Paper Girls, Book Three

Paper Girls #5-6

by Brian K. Vaughan (Writer), Cliff Chiang (Illustrator), Matt Wilson (Colorist)

Brian K. Vaughan and Cliff Chiang’s Eisner Award winning series Paper Girls is coming Amazon Prime Video in July 2022!

"BRIAN K. VAUGHAN and CLIFF CHIANG bring PAPER GIRLS in for a perfect, fantastically satisfying ending."- Boing Boing

From BRIAN K. VAUGHAN, New York Times bestselling writer of SAGA, and CLIFF CHIANG, legendary artist of WONDER WOMAN, this oversized DELUXE HARDCOVER collects the emotional final adventures of four time traveling newspaper delivery girls, risking everything in the hopes of making it back home to 1988.

Collects PAPER GIRLS #21-30, along with EXCLUSIVE BONUS MATERIAL!

Genres: Graphic Novels, Comics, Science Fiction, Time Travel, Young Adult, Fiction, Graphic Novels Comics

320 pages, Hardcover

First published November 18, 2020

About the author

Brian K. Vaughan is the writer and co-creator of comic-book series including SAGA, PAPER GIRLS, Y THE LAST MAN, RUNAWAYS, and most recently, BARRIER, a digital comic with artist Marcos Martin about immigration, available from their pay-what-you-want site www.PanelSyndicate.com

BKV's work has been recognized at the Eisner, Harvey, Hugo, Shuster, Eagle, and British Fantasy Awards. He sometimes writes for film and television in Los Angeles, where he lives with his family and their dogs Hamburger and Milkshake.

Reviews

[Jayson · Rating 4 out of 5]

(A-) 83% | Very Good
Notes: Review pending re-read. Individual reviews for included volumes can be found here:
- Paper Girls, Volume 5
- Paper Girls, Volume 6

[Anne · Rating 2 out of 5]

I didn't care for this.
However.
Everyone else loved it, so chances are you will, too.



I can't even explain what a complete letdown it was to hope like hell I wasn't reading another tragically sappy wad of nostalgia-nonsense, only to remember that of course I am because it was written by Brian K. Vaughan.
I've compared him to Nicholas Sparks before and this just solidified that for me. Certain authors have a pattern that they don't deviate from, and because of that, you can guess the endings. I guessed this ending by the second volume this time around because of Y and Saga. But then I thought nah, maybe it will surprise me.
Spoiler alert: It didn't surprise me.



This feeling of disappointment is a constant companion that lives in my head when I read anything by Vaughn, so I do believe this will be my last book by this author.
Problem solved.

[James · Rating 4 out of 5]

Paper Girls comes to a close. What a crazy ride! Some of the time travel future/past revelations got a tad bit confusing as it all came to a head but I still had a blast reading this. Grew to love the 4 girl crew over the course of this. Loved all of their character arcs. Seeing behind the vail of what was really going on. The end was sad but sweet. Super interested now in seeing if the coming show can do a good adaption.

[Marnie (Enchanted Bibliophile) · Rating 4 out of 5]

”For once, I just… did what felt right.”

What a wild adventure!
Every second I spent with these girls was amazing. I love everything, the story, the art, the way we get to travel through time.
I've said it before, but I'm saying it again: Brian K. Vaughan is brilliant and I'm totally in love with his imagination!

[Siona Adams · Rating 5 out of 5]

A really great end to a fantastic series. A lot of wacky shit happened and it was so much fun.

[Clare · Rating 3 out of 5]

3 out of 5 stars.

This was a fun conclusion to the series and I like how the majority of the plot went.

I'm a little confused about how the timelines changed at the end, but it's a very sweet ending nonetheless.

[Eva B. · Rating 5 out of 5]

Not the ending I expected (and bittersweet in a way similar to The Breakfast Club is) but a great end to a great series! I think the girls will stick with me for a long time.

I'm going to try and collect my thoughts on the series into this review:
While I still think that SAGA is the better of the two Vaughan series that I've read, PAPER GIRLS is also incredibly good and covers some of the same themes (namely that every choice has its consequences and the cycle of war). I also really liked the way that fate is handled, I was expecting to Mac to end up having her leukemia prevented/cured, since that's what would happen in most series, but the way that it played out (with her disease not being leukemia and instead being a strain of cancer unique to time travelers and therefore something that develops during her quest to stop herself from dying of leukemia) was heartwrenching and impressively done. I love the grapple with mortality and how both Mac and the other girls dealt with their knowledge of her impending death.

[Lo (kipepeo) · Rating 4 out of 5]

Ahhhh this was so much fun! Great way to start off the month. Time travel is hard as fuck to write about but they’ve managed to do a phenomenal job with Paper Girls. I absolutely ate it up, and the representation was wonderful!

