Paper Girls | |
---|---|
Publication information | |
Publisher | Image Comics |
Schedule | Monthly |
Genre | Mystery, science fiction |
Publication date | October 2015 – July 2019 |
No. of issues | 30 |
Creative team | |
Created by | Brian K. Vaughan and Cliff Chiang |
Written by | Brian K. Vaughan |
Artist(s) | Cliff Chiang |
Colorist(s) | Matt Wilson |
Collected editions | |
Volume One | ISBN 1-6321-5674-1 |
Volume Two | ISBN 1-6321-5895-7 |
Volume Three | ISBN 1-5343-0223-9 |
Volume Four | ISBN 1-5343-0510-6 |
Volume Five | ISBN 1-5343-0867-9 |
Volume Six | ISBN 1-5343-1324-9 |
Paper Girls is a mystery/science fiction comic book series created by Brian K. Vaughan and Cliff Chiang, and published by Image Comics. The colorist is Matt Wilson, the letterer and designer is Jared K. Fletcher, and the color flatter is Dee Cunniffe. The series began publication on October 7, 2015 and concluded on July 31, 2019 with issue #30.
Paper Girls follows the story of four 12-year-old newspaper delivery girls (Erin, MacKenzie, KJ, and Tiffany) set in Stony Stream, a fictional suburb of Cleveland, Ohio. As they are out delivering papers on the morning after Halloween, the town is struck by an invasion from a mysterious force from the future. The girls become unwillingly caught up in the conflict between two warring factions of time travelers.
A television adaptation was announced in July 2019. The television adaptation premiered in July 2022. In 2016, Paper Girls received the Eisner Award for Best New Series and Best Penciller/Inker as well as the Harvey Award for Best New Series.
Erin Tieng, a new resident of Stony Stream, is a recently hired paper delivery girl. While out delivering newspapers in the early hours of the morning of November 1, 1988, Erin meets Mac, KJ, and Tiffany, a group of friends and fellow paper girls who invite Erin to join them.
The girls are soon attacked by a group of teenagers; one of the teens steals a walkie-talkie from Tiffany. The girls subsequently chase the group to a construction house and find what appears to be a time machine in the basement. They are then struck by mysterious energy emanating from the machine. The girls learn that the teenagers are time travelers from the distant future, who are engaged in an ongoing war with a group known as the "Old-Timers" (known as "The Battle of the Ages"). At the center of this conflict is the question of whether or not the past can and should be changed by future time travelers.
Throughout the series, the girls are frequently (and usually, inadvertently) time-displaced, traveling between the 20th and 21st centuries, as well as eras of the distant past and future. As they travel through time, they encounter future versions of themselves and are forced to come to terms with who they will later become. Their lives also become intertwined with those of Wari and Jahpo, two "Old-Timers" who lead the war against their future descendants.
The "Old-Timers" (also known as "WATCH" in 2171 AD) are the first generation following the invention of time travel. They strongly believe in preserving the original timeline and strictly enforce the rules regarding time travel. They cannot travel to their own futures. [10] Their leader is known by the title of "Grand Father". [16] A sub-sect of Old-Timers are known as Restorers, who actively work to restore timelines altered by the events of the war. The Restorers have the ability to erase and alter a person's memory. [10] Old-Timers speak in a modified version of English, heavily dependent on slang and similar to Old English in style. Some of them can also speak 21st century English if asked. When Clone Erin (first generation) scatters the girls to separate past/present timelines, she causes the Old-Timers to become stuck inside the fourth dimension. [12] The Old-Timers' base, "the Cathedral", is later destroyed when Grand Father misguidedly shoots an Editrix. [6] However, all of the occupants of the cathedral are saved and restored to their original time. They later come to a truce with the Teenagers via Grand Father, who agrees to ban time travel forever. [7]
