An image of Gus Polinski, "the Polka King of the Midwest," from the movie Home Alone.
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.
Best I can do is a photo of the cat in the magazine
First shipment goes out soon! Subscribe now to get this beauty in your mailbox. (The magazine, not the cat.) PaperAirplane.pub.
@jffrankel.bsky.social
@jesszafarris.bsky.social
@helenscales.bsky.social
@marthabarnette.bsky.social
And others!
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
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.
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.
Same vibe
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."
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.
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.
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.
@kaitlinbrito.bsky.social
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.
Tag yourself. I'm "a new print magazine (!)"
Best floor to get in on, honestly
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
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!
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
Goal exceeded! Paper Airplane Vol. 1 raised $10,806.45 in support of refugees and immigrants.
Phase 2 coming very soon.
Thanks, @grandrobert.bsky.social! 2026 Subscription Drive coming very soon!
Remember, no one is a failure who tries.
A cup of kindness to all my fellow tryers.
Hee Haw and Happy Holidays. –Nick Norlen
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
Look who’s at the door
A detail of a comic showing a character riding a tardigrade with obvious delight.
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.)
