Paper Airplane magazine

15 Jan

The first-ever Paper Airplane Subscription Drive starts NOW! My goal is 250 subscribers. I sincerely hope you’ll be one of them. paperairplane.pub#subscribe

Paper Airplane Vol. 4 cover by @kaitlinbrito.bsky.social: a tribute to the transportive, mind-blowing nature of reading and, simultaneously, a nod to the wildly transportive, mind-blowing prose-plume that you’ll find inside—“How the Bicycle Was Born” by @mariapopova.bsky.social

30 July

Look, you and I both know you’re gonna pack more reading material than you need, so you might as well indulge in a little magazine browsing while you’re at it, and have I got the perfect periodical for your plane-ride, pool-side, porch-sit, road-trip, and beach-read needs. Only at PaperAirplane.pub

21 July

Big News. For the first time, I’m offering the chance to purchase single issues—in both digital and print (while they last!). I've also added a new, lower-cost, print-only subscription, as well as deep discounts on digital subscriptions. Check it all out at PaperAirplane.pub.

23 June

I dare you to make something less scalable! Paper Airplane Vol. 3 features the debut of Zine Zone, a page with a little pocket hand-stuffed with two hand-folded zines by guest zinester Shay Mirk—including a zine about how to make your own one-page zine! Subscribe at PaperAirplane.pub.

18 June

Every Paper Airplane cover begins with an exchange of ideas with cover artist @kaitlinbrito.bsky.social, who then takes all the nebulous vibe notes and transforms them into something exquisite. Vol. 3 is available now in print or digital at PaperAirplane.pub, just in time for summer reading.

tcj.comExcerpt: Paper Airplane - The Comics JournalToday on TCJ we are pleased as punch to bring you an excerpt from Paper Airplane, a new magazine of comics, long-form writing, games, puzzles, and other sorts of things you like. Paper Airplane Vol. 1...

28 May

The Comics Journal is featuring full comics excerpts from Paper Airplane, including the twice-Eisner-nominated @jukeboxcomix.bsky.social, New Yorker cartoonist Navied Mahdavian, and graphic novelist @mariswicks.bsky.social, illustrator of the just-released book Puffins! www.tcj.com/excerpt-pape...

31 Mar

Reading a book? Put a bookmark in it. The first @korystamper.bsky.social book SINCE 2017 is HERE. It’s about colors and it's by KORY STAMPER, a fact I thought I already sufficiently emphasized. It’s troubling that you’re still reading this post. I left to get back to reading in the middle of this se

penguinrandomhouse.comTrue Color by Kory Stamper: 9781524733032 | PenguinRandomHouse.com: BooksA kaleidoscopic journey through the secret history of hues—and the story of the obsessive genius behind the definitions of colors we use today, from the beloved author of Word by Word "Wildly enterta...

31 Mar

Get it wherever books are sold. (Mainly bookstores.) www.penguinrandomhouse.com/books/555914...

Paper Airplane magazine reposted

Kory Stamper

@korystamper.bsky.social

20 Mar

HELL YES: "The Shape of Color," an article (WITH CRAFT PROJECT) I wrote for @paperairplane.pub's inaugural issue, has been chosen for this year's Best American Science and Nature Writing anthology! Many thanks to guest editor @xkcd.com, @jaimealyse.bsky.social, and @marinerbooks.bsky.social!

paperairplane.pubVol. 1Paper Airplane Vol. 1 was the magazine's special debut issue, an all-volunteer collaboration by writers, artists, photographers, and puzzlemakers to raise money for USCRI (Refugees.org). The donation-...

18 Mar

This is exactly what I was hoping for. I hope you have the same experience.

17 Mar

One of my goals with Paper Airplane is to celebrate small moments and sense memories—like @beccschampagne.bsky.social beautifully capturing what it's like sitting inside a snow-covered car as a kid. It's just one of the heartfelt, life-affirming comics in Vol. 2, available now at PaperAirplane.pub.

