Image Firsts: Paper Girls #1 Review!

 Just in time for the Amazon Prime series, Image Firsts: Paper Girls #1 reprints the quirky, 1988 set, pre-teen adventure!  The comic book series by Brian K. Vaughan and Cliff Chiang debuted in 2015.  Vaughan previously created Runaways for Marvel Comics that was on Hulu in 2017 until 2019, three perfect seasons!  Chiang had worked on the New 52 run on  Wonder Woman with writer, Brian Azzarello, from 2011 to 2014.  The series won the comic industry’s Eisner Award for Best New Series in 2016.  Paper Girls debuted on July 29th and the showrunner is Stephany Folsom who wrote Toy Story 4 (2019).  Image Firsts reprints first issues of popular comic book titles at the reasonable price of $1.00!  

The cover by Chiang has the four girls on bikes with just the yellow of the cover broken by Mac’s cigarette smoke.  Note that the comic contains adult language as well as smoking so it is not intended for the pre-teen or teenage audiences. The first image is distorted until we see hands holding an apple, it is held by Erin, whom we see on the moon looking at Earth under purple skies.  She wonders about the apple and is answered by an astronaut with wings!  I love the surreal touches of the beginning.  She is told that they are in heaven and asks questions about her sister which the angel-like being says is in hell.  The being shifts into a demon who poses Erin a question as her young sister, Missy, is tied up in a school chair!  

The question is about a tribe naming the “Crooked River” called the Cuyahoga River in Ohio.  Erin refues to play and is thrown back with the astronaut being with fiery wings.  The demon punishes Missy and warning her not to eat from the Tree of Knowledge.  Erin, now in the blue of night, wakes up, and looks down from her bunk bed at Missy sleeping below her.  The details, mix of photographs, and Chiang’s mix of simple artwork with thick lines reminds me of David Mazzucchelli are all brilliant.  Also, the colors by Matt Wilson makes gives each scene the proper tone and distinctiveness.  Erin sees the Cleveland Preserver truck pull up and then checks her Far Side calendar, it’s November 1st.  Erin takes a stack of newspaper to her kitchen table and opens the newspapers with her knife, we see a closeup of the clock, 4:40.  

Then, we get a two page spread of Erin riding her bike in the early morning with a comet streaking over a sleeping neighborhood.  We see from a sign that this is in the fictional town of Stony Stream, Ohio, and a newspaper are thrown on a doorstep.  Some punk teens dressed as Freddy Krueger, a ninja, and a clown have a carton of eggs and spray paint cans.  They question her and Erin states she’s twelve and wants to continue delivering papers.  The lead punk grabs hold of her bike and then is identified, Lucas Kurzenberger.  In a splash page, we see the rest of the paper girls, Mac, KJ, and Tiffany, cool intro.  Mac threatens to tell Lucas’ father about breaking curfew and harassing girls!  The teens leave.  Erin is impressed that Mac is MacKenzie, the first papergirl, and invited into the group. 

They team up for All Saint’s Day and Mac says she will ride with the “new kid” as she lights up a cigarette.  Tiffany gives them a walkie talkie, there is a thunderous sound, and then they continue on their routes.  Erin follows them and we see behind her three dark figures wrapped in dark wrappings.  A closeup shows an eye through the wrapping of an eye with a dark pupil in the shape of a Y!  Erin and Mac chat and they are stopped by a police officer who suspects Mac is responsible for breaking windows.  Later, Mac gets a call for help from KJ on the walkie talkie.  They bike over to check on the others.  KJ explains that three guys in “bad ghost costumes” attacked them and took Tiffany’s walkie talkie!  Mac warns them on the walkie talkie that they are going after them!  This leads the paper girls to a strange machine in a basement and into more mysteries!  Image Firsts: Paper Girls #1 has the setting and bizarre events like Stranger Things, but has more touches of the time period, and great characters!           

Five Walkie Talkies out of Five! 

#PaperGirls, #BrianKVaughn, #CliffChiang, #Erin, #Mac, #KJ, #Tiffany