Paper Girls, Vol. 1

Paper Girls, Vol. 1 by Brian K. Vaughan
Illustrated by: Cliff Chiang, Matthew Wilson
Publisher: Image Comics
Collects: issues #1–5
Published: 2016
Length: 144 pages

Having seen this described as The Goonies meets Stranger Things, there was really no choice for me but to make the purchase. There’s something about an 80’s story featuring foul-mouthed kids riding their bikes down the street that just hits that perfect nostalgia note for me, and this particular story is centred around that very premise, but this time with a central cast of girls rather than the usual token friend for tagalong girlfriend, which is a refreshing change.

This features a group of papergirls on their morning delivery the day after Halloween, a dreaded day in the paper delivery service with older teens still out from the night before. They decide to group up with their route, with safety in numbers in mind, but the morning turns worse than any of them could have imagined.

I went into this not knowing anything about the story, and the direction this took definitely surprised me, but I liked it. There were some great quiet moments in this, such as one of the girls having her life flash before her eyes and it just being a montage of her sitting in front of an Atari with the seasons changing in the window behind her, as well as some pretty crazy action.

After the first volume, it really feels like the story could go anywhere, so I’m excited to pick up the second and third volume now. This was written by Brian K. Vaughan, of Saga and Y: The Last Man fame, so I’m interested to see what he does here. Saga has really made me a fan.