Alex Wrekk

Small Business Owner, zinester, and button pusher in Portland, Oregon

Alex Wrekk

Small Business Owner, zinester, and button pusher in Portland, Oregon

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Alex's life revolves around making things; primarily zines, custom pinback buttons (badges), vegan food, travel plans, and space for a cat in her bed.

Alex Wrekk moved from Salt Lake City, Utah to Portland, Oregon in 1999 and has been creating the zine Brainscan since 1997. Alex is also the author of the seminal book about zines, Stolen Sharpie Revolution: a DIY Resource for Zines and Zine Culture which was first printed in 2002 and is now in it's 5th edition.

Alex has been making custom pinback buttons since 2000 under various business names. In 2012 Alex opened Portland Button Works and zine distro, an online and brick and mortar shop in Portland, Oregon selling zines and books and making custom buttons, bottle openers, and magnets in various sizes as well as an Etsy shop with the same name.

When Alex isn't doing zine things she is doing other zine things like organizing the Portland Zine Symposium, establishing July as International Zine Month, commiserating with Zine Event Organizers around the world, updating the zine event listings on StolenSharpieRevolution.org, hosting the podcast Nobody Cares About Your Stupid Zine Podcast, fidgeting with her Risograph printer, reading from her zines out loud on zine tours or singing in a zine themed pop-punk band called The Copy Scams.

Alex desperately wishes someone would fix her horrendously outdated wikipedia page.

  • Work
    • Portland Button Works