The Paper Girls series Brian K. Vaughan, illustrations by Cliff Chiang Image Comics Fiction, MG? Graphic Novel/Sci-Fi Themes: Diversity, Girl Power, Time Travel ****
Description
In the wee morning hours after Halloween, paper girl Erin runs afoul of a trio of teenage bullies - only to be saved by three other paper girls.
Tiffany, KJ, and Mac invite her to join their group, saying there's safety in numbers. Usually, they're just up against the odd thief or rowdy. This
morning, however, they find themselves up against something stranger - and much more dangerous. Suddenly, most of the people in the neighborhood have
disappeared and the skies fill with pteranodon-like beasts. What is going on... and why does Erin feel it's somehow familiar, like the nightmares that
have been plaguing her?
Review
This award-winning graphic novel begins the journey of four young teen girls from a small Cleveland suburb, thrusting them into a bizarre and
dangerous adventure. Distrust of grown-ups takes on a whole new meaning when visitors from the future begin decimating the past... and, somehow, the
four girls are caught right in the middle, pivotal players in a temporal nightmare. It's a fast-paced adventure with interesting, distinctive
characters.
The Paper Girls series Brian K. Vaughan, illustrations by Cliff Chiang Image Comics Fiction, MG? Graphic Novel/Sci-Fi Themes: Diversity, Girl Power, Time Travel ****
Description
Paper girls Mac, Tiffany, and Erin just escaped the strange nightmare enveloping 1988 Cleveland - only to land in 2016, right in front of a
car driven by a grown-up Erin. As younger Erin and older Erin struggle to deal with each other, the question of what happened to KJ remains...
and it's not long before time-traveling pursuers turn up, along with more terrible monsters. What's going on? Who can be trusted? And why is
Erin seemingly at the heart of it all?
Review
This second volume sees the paper girls split up; KJ is missing, while the other three contend with the wonders and dangers of the future, not
to mention the ongoing threat from the time-travelers. They each react differently. Erin is disappointed to see that she never got out of Stony
Stream, while Tiffany can't help being fascinated by the wonders to be found in 2016, and tomboy Mac faces a devastating revelation about her own
family and probable future. Meanwhile, older Erin confronts her past self and the dreams she lost on the way to growing up. The extra levels of
character development underlay the main plot threads, which continue to race along at a brisk pace. It remains intriguing enough to keep me reading
through the third volume.
The Paper Girls series Brian K. Vaughan, illustrations by Cliff Chiang Image Comics Fiction, MG? Graphic Novel/Sci-Fi Themes: Diversity, Girl Power, Time Travel ****
Description
The four paper girls from 1988 Stony Stream have finally reunited... but just where, or when, they have no idea. A primeval forest full
of beasts surrounds them - but is it the future, or the past? The discovery of a primitive girl and a futuristic scientist further
complicate matters, as the polluted timestream once more threatens the lives of everyone and everything.
Review
The paper girls are in entirely foreign territory, quite literally, through this volume, stuck in the distant past with a young woman who
may be pivotal to the future of the human race - but even the past has been corrupted by the "foldings," the temporal rifts that have caused
so much havoc everywhere and everywhen the girls end up. They have hopes for answers from Doctor Quanta, the time traveler from a future not
too far from their own, only to find more questions and more problems. The characters continue to develop nicely, and the story remains
interesting. The ending leaves me eager for the next installment, whenever it appears on Hoopla.
The Paper Girls series Brian K. Vaughan, illustrations by Cliff Chiang Image Comics Fiction, MG? Graphic Novel/Sci-Fi Themes: Diversity, Girl Power, Time Travel ****
Description
The four paper girls from the 1980's have returned from the ancient past... only to end up in a nightmare version of January 2000, where the worst
fears of Y2K paranoia came true in chaos, looting, and mass power outages. Separated during the journey, Tiffany discovers only she can see the
reason: giant robotic fighters from the rival time traveler factions, somehow cloaked from the view of both the locals and her fellow time travelers.
Meanwhile, the other three girls - Mackenzie, Erin, and KJ - find themselves in the company of a local woman who knows more than anyone in this time
should about the conflict, a cartoonist who has been planting hidden clues in her syndicated strip... but is she friend or foe?
