Title: Paper Girls, Vol. 1
(Paper Girls #1)
Author: Brian K. Vaughan
Illustration: Cliff Chiang (Illustrator),
Matthew Wilson (Colorist),
Jared K. Fletcher (Lettering)
Genre: YA Science Fiction
Format: Graphic Novel
Length: 144 pages
Publisher: Image Comics
Publish Date: April 5, 2016

Graphic Deaths, Shooting of a Teen,
Violence, Swearing, Alcoholism,
Teenage Smoking, Homophobia,
Racism

Vietnamese, Black

I’ve been seeing this comic series all over the place, and I finally got to see that my library had the electronic copies on Hoopla! I didn’t think I was going to read it so quickly – even though it’s fairly short – but I’m so glad I finally tried it! I think my library has six volumes or something, so I hope that’s the whole series, or I’ll have to try to find the rest later.

You know, if I end up finishing the series I mean.

• I am digging the cover and its color scheme for some reason.
• These girls look like bad asses! Is their superhero group named “Paper Girls” or something?
• What is this about though? I can’t really tell by the synopsis
• Why is it taking so long for me to pick it up? Let’s go!

Erin recently started a new job as delivering the daily paper in the early mornings in order to make some money. Noble reasoning, and nothing too weird about it except for the time period of the beginning. Well, right before Erin almost gets beat up by some dudes that are still out “celebrating” Halloween, she gets rescued by the other paper girls: Mac, KJ, and Tiffany. To make sure that they have each other’s back at such an early time of day, this group was formed to protect one another from any sort of violence that may happen during their route. The girls end up taking in Erin after the incident, and then they somehow find a machine that brings them to an alternate reality of their home.

How do they know?

Knights are flying around on winged dinosaurs and dragons, and there are alien types of people that have been making their rounds in the town. This story gets super weird, and it only just begins.

I really enjoyed the artwork in this one. I guess the colors on the cover like I mentioned, and the relationship between the four girls. Sure, Erin is still new to the group and maybe Mac is a little abrasive in the beginning, but the fact that they immediately took her in after the initial incident really warmed my heart.

Not so much of a huge dislike, but I’m a little confused about the plot of the series so far. It doesn’t really look like they traveled through time, per se, but more like an alternate reality. Plus, every adult for the most part – even some babies I guess because I haven’t seen or heard anything – but somehow some teenagers and at least one adult are stuck in this world.

Also… is this novel trying to say that Steve Jobs is a bad guy? Or that Apple is a corrupt technology organization that somehow causes all this?

Just kidding, sort of.

I still don’t get it.

Since this was super short, I feel like I may end up doing the rest of the series as one full review, rather than splitting them up between the volumes like this one. I felt like I had nothing to say about it, and since it ended in such a cliffhanger and I’m still not sure of what’s happening, I don’t feel like this review was worthwhile. I’ll keep this one only though, and see what happens if I end up finishing the rest.

Thanks for bearing with me, fam!