A while back, I posted a comic book haul and since then I have gone back and forth between reading comics and reading books. My boyfriend has gone comic book crazy–buying membership discount cards at our local store, scouring Amazon, desperate for the latest editions to come out in trade paperback format (we have a thing against buying every individual issue when it looks so much better compiled together). Meanwhile, I am so-so on it. While I love the terseness of the comics, being able to read one, two, three in a day and feel completed, I also crave full volumes of books–like 400 pages of prose. That’s just really my thing, I think. But that certainly doesn’t mean I can’t appreciate a good comic book and the Paper Girls series hits that mark.
Paper Girls 1 & 2 writing by Brian Vaughan; art by Cliff Chiang; colors by Matt Wilson; and letters by Jared Fletcher
Published by Image Comics (#1) on April 5th 2016 and (#2) December 5th 2016
Genres: Science Fiction, Strong Female Leader(s),
Pages: 144 and 128 respectively
Source: Amazon // Goodreads // Barnes and Nobles
Final Review:
Paper Girls 1: 4 out of 5 // ★★★★☆
Paper Girls 2: 4 out of 5 // ★★★★☆
So why didn’t I give these comics 5 out of 5 stars seeing as this is really the only series that I’ve gotten to the next edition? (I did read the next two after the first of Fables and just fell out of it). I think the main point for me is that I was confused, and (slight spoiler) nothing really gets resolved in the second one. I understand that the series will continue, and therefore can’t put everything on the table right away, but after reading through the second one, I was still like “wait, what?” Part of this was because I read Paper Girls 1 only a few months after it came out and then put it away. When Paper Girls 2 came out, it had been a few months since I read the first volume and had already read many books after it, that I actually seemed to forget what actually happened in the first one! So I set into the second one with almost a blank slate (my bad) and ended in more confusion. Perhaps I need to just re-read the first one and then re-read the second one all in one sitting to at least understand a little bit!
Other than my confusion–which in all honesty is probably part of the story itself; the writers aren’t going to give everything away in the first two books! I’m just a complainer–the story is great. The art is great. Everything is great! Four 12-year-old girls are not only taking on a male-dominated job–paper routes–they are also thrust into a time warp with dinosaurs, future versions of themselves, and overall confusion, which certainly doesn’t go along with regular, female-lead stories. No one is a princess, in fact quite the opposite with one of the girls being a regular smoker and avid curser. No one is a damsel in distress, though sometimes they do need saving, but certainly not by any boy, instead by their friends.
Most likely intending to, the creators of these girls and their tumultuous tale are having a conversation with today’s people. Starting even from the physical copy, boys and girls, men and women, can enjoy Paper Girls. Comics have stereotypically been a hobby only boys seemed to possess, while us girls were given dolls and pink things. But now that women are finding their voice, pushing through to the other side–the blue, male-dominated side–things that were once considered masculine are being upturned (might I add that young boys are also pushing through onto the pink side as well by showing their interests in fashion, dolls, etc. and I think this is great!). So by making a comic about girls, the creators instantly upheave the stereotypes associated with comics. Furthermore, as mentioned previously, they could have made the girls do more innocent, female-like things, but nope! Instead, the four are ruthless little girls who are suddenly tasked with saving the world from some sort of time warp that they don’t even fully understand.
I think these are a great addition to any woman’s or girl’s shelf. They are funny and curious, the girls are real, the story, while confusing (in a good way), urges the reader to figure what is going happen to this strange group of mismatched girls. Who do we trust in the year 2016? How are there different dimensions and dinosaurs all of a sudden? What is going on!
I really love the art style, it compliments both the girls from the 80’s and also the modernism from 2016. I’m not sure how to describe it other than sketchiness with harsh, dark lines that promote the seriousness of the plot as well as maintaining the cartoon-esque characters that keep it a comic book.
I’m not sure what to expect in the volume 3 trade paperback, but I’m hoping some loose ends will be tied together, and I know more questions will come out of it. Who is that bearded man?!