12 Mar

I’m realizing now that the problem with a library maze is that you might not want to find your way out. Get lost in this exquisitely elaborate maze by Guinness Record-holding mazemaker @boggessart.bsky.social in the current issue of Paper Airplane magazine.

11 Mar

You’ll smell colors when you read this. See the full spread of the synesthesia infographic by @hudrewthis.bsky.social in the latest issue of Paper Airplane magazine, out now!

5 Mar

623 copies is actually a solid run for the Sheboygan market in the early 70s. What I’m saying is that I’m out here trying to sell 250 subscriptions to my indie magazine and you better believe I’m gonna tell some stranger about it when I offer to drive them home from the airport 20 years from now.

26 Feb

First shipment goes out soon! Subscribe now to get this beauty in your mailbox. (The magazine, not the cat.) PaperAirplane.pub.

17 Feb

I wanted to make a grown-up version of the magazines I loved as a kid—like Highlights, but for adults. Then I found a bunch of likeminded humans who actually made it happen. Everlasting thanks to all the writers and artists who've contributed to Paper Airplane Vol. 2 and beyond.

Including: @korystamper.bsky.social @jukeboxcomix.bsky.social @kaitlinbrito.bsky.social @hudrewthis.bsky.social @beccschampagne.bsky.social @linseedling.bsky.social @mariswicks.bsky.social @boggessart.bsky.social @puzzlesnacks.bsky.social @jonnyteklit.bsky.social @pictrix.bsky.social

17 Feb

17 Feb

@jffrankel.bsky.social @jesszafarris.bsky.social @helenscales.bsky.social @marthabarnette.bsky.social And others!

14 Feb

Same vibe

13 Feb

I used to be a snob about Valentine’s Day. The Hallmarkization and canned messages of affection. Then I realized I was looking at it all wrong. A holiday devoted to showing appreciation to your beloveds with weird, extremely personal (and pun-based!) handmade papercrafts? That’s a holiday for me.

13 Feb

If you want to pair your homemade valentine with a gift that delivers joy at regular intervals, one that’s made in the same spirit (by likeminded humans) with an absolute reverence for your recipient’s impeccable taste, I humbly recommend a subscription to Paper Airplane magazine: PaperAirplane.pub.

13 Feb

There's even this printable announcement as a way to present the gift subscription. It’s meant to be colored in, which, if you’re anything like me, is exactly the kind of touch you’re looking for.

4 Feb

If you wanna be surprised, cover your eyes, because it’s the Paper Airplane Vol. 2 cover reveal! Another stunner by Kaitlin Brito. Wait till you see what’s inside. Get the mag in digital or print! Subscribe at PaperAirplane.pub.

@kaitlinbrito.bsky.social

4 Feb

fritinancy.substack.comJanuary linkstackNew newsletters, a new print magazine (!), the AI naming crisis, and more.

29 Jan

Tag yourself. I'm "a new print magazine (!)"

Nancy Friedman@fritinancy.bsky.social

January links! Credits: @mashedradish.bsky.social @marthabarnette.bsky.social @paperairplane.pub @stancarey.bsky.social @stronglang.bsky.social @grammargirl.bsky.social & more! fritinancy.substack.com/p/january-li...

Paper Airplane magazine reposted

Kory Stamper

@korystamper.bsky.social

22 Jan

Pocket friends, things feel really bleak and hard right now, but we all need some joy to keep us going. Here is some joy: Paper Airplane magazine, aka Highlights for adults, is launching for-reals! paperairplane.pub#subscribe

paperairplane.pubPaper Airplane magazineSubscribe now for 2026! Available in digital and print.

14 Jan

Goal exceeded! Paper Airplane Vol. 1 raised $10,806.45 in support of refugees and immigrants. Phase 2 coming very soon.

Without a single word of dialogue or narration, we know exactly how he feels. George Bailey is on the brink, and then he’s confronted by the naked display of his unrealized dreams, pushed by necessity into the corner of his living room, where they sit mocking him.

