Paper Girls

Brian K. Vaughn is one of the more revered names in comics today (not that I'm an expert). His sci-fi series Saga is pretty much universally beloved, Runaways was a massive hit in its day, and I'll just assume people like his X-Men stuff. This latest series, Paper Girls, is up there with any of those. If you liked Stranger Things this past summer, Paper Girls is going to be right up your alley. It's November 1st, 1988, and four barrier-breaking twelve-year old girls are delivering their paper routes in the pre-dawn hours. Erin has nightmares with Ronald Reagan in them; George Bush for president signs are visible on lawns; Tiffany is mortified to realize how much time she wasted playing Arkanoid; Mac smokes and calls people faggots because, as a time-traveling character says, "You guys live in a fucked-up time." Basically, Vaughn nails the 80s.

As does artist Cliff Chiang, whose work here is fantastic. The detail he throws into relatively one-off gags like the aforementioned Bush campaign sign, the character that pops in the faces of each of the four girls, hell - the fact the guy has to draw so many damned bicycles. It's book 1 of an ongoing series, so I will say, don't go into it expecting resolution. But this does end on an interesting cliffhanger, and there are certainly enough questions abounding to propel the series for another couple of collected volumes, easily (oh, right, the plot, mention the plot - time traveling warlords with dinosaurs? I'm not really sure, actually). Paper Girls is a rare series where I have no qualms recommending it for people who don't even particularly like comics. It's really a great read.