The descendants of the Old-Timers, from the 71st century; Grand Father refers to them as this regardless of age. They believe in the idea of altering history. Unlike the Old-Timers, teenagers do not have any rules regarding time travel. They often seek the assistance of "locals" (people living in the present time) to provide them with information for the war effort. [10] They speak in a futuristic language that is only decipherable through translation gadgets. [2] They have the ability to clone humans. [19] At some unknown point in time, a small group of clones and 2000-Tiffany gain the ability to transmit coded messages to the paper girls in the past via bizarre dreams. This was done in order to covertly guide the paper girls to their destiny. [5] This group of clones and 2000-Tiffany help to end the war by convincing Grand Father to ban all time travel forever, believing such power should never be abused again. They then erase the memories of the paper girls and return the girls to their original timeline. [6]
At the review aggregator website Comic Book Roundup, the series received an average score of 8.7 out of 10 based on 173 reviews. [24] Paper Girls won two Eisner Awards in 2016 for Best New Series and Best Penciller/Inker. [25] It also won the Best New Series at the Harvey Awards in 2016. [26] In 2017 Wilson (Best Colorist) and Vaughan (Best Writer) both won Eisner Awards, in part because of their work on the series. [27] In 2017, the first compilation was shortlisted for the Hugo Award for Best Graphic Story. [28] In 2019, Wilson again won an Eisner Award for Best Colorist for his work on the series. [29]
The series has received widespread acclaim from reviewers. Alex Abad-Santos at Vox proclaimed that "Paper Girls is the next great American comic book". [30] Laura Hudson from Slate stated that the series "is a reminder of how fresh and accessible even the most familiar stories and tropes can feel when people who have been consigned to the sidelines of popular entertainment take center stage". [31] Steven Padnick from Tor noted that "the real emotional theme of Paper Girls comes to the fore: the contrast between children’s fantastic hopes for adulthood and the disappointing banality of reality" and "[the series] is glorious and moving, and also awkward and funny". [32]
The writing and artwork have been consistently praised: "Paper Girls' vivid color palette and Chiang's unique drawing style beautifully complement Vaughan's creative time-bending storyline". [33] As David Barnett from The Guardian noted, "[Vaughan's] plotting on Paper Girls is second to none, and lays subplot trails with an artistry ... the look of Paper Girls is utterly gorgeous as well." [34] Abad-Santos also praised the creative team, saying "Vaughan's writing and Chiang's art—along with colors from Matt Wilson and letters from Jared K. Fletcher—all make for one gorgeous mystery." [30]
Paper Girls is often favorably compared to the Netflix hit Stranger Things . [35] According to Barnett, fans of Stranger Things should "read this comic". [34] Susana Polo for Polygon stated in her review of the comic series that "if you're a fan of Stranger Things but wish the show handled its female characters, or its queer coding, or its rosy-eyed love of 1980s pop culture with a little more nuance more frequently, you'll find a lot to like". [36] While comparing Paper Girls to Stranger Things and Super 8 , Glen Weldon stated that Paper Girls "tell[s] its story from the point of view of young women, not boys, and it doesn't seem coincidental that its tone is harder, flintier, funnier, more pragmatic, and far less concerned with idealizing the "lost innocence" of childhood." [37]
On July 11, 2019, Deadline reported that Amazon had given a series commitment to a television adaption of Paper Girls from studios Legendary Television and Plan B. Toy Story 4 co-writer Stephany Folsom is slated to pen the adaptation of the graphic novel. Executive producers will be series creator Vaughan, writer Folsom, and studio Plan B. [38] On July 23, 2020, Amazon ordered the television adaptation to series. [39] On April 26, 2021, Deadline reported that Sofia Rosinsky, Camryn Jones, Riley Lai Nelet and Fina Strazza were cast as Mac Coyle, Tiffany Quilkin, Erin Tieng and KJ Bradman respectively. [40] On July 31, 2021, Folsom stepped down as co-showrunner of the series. [41] Paper Girls premiered on July 29, 2022. [42] Filming for the second season began in June 2022. [43] In September 2022, the series was canceled after one season. [44]