Because the truth is, we don’t know—not for certain—exactly what we’re gonna do tomorrow, or the next day, or the next year, or the year after that. But we do know we’re going to try.

Remember, no one is a failure who tries. A cup of kindness to all my fellow tryers. Hee Haw and Happy Holidays. –Nick Norlen

The point is that you possess the depth of feeling to continue trying to make the thing, audaciously wrought with your own thoughts, in the hope that someday it lands in the hands of someone who appreciates it.

And if that makes you cocky? Then very well. I’ll take some earnest swagger over the mirthless optimization of garlic-souled trolls who have cynicized themselves beyond the possibility of joy.

Potters look at any Bedford Falls and can see only Pottersville. But the point of climbing Mount Bedford isn’t to plant your flag at the top and turn it into a gated 55+ community for the types of Uncle Billies who actually have the cash.

The point of having a dream is the idealistic tinkering. The point is the trying—and this is important—even if your dream never has a life beyond the corner of your living room, or your sketchbook, or your drafts folder.

We know how he feels because there are days when we look with weary eyes at our passion projects, in whatever corner life has backed them into, and the question autopopulates: “What am I even doing?” “You used to be so cocky,” Mr. Potter says to George at his lowest.

Potter, the perfect icon for our age. An irredeemable Scrooge, relentlessly uncompassionate, yawning at sincerity. What the Potters of the world can’t fathom, what they no longer have the wetware to comprehend, is that the point of having a dream isn’t to see it auto-scaled to infinity.

Already demoralized, he's then cornered by the sight of the sum total of his yearslong idealistic tinkerings—two obviously homemade architectural models whose scale contrasts pitifully with what he once so confidently said he’d build: skyscrapers a hundred stories high and bridges a mile long.

13 Dec 2025

Look who’s at the door

5 Dec 2025

Your weekend will feel like this if you spend it with the right reading material. (Detail of “Dewdrop” comic by @mariswicks.bsky.social, available now in Paper Airplane vol. 1.)

2 Dec 2025

Today only, donations to @refugees.org will be matched. When you donate at PaperAirplane.pub, you get the debut issue of Paper Airplane, putting us one step closer to achieving our dual goal of reaching 250 readers and raising $10,000 for refugees, and putting you in rare quadruple-win territory.

3 Dec 2025

UPDATE: Huge thanks to everyone who donated on Giving Tuesday! The donation match has ended, but we’re now just ONE PERSON away from our goal of 250 readers for the debut issue—AND less than $1,000 away from our fundraising goal to support refugees and immigrants! LTTTO! (Let’s top this thing off!)

7 Nov 2025

Editorial meetings can get intense but later we snuggle.

laid0ff.substack.comLaid Off: And Launching an Indie Magazine"In my experience, traditional digital media roles aren’t super jump-back-intoable right now."

4 Nov 2025

Interview with Laid Off! laid0ff.substack.com/p/laid-off-a...

10 Oct 2025

“The exact opposite of doomscrolling.” This is how I like to describe the magazine, but I’m curious—what parts of your life feel like that to you? For me, most of them have to do with creativity and simple pleasures.

30 Sept 2025

We're so close—help us get over the finish line!

U.S. Committee for Refugees and Immigrants (USCRI)@refugees.org

Support refugees. Get a magazine. Nick Norlen’s Paper Airplane is raising $10K for USCRI—and we’re just $2,500 away. Donate now and get the debut issue FREE: PaperAirplane.pub

30 Sept 2025

I just nominated Paper Airplane’s lead article, “The Shape of Color” by @korystamper.bsky.social, for next year’s Best American Science & Nature Writing! Here’s a preview.

25 Sept 2025

Microfiction? Too long. Six-word short stories? Hold our baby shoes. With the right context, you can conjure an entire saga with just a few words. It’s called Venmo Nanofiction, and it’s just one of the madcap amusements awaiting you in the debut issue of Paper Airplane magazine.