So the first thing I realised was that it's not Paper Girls, like girls made out of paper, but Paper Girls, like girls who deliver newspapers. I thought the girls made out of paper thing might be a kind of social commentary on the vacuousness of society and the way women are viewed only in terms of their looks instead of with any depth or substance. But no. It's about a bunch of twelve year old girls who deliver newspapers.
Except they only deliver newspapers for a few pages, because after some of their stuff gets stolen and they dive into a disused house, they manage to find a spaceship / time machine thing, an interdimensional vortex explosion (maybe?) happens and they emerge from the house into a completely new world.
And that's when it gets really cool.
The artwork is really amazing. Really liked it. Good use of landscapes, sizing, characters and really added to the story instead of being just, like, some pictures in a book.
The story is bonkers and I really want to get the next two volumes to see what happens next. I liked the characters and I'm looking forward to seeing how they develop. One thing I would say is that there's some content warning I guess for homophobia. Paper Girls is set in 1988 and there was a lot of ignorance about AIDS and homosexuality around then. Not an excuse, more of an explanation.
Definitely going to look out for the next instalments.
4 stars