Mention the words ‘Japan’ and ‘travel’ in a zine description and I’ll pretty much immediately press buy. I love reading about other peoples’ trips and especially if they’ve gone to Japan. Whether I discover some new places to add to my list for a return visit (one day!) or just revel in some nostalgia, they’re always awesome. Here’s some recent favourites. Needless to say, I recommend you buy them all – check the links to see more images too.

Tokyo Postcard Zine by burntfeather
Fee was kind enough to send me a copy of this and I’m so glad she did. It’s a zine in the form of a set of 13 postcards and I am so borrowing that genius idea for one of my zines I’ve been struggling with. Each postcard has a full colour photo on one side and some text and illustrations on the other, which all come together to give you an overview of Fee’s trip, including the weird, the good and the bad. I would maybe have liked more text (I always want more text) but it all works really well. Extra bonus – the first 100 copies come with an adorable handmade kitty brooch! Mine immediately went on my bag, where it is dealing well with Glasgow’s awful weather.

Japan In A Collection by MyLifeAsAMagazine
A shopping guide with a difference! And another interesting print choice as it’s made from two folded A3 colour sheets each with one side showing things Jenna bought in Japan and the other side telling you about the places she bought them. It’s really fun getting to nose around someone else’s purchases and there are lots of great shop suggestions covering more than just Tokyo as she also visited Kyoto, Osaka, Nagano, Yudanaka & Hiroshima.

I am a Camera 16 by Vanessa Berry
A more standard zine format (but with a cute paper obi band), this latest issue of I am a Camera is mainly about Vanessa’s visit to Okunoshima – Rabbit Island – a rabbit sanctuary in Japan’s inland sea. Being a fan of bunnies and Japan, I loved reading about the journey and what they found on the island (lots of tiny bunnies!). I definitely want to go there now. As well as Rabbit Island the zine includes some details about the Kyoto part of her trip, plus a Travel Guide segment with tips and info. (also available from Pushpin Zines)

Sho Ga Nai by Heather Bryant
The first in a series of comics about Heather’s trip to Japan. I already bought the second issue about Kyoto a while back so it was good to pick up the first one, which covers Osaka. These zines focus on small moments so don’t expect big adventures or travel guides, but instead enjoy some lovely observations of Japan.

Once I decided I was going to start pushpin, I did a big old trawl through the internet, looking for awesome stuff to stock. Here’s some of the best zines I’ve picked up recently.

Cometbus #54
Cometbus has been running since 1981. 1981! Continuously! It’s a pretty amazing feat and puts most other zinesters to shame. I have the Cometbus omnibus but it’s so ridiculously heavy, it’s kind of impossible to read. Damn my weak wrists. Anyway, Cometbus #54 is a lot easier to manage, though still pretty hefty, and tells the tale of a trip to China on tour with Green Day. Aaron was friends with them, and roadied for them, before they were famous and this is the first time he’s seen them since they became megastars. So it becomes a tale of broken friendships, growing up, selling out and lost ideals, reminiscences of youth and the DIY punk scene as well as a travel zine and a peek into the workings of a mega stadium tour. As someone with zero interest in Green Day, I still enjoyed this immensely. You can pick up a copy from Microcosm.

My Life in Biscuits
Not that we ever stopped eating them, but biscuits are right on trend these days. Jenna’s zine is a fun, colourful and nostalgic look at her life in biscuits, plus a good bit about the biscuit’s best friend, a nice cup of tea. It’s got a cool collage design with illustrations and handwritten text so it’s lovely to look through and, since Jenna is Australian, there’s a lot of new biscuits to discover along with some British classics. Plus you get a free tag! Available from Jenna’s Etsy shop, along with her new zine about mt tape.

Go For Broke #2
As is no doubt obvious to anyone, I LOVE travel zines (and books), especially ones that go into lots of detail. This zine is about climbing Kilimanjaro and is written with such enthusiasm that it kind of makes you want to head off there right now. Except she also details all the downsides of oxygen deprivation, camping in sub-zero temperatures and you know, climbing a mountain. It’s a really interesting read, and especially as she takes the time to get to know the team of local guides and porters helping them do the climb. Available from Microcosm.

Sho Ga Nai
The first in a series of comics about  Heather’s trip to Japan, this tells of getting lost at Kyoto station and all about their ryokan. It’s beautifully drawn and my only complaint is that I want to read all the rest now! I’ll be looking out for future instalments. Available from her Etsy shop.

Syndicate Product #11
This was a gift from Katy (thanks!) and the subject is “treasures tossed out before their time”, where a whole heap of folks write about or draw something they regret discarding. I always like reading about random objects so this was right up my street. To buy, check their blog.

