Over the course of his career, acclaimed comics writer Brian K. Vaughn has never been a stranger to the theme of youthful angst. His recent project, Saga, one of the most sensational and revered comics in recent memory, tells of the trials of literal star-crossed lovers from enemy species as they traverse the universe with their infant daughter. His project for Marvel, Runaways, told the story of a group of teens who are the children of supervillains, and their efforts to escape their parents’ sinister schemes. And famously, a fan of Joss Whedon, he wrote a story arc for “Buffy: Season Eight”, the first canonical comic series based on the show.
It’s definitely not out of character, then, for Vaughn to choose to take his next project, Paper Girls, to the realm of the ’80s teen movie. Advertised as Stand by Me meets War of the Worlds, the first issue comes across more as a gender-swapped Monster Squad in its plot and tone, but has a unique enough characterization and aesthetic to have it stand out as its own, engaging story.
The issue opens with a Saga-esque surrealism as one of the paper girls, Erin, dreams she’s in Heaven, which is on the moon. She’s greeted by an angel in a space uniform and helmet, which claims to be the ghost of Challenger astronaut Christa McAuliffe. The angel tells her that everyone is dead because of something the Russians did, and that her little sister is in Hell. To save her, she needs to answer a demon’s question, which turns out to be a multiple choice problem about Native American history. The scene is a humorous, visual summary of the outlook and concerns of a ’80s preteen, from grander worldly affairs to more personal and family issues.
Erin awakes from her dream and heads downstairs to collect and start delivering newspapers. Not long after, she runs into a group of teenage boys dressed for Halloween who are egging and toilet papering the block. The boys begin to bully Erin, but are stopped by three other paper delivery girls: TJ, Tiffany, and the caustic, chain-smoking Mac. The girls invite Erin to join them as they take their respective routes.
While not deviating much from the typical archetypes of the ’80s teen movie (i.e., the new kid, the one unmannered kid who smokes) the gender-swapping of the characters in Paper Girls is a refreshing change of pace for a genre usually dominated by boys. Erin mentions how she appreciates how Mac “opened the door” for the rest of them by becoming the first paper girl on the block, whereas before it had been only paper boys. Tiffany then mentions she was the first altar girl in town, similarly setting a precedent.
While girls were typically featured in ’80s teen adventure movies like Monster Squad or The Goonies, they were, and are, usually consigned to secondary roles, and not often major contenders or go-getters in the rough-and-tumble antics. This is waht tends to designate classic “teen” adventure dramas from the title of “chick flicks”. To see a cast of preteen girls take the lead in a rambunctious, high-stakes adventure is still relatively uncommon, and that’s what makes Vaughn’s premise here so appealing.
Vaughn also manages to create a story that centers itself right along the edge of the decade, in 1988, creating a scenario of transition and “coming of age” in more ways than one: both a new age for the girls and for the world with the coming decade. Mac mentions to Erin that the girls are a “dying breed”, given that there’s no future in newspapers and that soon enough the “paper” kid will be a thing of the past. The short scene is an intriguing reflection of the passing of a particularly iconic symbol of the American teen in popular media.
In this story, Erin and Mac hear TJ yell over their walkie talkie that they’ve been jumped by a group of boys in costumes. Mac and Erin arrive to find that Tiffany’s walkie talkie, which she had saved for months to buy, has been stolen. Mac calls the boys on the radio, and lets them know the girls are coming for them.
The girls then bike around town looking for the attackers, and discover an open window in a house under construction. They sneak in and make their way to the basement, only to find a giant machine they can only figure is from outer space. The machine turns on and begins flashing brightly and making strange noises — and the girls run. Outside, they find that the night sky has completely changed: there are stars and constellations that they’ve never seen before.
They also encounter the costumed boys and begin chasing them. Mac attacks one, and removes his hood to reveal a strange, monstrous-looking being with a mechanical implant in its head. After the girls chase off the boys, now known as strange creatures, TJ notices one of them has dropped a small square device with a symbol on it. Erin determines what the symbol is: an apple. Evidently, the future is arriving much sooner than the girls could have anticipated.
With Paper Girls, Vaughn creates a time-capsule story in giving us some traditional tropes of the ’80s teen movie — the witty dialogue (“you’re like the Amelia Earhart of shit that doesn’t matter”), the preteen/teens somehow able to overpower monstrous opponents and outlandish scenarios, and the bike-gang camaraderie — but bestowing this journey to the girls. As outlandish as the films of the era may have been, they ultimately embodied the immensity of coming of age and passing time, and to see young women take this journey beyond the “chick lit” and “chick flick” categories they’ve mostly been consigned to is a enjoyable change.
The always colorful and expressive artwork by Cliff Chiang creates a proper balance of realism and psychedelics, permitting the girls to feel grounded even in an impossible scenario. Ultimately, Paper Girls #1 sets up a story that has promise as a new addition to an enjoyably nostalgic genre.