Book Review: ‘Paper Girls’ Delivers Your Niche Sci-Fi Needs

This 2015-2019 graphic novel series opens the story on November 1, 1988, as four teenage paper delivery girls are unable to complete their route when they are attacked by a group of strange teenagers who speak a language they’ve never heard before. The girls discover that the teenagers are time travelers in a war against a group called the “Old Timers” who want to control the original timeline and time travel. Over 6 volumes, Erin, Mac, KJ, and Tiffany travel to different points in time and have to decide whose side they want to take in this epic battle over time manipulation.

Brian K. Vaughan is a prolific comics writer who has penned other graphic novel series, such as Saga, Runaways, Y: The Last Man, Ex Machina, Pride of Baghdad, and a number of Marvel and DC comics such as X-Men and Batman. He was also a writer, story editor, and product on the TV series Lost. When I first started reading Paper Girls, I thought it was pretty wacky and a little hard to follow, but my trust in Vaughan paid off in the end. Vaughan isn’t afraid to tell a complex story with threads that must be followed through to the end for the payoff, while making sure the reader has fun along the way. He has said of the series: “I wanted to do something different... I wanted something more contained and grounded with some spectacular element to it. Paper Girls is the story of four 12-year-old newspaper delivery girls growing up, like me, in the suburbs outside Cleveland in the late 1980s. They stumble upon something extraordinary and it's a mystery and an adventure and a weird book.” Vaughan is joined in this series by artist Cliff Chiang and colorist Matt Wilson, who beautifully depict the heavily 80s inspired tone.

I most enjoyed when the girls met future versions of themselves, as their hopes for the future had to face off against what the future has in store for them. It raises the existential question of, if you meet your future self and don’t like them, do you try to prevent that future from happening or is your future inevitable? Or what if you learn that you weren’t born in the time that you thought you were; does that change who you are now or what you want to accomplish in your life? Fiction is the most interesting when it presents these kinds of philosophical and ethical conundrums that make the reader reflect on how they would react in the same situation.

It was also really interesting to see the future technology involved in time travel, not only in the machines themselves that transport you, but devices like translator collars that allow you to speak to someone else in each person’s native tongue. And of course, there’s futuristic medicine and transportation, etc. The girls have to quickly learn how to use various pieces of technology and how to get around in an unfamiliar future environment that they are ill-equipped to handle. It gets especially interesting when more than 2 timelines/people from various timelines converge. From 14,000 years in the past to 70,000 years in the future, this series doesn’t shy away from using many levels of technology and knowledge to complete the story.

The development rights to the story were picked up by Amazon in 2019. Vaughan and Chiang are two of the executive producers on the series, with Stephany Folsom as writer/creator. There are four directors who have two episodes each for the eight-part first season. The four girls will be portrayed by Sofia Rosinsky, Camryn Jones, Riley Lai Nelet, and Fina Strazza. Ali Wong will play adult Erin, and Sekai Abeni will play adult Tiffany (Abeni’s first acting role). They are keeping the casting under wraps for other primary characters like Wari and Jahpo. Season One will premiere on Prime on Friday, July 29, 2022. Filming for Season Two began in June 2022.