The ones I ended up stocking (so far) are
Beer, Bikes, and Bridges (Portland, OR), Burn Collector #15 and The Book Bindery which are all awesome – you can read my reviews in the product descriptions.

Also, a Zine Challenge update! Two more of the attendees have completed zines, and they’re both great. Rosie made a zine of comics and illustrations called Freerange and Emma expanded her tiny zines made on the day into a full size zine of Things I Love About Japan. One of my favourite little pushpin plans was to release a series of artist illustrated bookmarks, and you can see the first one above, drawn by my fellow zine workshopper Jen Collins.

And one final bit of zine news, as Katy’s Answers on a Postcard zine series is back in action – I’m stocking the new edition, which features lots of crafters including me talking about our crafting failures. Yay for zines!

The day has arrived and my zine distro is now open! Please head over to pushpin zines where you’ll find a large selection of fabulous zines for your entertainment. I’ve had to read to them all in order to write the product descriptions so I can say with confidence that they are all definitely worth your money.

There are more exciting zines and surprises to come over the next few weeks so I hope you’ll subscribe to the pushpin blog and keep up to date. It won’t be a proper blog like this one, but I don’t want to be posting too much zine stuff over here.

You can also pick up a copy of my new zine – my guide to Glasgow! No prizes if you guessed that was the subject. I spent a lot of time on the blog post version so it seemed worth expanding into a zine for visitors. There will be a PDF version soon too.

Speaking of PDFs, all my PDF zines are now available from pushpin and not Asking For Trouble, basically because I only want to pay for one Fetch account for the digital delivery. My printed zines and book will be available from both though.

Phew! It’s been a busy old month and June is going to be even busier! I just added all my upcoming events (more on these soon), train journeys and other important dates to my iPhone calendar and now June is a sea of dots.

Anyway, hope you like pushpin and as a treat, anyone who orders something by midnight on Friday will get a free badge and the first 5 orders will get a free zine (chosen by me)*. Off you go!

*You need to order at least 1 non-digital product as I can’t send badges via email, yet. If you want a specific badge, leave a note at checkout.

I can’t believe it’s taken me this long to share one of my favourite purchases from Japan, The Bunny Sushi Guide!. I bought it from the artist at Design Festa – I was drawn to her stall by bunnies and she proffered the book at me and after a quick look I knew I had to get it.

It’s all in Japanese so I may be missing some of the subtext but it appears to be about some bunnies who like dressing up as sushi. They often seem to be sneaking up on sushi, eating the rice and then dressing up in the fixings and look quite proud of themselves once they’re done.

Anyway, there are tons of drawings and comic strips featuring various bunnies dressing up as sushi. Some of them are extremely elaborate and the bunnies snuggled up in the conical makizushi are hilarious. I also really like the fashion line-up with bunnies showing off the latest trends in seaweed wear – as a scarf, cape or tie!

My absolute favourite pages though is the double spread of ideas for bunny sushi products, which includes a bento box, a mobile phone and an amazing pen-roll makizushi that unrolls to reveal a set of pens that are made to look like vegetables! I would buy pretty much everything here. From what I can make out on her blog, it seems she has now licensed the characters so hopefully we will see some kind of products one day soon.

I wish there was a way everyone could buy this little book. If anyone reading knows Japanese well enough to help me get in touch with her and see if I can buy some copies to sell in my zine distro, then please email me as that would be amazing.

Flyer and inner page spread images by hapy corone.

I have had ‘Hats I Have Loved’ in my ideas list for a while now, and it amuses me so much I decided to just do it. So here is a little zine for you, full of drawings of things I have worn on my head (they are not all hats) and the stories behind them.

I also did this to show how easy it really is to make a zine – it took me about 4 hours to put this together. It’s hardly a masterpiece but it was fun to do and now I can stop thinking about hats and think about some of the other stupid things in my ideas list!

It’s available as a FREE PDF download so go ahead and get a copy. I’d appreciate if you tick the box to join my mailing list in return but no worries if you don’t want to. I may print some too just for fun, we’ll see.

And if you have ever worn a pumpkin on your head, please send me photographic proof and I will send you an exciting gift for being amazing.

Since there are a mere 44 days left in the year, it’s about time we saw some new zines from our Zine Challengers. How are you all getting on? There have definitely been a few zines completed – you can check out the Zine Challenge Flickr group to see what’s new. If you’ve completed a zine do post about it over there or in the comments. The cute mini zine above is by Oh My Clumsy Heart.

As for me, I must admit I am struggling. I have too many zines on the go and need to just pick one and get on with it. I’m going to make a big effort on finishing Oddments #2 in the next couple of weeks so I hope I’ll still meet the challenge. If not, I’ll definitely have it and 2 new Japan zines out next year.

Have you bought any good zines lately?