Creator Brian K. Vaughan, talking about the creation of the series, stated that "Cliff Chiang and I wanted to do a story about kids from the 20th century confronting their adult selves in the future that’s nothing like Marty McFly's world of flying cars and (actual) hoverboards, but a future that's equally amazing and terrifying for many different reasons." [45] Vaughan elaborated in another interview:
"I wanted to do something different ... I wanted something more contained and grounded with some spectacular element to it. Paper Girls is the story of four 12-year-old newspaper delivery girls growing up, like me, in the suburbs outside Cleveland in the late 1980s. They stumble upon something extraordinary and it's a mystery and an adventure and a weird book. I didn't think it would appeal to anyone because it's too personal and offbeat." [46]
Regarding the all-female main cast, Vaughan has said that he likes writing female characters. "I remember when I was doing Runaways at Marvel, that was a teen book that had more females than males in it ... Now being at Image, where we could do anything we want. Here's a great opportunity to do what I always wanted to do, just a group of females and not have to defend it or explain it, and just get to write them." Vaughan went on to say,
"I wanted to write a story about four kids who did not give a ... about the opposite sex. They're aware of them, but it doesn't define their lives. They're these sorts of hard-core gangsters that are much more interested in going around, shaking down the adults who owe them money so they can get their cassettes or buy their own Nintendo systems. It was avoiding the relationship traps that come up in those 1980 films ... and just letting them and their friendship be the story." [47]
The series is subdivided into "arcs" of five issues each; between each group of five, the series went on pre-planned hiatuses for three months each, during which time the trade paperback collection of the preceding five issues is released. "Deluxe Edition" hardcover volumes, consisting of 10 issues each, were also released. Additionally, a compendium edition was released titled "Paper Girls: The Complete Story", collecting all 30 issues in one trade paperback.
Issue # | Publication Date |
---|---|
1 | October 7, 2015 [1] |
2 | November 4, 2015 [48] |
3 | December 2, 2015 [23] |
4 | January 6, 2016 [15] |
5 | February 3, 2016 [20] |
6 | June 1, 2016 [49] |
7 | July 6, 2016 [2] |
8 | August 3, 2016 [19] |
9 | September 7, 2016 [50] |
10 | October 5, 2016 [51] |
11 | February 1, 2017 [13] |
12 | March 1, 2017 [22] |
13 | April 5, 2017 [14] |
14 | May 3, 2017 [8] |
15 | June 7, 2017 [17] |
16 | October 4, 2017 [18] |
17 | November 1, 2017 [10] |
18 | December 6, 2017 [16] |
19 | January 3, 2018 [21] |
20 | February 7, 2018 [52] |
21 | June 6, 2018 [53] |
22 | July 4, 2018 [54] |
23 | August 1, 2018 [11] |
24 | September 5, 2018 [9] |
25 | October 3, 2018 [3] |
26 | March 6, 2019 [12] |
27 | April 3, 2019 [4] |
28 | May 1, 2019 [5] |
29 | June 5, 2019 [6] |
30 | July 31, 2019 [7] |
Volume # | ISBN | Publication Date | Collected Material |
---|---|---|---|
1 | 9781632156747 | March 30, 2016 | Paper Girls #1–5 [55] |
2 | 9781632158956 | November 30, 2016 | Paper Girls #6–10 [56] |
3 | 9781534302235 | August 8, 2017 | Paper Girls #11–15 [57] |
4 | 9781534305106 | April 4, 2018 | Paper Girls #16–20 [58] |
5 | 9781534308671 | December 5, 2018 | Paper Girls #21–25 [59] |
6 | 9781534313248 | September 25, 2019 | Paper Girls #26–30 [60] |
Volume | ISBN | Publication Date | Collected Material |
---|---|---|---|
1 | 9781534303348 | November 1, 2017 | Paper Girls #1–10 [61] |
2 | 9781534310612 | April 9, 2019 | Paper Girls #11–20 [62] |
3 | 9781534316485 | November 18, 2020 | Paper Girls #21–30 [63] |
Volume | ISBN | Publication Date | Collected Material |
---|---|---|---|
1 | 9781534319998 | October 27, 2021 | Paper Girls #1–30 [64] |
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