Whatcha mean (Zine?) + This Weeks Zine & Design Roundup

Like a 3 Ring Zine Circus.......But Better!

Mar 30, 2025

Happy Sunday from Paperclip Press!

Here is the first edition of the weekly Zine and Design Email for subscribers. Each week I will be compiling a list of things I have discovered related to Zine Making, Relief/Intaglio/Collagraph Printing, Good Books, Great Online Reads…..and other good stuff related to creativity and living an intentionally artistic life. I also include Artist Bios, Inspiration Boards, Video Tutorials, and lots of links so you can explore new discoveries on your own.

At the end of each weekly Zine and Design email I include a quick little note from Central America capturing something unique from day to day life in Nicaragua (which is were I live now)

And once a month, I will be sending my personal Zine “Post Cards from Latin America”. It is a way to document my daily discoveries and the beauty I find living in Central America.

Thanks for joining me on this journey as I continually develop this digital space and my analog (IRL) collection of paper zines.

PS. Substack alerted me that this email may be to long for some email providers. It may be truncated (shortened) in your email. If that happens you can read it in its entirety at Paperclip Press on Substack. Here is a link to my site.

PAPERCLIP PRESS

Non-Electric Books (Analog Paper Smells)

Title: Whatcha Mean What’s a Zine (The Art of making zines and mini comics) Author/Illustrators: Esther Watson (Author) and Mark Todd (Illustrator)

Whatcha Mean What’s a Zine is a great book for wanabe zinesters that simply want to explore the genre through a good old fashioned analog book. The book explores some of the origins of zines, the nuts and bolts of hand (and copy machine) zine making and has a nice selection of contributing zine authors. I have a copy of this book on my own bookshelf.

Good Online Reads

Krys Kinsel of Krys’ house of weird art and waffles wrote a wonderful Love Letter for Zines. All Zines! She voices a love for zines felt by many other zinesters, acknowledging the inherent accessibility and importance of zine making, especially in todays (2025) crazy environment. You can read Krys’ post by clicking the link above.

Zines are love. Zines are defiance. Zines are freedom. And every single one is valid. - Krys Kinsel

Inspiration Eye Candy

@palimpsestparade/@clarebuckleartist/Kristen Solecki

I just love a good thumbnail sketch! Thumbnail sketches are a working artists and designers go to tool. These tiny little sketches can be stand alone art works in and of themselves capturing a moment in time and the energy of a place.

Georgina/Graphic Fearless Women/Rikako Nagashima

Write on it! Hand written text over images always catches my eye. It can be done old school by printing an image and handwriting over the image and then rescanning or by using an ipad with an application like procreate. Either way you get a lovely combination of imagery and handwritten annotations. It gives the piece a work in progress feeling where you can trace the artists thinking along the page.

Margaux Kent - Illustrator and Print Maker

I have bumped into the work of Margaux Kent in a number of different corners of the internet and most recently (thankfully) on Substack. I am in love with her 100-day project focusing on tiny Tetra Pak prints (dry point/intaglio printing). The prints have an ageless hand sketched look with lovely torn edge paper. I also love how she simply tapes them into her sketch book making the page look full of life.

She discribes herself on her substack page (@resoundinglittlevoices) as a: “Story Gatherer and Thing Maker. Ungardener and Wanderer. Designer and maker of useful treasures that inspire creative living at Peg and Awl.”

Margaux is half of the creative duo known as Peg and Awl. They describe the birth of Peg and Awl “growing from two ideas – the desire to create things missing in our own lives, and a fondness for giving new life to old and abandoned things.” (Peg and Awl About Page)

The Peg and Awl website is a VIBE! It is well worth the time to explore and soak in the beautiful images and products that Margaux and her husband Walter hand design and make. Their online store is full of handmade bags, furniture, art, jewelery and studio supplies plus they have an in person store front in West Chester Pennsylvania that looks like you are stepping back in time.

Video-Van Neistat

This weeks video is from Van Neistat’s Youtube Channel The Spirited Man @vanneistat “How to make a DIY Zine” . Van is a dedicated maker, and long time videographer. I have followed Van’s channel since he launched it in 2021. His slightly obsessive analog approaches to his projects are inspiring to watch. An extra Easter Egg in this video is his brief history touching on the work he did in Tom Sachs Studio years ago.

Nicaragua Notes - Sunday Soup Day

Sunday Soup Day! Nothing beats a bucket of soup made fresh from the lady who lives around the corner, full of veggies and cuts of meat I never new existed……but all together it is super yummy.

Today’s Sunday Soup consisted of Beef, Plantains, Squash, Potato, Yucca Root, Malanga Root, Chicory and Achiote Paste plus some other things I’m sure. It is good to not ask to many detailed questions……I don’t always like to know how the preverbial “sausage” is made here :)

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Note About Images and Artist Content:

Paperclip Press cares greatly about the Copy Rights of Artists and Creators. I try to do my best to provide credit and links to images and content. Following the breadcrumbs of artists can be difficult in this era of internet consumers reposting without credit (especially on Pinterest!) Below each image I provide the author name or site information that is linked to the “orginal” images (often reposted and reshared countless times) that I find. Whenever possible, I try to hunt down the original artist’s website to verify accuracy and to provide links to the artists work.

If I missed anything…..it was an accidental oversight. If you have questions, find a broken link, or identify a correction that is needed for accuracy please send a reply to this email or contact me at mudhousedesigns@gmail.com

Paperclip Press stands in solidarity with artists and creators against the onslought of shameless intelectual property theft by individuals and AI overloads falsely claiming “fair use”.