Dave Schaafsma's Reviews > Paper Girls, Volume 1

Reread, 6/15/21: YA Graphic Novels and Comics class, summer 2021, paired with another teen superhero/teen fantasy series opener, Ms. Marvel. Students liked it a lot.

Update, 6/19/18: Once again, re-reading for my YA GN and Comics class with a focus on kick-ass girls. In this case, 4 of them, 12 years old, who are delivering papers in the Cleveland suburb of Stony Stream on All Saints Day (the day after Halloween) when revelers in costumes can still be seen roaming the streets. . . among actual aliens! And pterodactyls. And monsters. And time travel so you can meet your future self. Too crazy, some Goodreads reviewers said, I don't know what the hell is going on! I say keep reading, relax, have fun. This is a madcap and heartfelt homage to all things eighties, especially films such as ET and Peggy Sue Gets Married and Back to the Future. My fourth reading, and now that I see what is coming, and finished the whole amazing series, I like it even more! As with any good book, most of what is coming in later volumes is right there in the beginning. But you don't know it, so just be patient.

Update, June, 2017: I reread this once again for my summer class on YA comics with a focus on girls. Having read the existing subsequent volumes, I like this crazy first volume even more than I originally did!

June, 2016: I just read this for the first time in March 2016, and reread it again for my summer YA GN class. One woman in class said she liked it better than Ms. Marvel, Vol. 1, (G. Willow Wilson version) because the girls in this story swore more. :) Oh, they all swear in Vaughn comics, I said; if that's your standard of success, read all the Vaughn! But they do feel a bit more "real" for that, I suppose. The comic is edgier than Ms. Marvel (Kamala Khan), in some ways: Kamala is more wholesome and idealistic than the girls in Paper Girls, but why choose, read them both, they are both fun. I liked reading it through better a second time, but I still want to know more about what is going on. I will eagerly read on as next issues comes out soon.

Initial review, 3/16: I had read the floppies for much of this first volume, but was excited to read it all in one sitting. Vaughn is a terrific writer of dialogue, clever, smart-ass, and he loves to have at least a couple (slightly) foul-mouthed characters in the mix, and sure, they sound like a lot of other Vaughn characters, but who cares, he is one of the best ever. The feel of it is great. The art by Chiang is awesome, capturing the eighties vibe. Vaughn all the way through peppers his text with fun eighties references (and I am not an eighties guy, I'm a sixties and seventies guy, but I appreciate the effort). The neon colors are wonderful, by Matt Wilson. You can see it, right, in the cover? Since it largely takes place at night it is a little darker, of course, but still amazing, award-worthy YA coloring.

It's a YA text (though some schools/libraries may have trouble with some of the bad language, but Vaughn doesn't probably necessarily think of comics as something to be read IN school, at least not this one), featuring four Cleveland (Vaughn is from Cleveland) twelve year old Paper Girls (younguns, they actually deliver papers in the wee hours of the morn, as I once did at that age, as most papers were delivered in those days, though in my day girls didn't deliver, safety issues were named as the reason, so in that sense the story is a cool fantasy). They fit very well with Kamala Kahn (Ms Marvel) and other wonderful new kick-ass girl comics in this amazing time for that. The girls are not at first read for me very distinct yet, there is very little actual character development, as this is the all out action first issue, so I expect we will slow down in volume 2 and get to know the girls a bit more.

The action earl on is ET (with kids on bicycles riding in the night at high speed, only all girls) meets Stand By Me (only, again, all girls), and this is for an older guy not SO interesting as a plot, yet. A little too crazy, a little too much, feels a little breathless on first read. But shades of Buffy, too, in all the best ways. Brian and Joss Whedon must have a grand old time socially. A new century Algonqiuin Round Table (look it up kids: Dorothy Parker, Robert Benchley, Alexander Woolcott, George S. Kauffman), with all the crackling wit.

Anyway, the action. A lot happens and very little happens on this night of all nights; it's all flash in the pan--so far. The girls proceed on this Halloween night of 1988 and meet three boys who are just sexist creeps, one of them in a Freddy Krueger costume, though more bark than bite, really. Sets up the "real" All Saints Day scare. Three ninjas. Then three aliens. Four against three, balance against imbalance. And pterodactyls. And time travel, ala Back to the Future, sort of. And the eighties refs have to keep a comin', Mask, walkie talkies instead of cell phones. And in the middle of the apocalypse, one of them says, "wait, you guys give out whole candy bars for Halloween!? What's up with that?" :) Steve Jobs and Apple come in here, though at this point it is Apple meets eighties walkie talkies.

And for the YA crowd, the action has to be over the top, but you know, it's Halloween, it has to be breathless, running through the night--is it an actual werewolf or a werewolf costume?--with everything but the kitchen sink thrown at them. But no eek screaming girly stuff, they are tough and resourceful, of course, this is 2016 comics! Girls rule!

This is my reason for four instead of five stars, or one of them, that all this pizzazz is happening, and we have no idea what is happening, and we don't really yet know much about the girls, it is all sort of whizzbang superficial in the early going. But if I were inclined to give it three stars (you have at least that for the dialogue and Chiang and color, c'mon!), I have to give it one extra star just because I know the intended audiences--1) younger folks, teens and 2) eighties folks who lived through 1988--will love it. I liked it a lot for what it is and forgive it for what it is not yet. I totally trust Vaughn to make you feel deeply and laugh a lot and resolve this with some reference to politics and human nature in satisfying plot resolution.