Paper Girls #1 Review

Paper Girls #1 from Image Comics -

   In the sleepy town of Stony Stream Ohio, Erin is a tween living life in the late 80s - but there's something different about Erin: she has horrible nightmares, and...She's a paper-girl. After one doozy of a nightmare, Erin goes out on her early morning route, only to be accosted by some juvenile delinquents with a desire for mayhem; but, Erin is in luck. She's saved by some real hardcases - K.J., Tiffany and Mac, the original paper-girl of Stony Stream. Teamed together by fate, these four head out to finish their routes and keep each other safe in the pre-dawn, Ohio darkness. When Tiffany is attacked by some masked assailants spouting a weird, unearthly language, the girls come together to track down the bad guys, and give them a beat-down that they'll never forget. Tracking their prey to a stench-soaked abandoned house, they find an inexplicable machine, and they begin to realize that they just might have stumbled upon an even more inexplicable mystery - one that might unravel them, before they unravel it.

   Brian K. Vaughn makes a great showing in this premiere issue of Paper Girls. It's a Goonies/Monster Squad mash up, taking us back to a time when science didn't explain everything, a time when kids were safe to do paper routes, a time when kids talked tough and had the guts to back it up when they had to, a time when kids tried to handle their own problems, instead of looking to adults to fix the world for them. Mac, Erin, K.J. and Tiffany are instantly likable - they look out for one another, they organize, and they are courageous. These girls are definitely no pushovers. Vaughn brings the band together in true 80s style, and then unites them under Mac's no-nonsense leadership. They soon set out on a journey that drops them squarely in the middle of a captivating mystery - one that I do not want to miss. Cliff Chiang's art is straight-forward: clean lines and pretty with no frills. Chiang deftly handles the task of bringing Vaughn's story to life in the panels of this book. Sure, it might be a bit derivative, but that will not make it any less fun with B.K.V. penning the story.

Paper Girls looks to be the beginning  of a mystery that will take anyone who grew up in the 80s back to those golden days of yore. I so dig that jazz.

RATING: 9 out of 10.