“Paper Girls” Volume 1

With a creative force like Brian K. Vaughan and Cliff Chiang (being colored by Matt Wilson, no less), we could all guess we were in for something cool. “Paper Girls” Volume 1 is a fast-paced, visually stunning, and overall exciting adventure story; definitely the product of two confident storytellers.

Written by Brian K. Vaughan
Illustrated by Cliff Chiang and Matt Wilson

From Brian K. Vaughan, #1 New York Times bestselling writer of SAGA and THE PRIVATE EYE, and CLIFF CHIANG, legendary artist of Wonder Woman, comes the first volume of an all-new ongoing adventure.

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.

In the early morning on All Saints’ Day, young Erin shakes herself out of weird and prophetic dreams to start her new job as a newspaper delivery girl. Over the course of the morning, she makes friends with a few of the other paper girls, stands up to some horror teenagers, and then runs for her life after a rift opens in the sky, pouring down pteranodons while shadowy figures run around the neighborhood, stealing their electronics. Also, pretty much everybody in town has mysteriously vanished, rapture-style. Oh, and she also managed to get herself shot.

The first volume of “Paper Girls” from Brian K. Vaughan (“The Escapists”) and Cliff Chiang (“Beware the Creeper”) moves at breakneck speed. Once Vaughan and Chiang set all their pieces into motion, the narrative bursts forward and doesn’t stop. In fact, it feels like it’s still going after the final page of the final chapter, because this is a Brian K. Vaughan book and cliffhangers are the marching order. Still, Vaughan and Chiang work in strong synchronization to deliver a story rapt with time-traveling teenagers, a rando old dude looking like he belongs in Vaughan’s “Private Eye” series, and this weird multi-eyed monster floating in the sewers. Because the two of them are so deft at controlling the flow of information, you’re not put off or bombarded as the story becomes more bombastic. It’s never messy or incoherent.

You can get away with practically everything if you have likable characters and a strong sense of humor. (See: Star Wars Episodes IV-VII.) Erin, Mac, KJ, and Tiffany are all people whose stories we’re interested in following pretty much the instant they appear on the page. They’re distinctive and passionate, bearing a strong sense of style and design — courtesy of the always fashionable Cliff Chiang — so we get a sense of their personalities and lives immediately. They speak like they come out of this time period and their pop culture helps them process the situations and problems they encounter. They act like they’re 13, with all the over-confidence and ambition and laziness that comes along with it. And it’s not only in Erin willing to scold Mac for using derogatory language despite Mac being a local suburban legend, it’s the expressions and reactions Chiang gives them at each and every story beat. Regardless of the 80s speak, these feel like real kids. Vaughan and Chiang approach them like real kids.

Vaughan also amps up the momentum and intensity by giving them clear goals to deal with. They’re not spending the morning running around, trying to figure out a broad abstract like what’s going on. It’s more like they’re running around to try to find shelter from this weird disaster, and then running around trying to take care of Erin after she gets a bullet in the gut. The girls constantly question what’s around them, but with more concrete objectives, they’re given a much better agency.

Not only does Chiang manage to deliver wormhole spinning time jumps and swooping pteranodon attacks with aplomb, he also delivers a tight rhythm to his pages. He builds his way up to larger panels to give that nice little snap on a scene. His staging is cinematic and the layouts help make the thing feel animated and kinetic. He avoids perspective-bending shots or panel bursting images for a more natural aesthetic, and even the most wacky moments feel more believable in this world. The added bonus of Matt Wilson’s colors help give the visuals a contained scope with a sense of epicness. It feels like something Spielberg might have staged.

Chiang and Vaughan obviously are familiar with this era. The science fiction elements aside, they know what it’s like to be a new teen in 1988, and they communicate it well. There’s an element of nostalgia at play in the narrative, but they don’t use it to long for a simpler time, but rather to help explore their ideas of generations and generational relationships. Erin, Mac, Tiffany, and KJ are the youngest characters in the story, and they constantly find themselves going up against characters bigger and more powerful than themselves. The main baddies call themselves The Elders, who are in conflict with this group of teenage boys for reasons we don’t understand yet. The whole idea of time travel involves dealing with people from a different era than yours.

In many ways, Vaughan and Chiang are using this story to try to understand younger generations, and do so by approaching it from their own memories to help give themselves empathy and relatability. They understand what it’s like to be 13 and have some nameless authority figure telling you what to do and how aggravating that feels. They know what it’s like to try to distinguish yourself around kids only slightly older than you. They know what it’s like to feel relief when someone older takes charge of a situation you’re barely comprehending. For all the action and chases and flying prehistoric animals, it’s these moments and these reactions that ring the loudest. All the flying prehistoric animals and tears through the space-time continuum are just an added bonus.

Final Verdict: 9.5 – great characters hold up a strange, cryptic, but nevertheless exciting story.