Review
It's been a while since I read the first three volumes, so it took me a little bit to get back up to speed, but this was still a fun, action-filled
outing in an intense and well-imagined story. Like Erin before her, Tiffany now faces her own adult self, balancing curiosity with disappointment at
how childhood ambitions and dreams (not to mention best friends) seem to have been forgotten in the drudgery of growing up. KJ also finally comes out
of the closet, to mixed reactions from her friends, particularly Mac. Balancing the different time threads and enemies can be a bit of a chore, but
the tale nevertheless moves at a fair pace, and always forward (at least relatively, if not always temporally), so a fair bit has progressed before
the cliffhanger ending. I'll be looking forward to the next volume, whenever it appears on Hoopla.
The Paper Girls series Brian K. Vaughan, illustrations by Cliff Chiang and Matthew Wilson Image Comics Fiction, MG? Graphic Novel/Sci-Fi Themes: Diversity, Girl Power, Time Travel ****
Description
The four paper delivery girls Tiffany, KJ, Mac, and Erin from 1988 have come a long way, through space and time, from the night when they stumbled across
temporal invaders in their small suburb outside Cleveland. Now, after visiting a Y2K-devastated year 2000 and picking up an adult Tiffany as traveling
companion, they find themselves a few hundred years in the future, almost under the nose of their chief pursuer "Grandfather" Wari. While Mac pursues a thin
hope that she might be cured of the leukemia slated to kill her, Erin tries to find a way back to their home time - but can they trust anything, or anyone,
in the compromised timestream, or are they already destined to fail?
Review
With the long gap between reading previous volumes and the increasingly-entwined and -compromised timelines, I'll admit it took me a bit to reorient
myself, and even then I'm sure I've forgotten a few important details. Despite that, this maintains the quick pacing of the series, adding new pieces to a
puzzle that is still far from complete, but is nonetheless compelling. Issues of fate versus free will become very personal, not only as Mac struggles with
the possibility of knowing her own death but as Tiffany deals with traveling with an older version of herself. Skirting spoilers, by the end a few questions
have been answered but more raised, and the girls find themselves in greater danger than ever. Another good installment in an interesting series.
The Paper Girls series Brian K. Vaughan, illustrations by Cliff Chiang and Matthew Wilson Image Comics Fiction, MG? Graphic Novel/Sci-Fi Themes: Diversity, Girl Power, Time Travel ***+
Description
After discovering a time machine in their Ohio suburb in the 1980's, paper delivery girls Emily, Tiffany, KJ, and Mac have been bounced across the
timestream, encountered giant robots and dinosaurs and aliens and even clones of themselves, been caught in the middle of a temporal war, and
discovered truths about themselves and their futures they perhaps should never have known. Now, blasted into separate times, they struggle to reunite
- but can they hope to end the battle that is tearing the world apart without sacrificing themselves in the process?
Review
The Paper Girls saga comes to a conclusion in this volume, bringing together the various factions in a single moment of reckoning. Some
elements wrap up decently, but the conclusion felt like a cheat in some respects, negating the girls' trials and triumphs. (I can't get into details
without spoilers, but one aspect in particular drug it nearly down to a flat Okay rating.) Despite my qualms about this finale, it's still a decent,
action-filled series with strong girl protagonists and a fairly smart storyline.
The planet Landfall and its moon, Wreath, have been at war for so many generations that the entire galaxy has become embroiled, alien species
forced to pick a side in a conflict seemingly without beginning and apparently without end. Captive soldier Marco and prison guard Alara could
not hope to change that - but when they fell in love, they became outcasts and fugitives, hunted by both sides. When Alara gives birth to a
daughter, their crimes are expounded exponentially: voluntarily breeding with the enemy is seen as betrayal and perversion of the worse kind.
Everyone from the worst bounty hunters to a robotic prince is on their trail. But the new parents aren't about to give up on their little girl
Hazel, or each other, without a fight... even if they're fighting the entire galaxy.
Review
I'll admit to being a bit wary of hyped graphic novel series after being so disappointed by The Sandman, but another night of iffy
sleep (and a Hoopla account on my tablet) prompted me to try this one. I was very pleasantly surprised. Though full of action and violence,
Saga doesn't sacrifice humor or character development, with some great dialog and moments where no words are needed at all. For all the
stuff being introduced, though, it was fairly easy to follow the storyline and keep track of the players. Saga establishes a wild galaxy
of both magic and technology, of strange wonders and dark depravity, a galaxy that has been at war with itself for so long that nobody can even
consider peace, prejudices against the other side deeply ingrained even on worlds and in species who have nothing to do with Landfall or Wreath
(who have fallen into relative peace after outsourcing their endless war offworld.) The artwork is clear and imaginative. This is one graphic
novel series that - thus far, at least - lives up to its hype.
