Paper Girls
I met Brian K. Vaughan and Cliff Chiang in a comic shop in Burbank. I brought my Saga comics and my exclusive lying cat funko. Vaughan laughed when I brought out the funko for him to sign, saying he hadn’t seen that one and it was cool. It was an exclusive I picked up from a cart in downtown Long Beach. Lying cat has blood on its face.
That day, I had Paper Girls in my car. I frequently keep books in my car. I have this anxiety that I’ll go somewhere that will require me to read twelve books at a time and I mean, what if I’m without them? You never know, man.
I didn’t even think about it. I had purchased them sometime before, and was just waiting for the right time to read them. I didn’t even know Cliff Chiang worked on them, or I would have had him sign them. But I had no idea.
Over a span of time, I started hearing more about Paper Girls. My good friend at work with whom I share good comics with was telling me he wanted to read it. And some other friends told me how good it was. I didn’t think much of it though; I mean it couldn’t be better than Saga, right?
Get Allie Burke’s stories in your inbox
Join Medium for free to get updates from this writer.
I follow Vaughan on Instagram, and I heard that Paper Girls was going to be made into a series for Amazon. I had all five volumes in my car (well, four, I lost volume 1 somehow? don’t ask me how, but I ordered it on Amazon) and thought since I’m off work right now it would be the perfect opportunity for me to start it. So I did.
Like I said, I wasn’t expecting much. I try not to as not to be disappointed. And I didn’t know what to expect really, I didn’t even know what it was about. I just picked it up on a whim. I do that with comics.
I didn’t realize it was set in the past, so when some derogatory term about gay people skittered across the page, I was like, okay, this is really raunchy. I mean they were throwing around these terms and there was a twelve-year-old-girl smoking a cigarette and I was like okay (I didn’t start smoking until sixteen but same difference).
I’ve read the first two volumes this week, and it’s only Tuesday. It progresses fantastically, encouraging you to flip the page with ease. And by the time you finish a volume, you’re on your phone texting all your friends to read this thing. It’s that good.
I won’t give too many details (spoilers, sweetie) but at the least it reminds us how badass twelve-year-olds are — before we are all scarred by the hellhole that is adulthood — and at the most it reminds us what true friendship can give us: courage and loyalty and bravery. It is a story not just about the newspaper and weird, fucked up alternate time universes, but one about standing up for yourself, the ones you love, and the life you want to live and continue living.
I’d recommend it to anyone — you don’t have to be experienced in reading comics to enjoy it. Just make sure you have the next volume on hand, because the Cliff-hangers (aha) are intense, man.
Hopefully Hollywood doesn’t fuck this up.
