Paper Airplane magazine

@paperairplane.pub

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The grown-up mashup of the magazines you loved as a kid. No cynicism. No ads. No A.I. 👉 Subscribe now for 2026 at PaperAirplane.pub

The cover of Paper Airplane Vol. 3 showing a woman in her garden looking through binoculars at the pollinators around her flowers.
The cover of Kory Stamper’s book “True Color: The Strange and Spectacular Quest to Define Color — From Azure to Zinc Pink”
A flyer with the following text: Actual, unsolicited reader feedback for Paper Airplane. This is the most delightful thing I've received in ages. ALL JOY.  – Bree G. The best feeling thumbing through the pages (lovely paper quality!) and chuckling and smiling, anticipating when I can sit down with it for a long while ::happy sigh:: – Dana G. Sometimes, I get to the end of the night, and I finally finished work, and bedtimes, and folding laundry, and prepping tomorrow's snack... it's so much more satisfying to read something just for me than to get lost in a black hole of Instagram algorithm. Not to mention that this is insanely high quality and well done and thought provoking, and the kind of thoughts I just don't get anywhere else. – George S.
A detail from a comic showing a girl sitting inside of a snow-covered car.
A detail from a library-themed maze.
A portion of an infographic about synesthesia showing a face and several sensory inputs.
An image of Gus Polinski, "the Polka King of the Midwest," from the movie Home Alone.
An unboxing video showing a print copy of Paper Airplane magazine Vol. 2 being removed from a box. In the background, a real stunner of a cat sits on top of a pile of the other boxes.
A gif showing a preview of pages from Paper Airplane magazine Vol. 2, including the covers, comics, articles, games, and more.
A still image from the movie 13 Going on 30 from the magazine pitch scene, showing the cover of Paper Airplane magazine overlaid on the presentation board.
A printable coloring page to be given as a way to announce a gift subscription to Paper Airplane magazine it. It says: "A gift for you: Enjoy a one-year subscription to Paper Airplane Magazine."
A poster for the Paper Airplane magazine subscription drive with images from upcoming issues, and text that says: Subscribe now for 2026. Available in digital and print!
A fundraising progress bar moving to 108%, showing $10,806.45 raised out of a goal of $10,000.
A still image from the film “It’s a Wonderful Life,” showing the character George Bailey looking angrily at the architectural models that remind him of his unfulfilled dreams.
A detail of a comic showing a character riding a tardigrade with obvious delight.
A photo of an editor at his desk turning to say something to his cat, who appears to be insisting on a particular point by putting his paw on a legal pad. Also, his tail is curled in a very cute way.
A page from Paper Airplane magazine with the following text: Some of your friends have their Venmo feeds set to public. Every occasion to repay them for brunch is also an opportunity to generously increase their mystique among their peers. With just a few carefully chosen words, you can pack maximum narrative intrigue into every transaction note. Use these samples to start crafting your own entries in the genre I like to call Venmo Nanofiction. By Dave Shay salmon cannon adapters Bisquick for the bankruptcy tailgate 9V batteries and Sprite (cadaver prank) gondola racing certification Municipal hexagon audit Rural Mailbox Magazine, 48-month subscription borscht allergy alibi legal fees for Tailgate-gate mannequin removal seawater
A page from a yellow legal pad with the following text: How I Spent My Layoff Sabbatical Rode my bike. Played with Legos. Chopped a lot of wood. Applied for hundreds of jobs. Chaperoned my kids’ field trips. Did some freelance fact-checking. Posted a semi-viral video of my cat. Kayaked the entirety of my local creek. Helped stand up a hyperlocal print magazine. Made repairs to all the broken stuff around the house. Designed a T-shirt for my favorite independent radio station. Came up with a magazine concept: “Highlights, but for adults.” Pitched it to the delightful folks at Highlights magazine. Got turned down in a genuinely supportive way. Decided to just launch my own magazine. Recruited some awesome contributors. Launched my own magazine. It’s called Paper Airplane. You can get it right now. At PaperAirplane.pub. Thanks for reading. Sincerely, Nick
A bag of cheese labeled "NOT SMOKED PROVOLONE"
A page from Anne of Green Gables by L.M. Montgomery with the following text: When Anne got home that night she stacked all her text-books away in an old trunk in the attic, locked it, and threw the key into the blanket box. “I’m not even going to look at a schoolbook in vacation,” she told Marilla. “I’ve studied as hard all the term as I possibly could and I’ve pored over that geometry until I know every proposition in the first book off by heart, even when the letters are changed. I just feel tired of everything sensible and I’m going to let my imagination run riot for the summer. Oh, you needn’t be alarmed, Marilla. I’ll only let it run riot within reasonable limits. But I want to have a real good jolly time this summer, for maybe it’s the last summer I’ll be a little girl. Mrs. Lynde says that if I keep stretching out next year as I’ve done this I’ll have to put on longer skirts. She says I’m all running to legs and eyes. And when I put on longer skirts I shall feel that I have to live up to them and be very dignified. It won’t even do to believe in fairies then, I’m afraid; so I’m going to believe in them with all my whole heart this summer.
A man holding a cat who is purring and doing "air muffins," which is like slowly massaging an invisible sky blanket with his paws.
A word puzzle page titled “Period Pieces.” The instructions say to excavate and assemble buried letters (in order) from the name of each geological period to answer the clues.
An illustrated fantasy map with a key and labels of various features and landmarks.
A portion of an elaborate maze with many details, including bodies of water filled with sharks, ships, and sea monsters.
The table of contents page in the debut issue of Paper Airplane magazine, including sections titled Q&A, Article, Art, Infographics, List, Comics, Wordplay, Games, Photos, and Activities.
An image of two buttons. One says "Generate," as in "Generate with A.I." The other says: "Start from scratch; accumulate years of ideas, instincts, and experience; collaborate with people whose ideas, instincts, and experiences diverge wildly from your own; learn from the messiness, the dead ends, the mistakes, the endless revisions that reveal the connections you’d never have found without embracing imperfection and every hard part along the way, because, as a flawed but fully human person once wisely said, the hard is what makes it great."
Some of the sources of inspiration behind Paper Airplane magazine, including copies of Highlights magazine, Calvin and Hobbes, The Believer magazine, Mad magazine, the Whole Earth Catalog, and the book How to Do Nothing by Jenny Odell.
A GIF of Paper Airplane magazine showing a rotating preview of pages.
Paper Airplane magazine cover. An ice cream vendor on the beach holds up a cone toward an ice cream-shaped cloud.
An AI-generated search summary that says: "In conclusion, the term "paper airplane magazine" is most likely a metaphorical phrase or could refer to an inflight magazine or a hypothetical publication"
A kid's handwritten note that says "I don't know what to do!" with every character made into a sad face.