my next trip I hope to go to the Moon.

Why Pushpin?

It seemed apt - pushpins can be used to mark journeys on maps, to hang up posters and in all kinds of creative fun. Also pushpin publishing has a nice ring to it.