Retro Review: Paper Girls Vol 1

Paper Girls Vol 1 (Issues 1-5)
Words: Brian K. Vaughn
Pencils: Cliff Chang
Colors: Matthew Wilson
Letters: Jared K. Fletcher
Publisher: Image Comics

I was sold on this trade when I saw BKV’s name on the cover.  The writer of Saga, Y: The Last Man, and so many other great books delves into the ‘80s with Paper Girls.

Synopsis: In the early hours after Halloween of 1988, four 12-year-old newspaper delivery girls uncover the most important story of all time. Suburban drama and otherworldly mysteries collide in this smash-hit series about nostalgia, first jobs, and the last days of childhood.

Don’t expect the title to represent any hidden meaning; the four main characters are literally paper girls and we meet them on their routes.  As we start to learn about them, weird things start happening. 

Also, don’t expect an epic story like Saga.

The story has the strangeness of Stranger Things and the 80s feel of Donnie Darko.  BKV does a good job with the weirdness factor and building the scene.  He does well with the use of time travel and space; in fact, the idea that you won’t end up in the same physical location when time traveling because the Earth isn’t in the same spot is a very unique plot point and something that I never thought about.

The characters weren’t as fleshed out as some of his other books; there wasn’t much build up on the 4 girls, nor with many of the characters they meet up with, specifically Heck and Naldo.  You also don’t get a good idea of who the bad guys are and what their motive is; this is the first volume though, so I’m expecting that this is still to come (and a writer of BKV’s stature will do so).

Chang’s art is amazing.  You truly feel like you are watching an 80s movie, like E.T. or Flight of the Navigator.  There are some times when the some of the main characters are indistinguishable and you need to figure out who said what; part of this might be the color palate of the book though.  The flipside of the colors is this also helps with the retro feel.

Now here are the spoilers to the story, so move forward with care (after a couple of paragraphs, I note the spoilers are over).

The paper girls are on their route when 2 of the girls are accosted and a walkie talkie is stolen from them.  The 4 regroup and attempt to find the three guys who took it.  They discover a weird machine in the basement of a new house in their development.  After accidentally activating the machine, everything changes; the sky is shining differently right off the bat.  They find one of the guys and get an Apple product from him (obviously something from our time – it might have been an iPod Nano).  They start to notice that people are vanishing and these dinosaur like beasts flying over the town.  We end up seeing that the guy who lost the Nano killed by one of the beast.  Eventually, they decide got to one of the girl’s houses to retrieve a gun.  In the process, one of the other girls gets shot accidentally.  As they take her to the hospital, they encounter someone that isn’t from their time or city.  He’s killed by the other 2 guys who took the walkie talkie.  We learn they are teenagers from the future who are battling these futuristic adults that ride the flying dinosaurs.  They heal Erin, the shot girl, by taking her to their time.  They end up dying and she goes back to the time machine they found in the basement earlier.  They are then confronted by the futuristic adults but time jump to the future to escape.

Sounds confusing when it’s explained, but BKV does a great job of laying it all out.  The story is pretty straight-forward, although you don’t know the details of what’s going on yet.  It leaves enough there to get you to pick up the second trade, which I’m searching for now.

End Spoilers.

If you go in expecting Saga or Y: The Last Man, you’ll be disappointed.  If you like time-travel stories and weird sci-fi, this will be up your alley.

Grade: 3.5 out of 5. I enjoyed it but wasn’t wowed. It hooked me just enough to keep going.