**4 stars**

[Lillian M · Rating 3 out of 5]

The art in these is so cool but I still could not tell you what happened in them.

[Mohammad Shahnawaz Sonnet · Rating 4 out of 5]

♦️" Is fate really all that different than Einstein's determinism? "
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Stand By Me × War of The Worlds . Rather Stranger Things × Timeless, if you're not familier with Timeless then think Back To The Future. And that only hints to a small part of a larger story. Paper Girls is a gorgrously crafted story that is both sweet and crazy at times. It has a lof of mind-boggling sci-fi elements but nothing too hard to grasp and as much as YA elements YA novels are built around. That also avoiding common YA tropes.
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♦️Storytelling is never just a writer's work. Artists are equally responsible for storytelling. Although reviewing the writing and art of comicbooks/graphic novels separately is a grave sin, I'll attempt talking about both part one by one because most of my followers don't read comicbooks/graphic novels. Thus it should help everyone to understand the work clearly.
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♦️You've probably heard of Saga or Y The Last Man. Coming from the same writer Paper Girls is also a BKV premium hahahah. The book started emitting spooky vibes. As I kept reading, a whole lot of new and weird elements were popping up. He's throwing 70's-80's refs left and right in this book and the contexts are easy to understand even if one doesn't know most of them. Usually in stories centering around multiple pre-teens/teens tend to characterize each one much differently. Specially if all of them are girls, it's always the tomboy or one girl who's brave and smart. But BKV presented all four girls as tough and smart.. breaking the norm of showing 80's girls being weak. He also balanced themes like friendship, terminal cancer, LGBT, religious views, expectations, depression etc quite well. Putting a rare spin on the sci-fi trope he didn't shy away to nudge police violence, authorities and mention events like Y2K, MJ's scandal etc. The story is just bonkers specially in the last few issues. One may need to scratch one's head if not focusing on side-characters and subplots as well. The twists are entertaining and caught me off-guard a few times just when I assumed where the story might go. The fact that the story is bit on the crazy side yet super approachable for anyone, is a feat that very few can achieve. It's spooky, suspenseful, fun, sweet.. almost a perfect package. It may not be the most engaging story I've ever read but it's a story no one should miss. BKV won Eisner Award for Paper Girls in the best new series category.
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♦️Cliff Chiang kept the art simple yet so effective. If not for his art, the jokes or the impacts of situations wouldn't work so well. It's inspiring. He also won Eisner Award as penciler/inker for Paper Girls. Matt Wilson is a genius. At first he established a certain color scheme in the mind since the beginning. Then he choose almost the opposite colors to express the weirdness in the panels. But what caught my eye is his playing with the vibrancy and saturations of colors. These things made the world-building comfertable and easy to understand for the readers.
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♦️I almost screamed when I saw Paper Girls got picked up by Amazon last year and recently the co-showrunner revealed themselves on twitter with a photo that I'm using here because I want to. Chris Cantwell is also nominated for Eisner Awards this year for Doctor Doom so it's in safe hands. I had stopped reading the book halfway because it was frustrating to wait for every issue. Btw the series started publishing before Stranger Things just so you know.
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♦️Trust me when I say this, Paper Girls is the next big thing hoping the show will be well executed. So get on it. And I should start reading Saga because I haven't yet! (runs & hides)
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" Rule 3# : A paperboy sticks to his route from start to finish. "

[Anik - MamaBearsBookshelf · Rating 5 out of 5]

I finished books 2 (#11-20) and 3 (#21-30). They both have EXCLUSIVE BONUS MATERIAL!
These awesome books follow Erin, Tiffany, Mackenzie, and KJ who are 12-year-old newspaper delivery girls who uncover the most important story of all time. Suburban drama and otherworldly mysteries collide in this critically acclaimed story about nostalgia, first jobs, and the last days of childhood. Book 2 and 3 really just keep following the girls in their crazy time travel adventures. They get into all kinds of situations.

I am totally sad that I've finished these and it's the end. I really loved them. The story was awesome and the graphics were so fun and amazingly done. They are my favourite graphic novels/comics. The covers are so pretty. I don't regret buying the deluxe editions. I really love the girl power in these. Made me feel a lot of great things about my teenage years. I just LOVED everything about it. I NEED MORE!!! =P

I recommend them to everyone!! You won't regret it at all.

[Richard · Rating 3 out of 5]

The series has come to an end and while I have my doubts that any of this makes much sense, it does wrap up in a satisfying way with a focus on the characters and their collective relationship. This is definitely the most wacky installment in an already outlandishly zany comic book series but I’m a sucker for timey-wimey shit. And if you’re like me, give this a try!

[Eli · Rating 5 out of 5]

First off, if you haven't yet read Paper Girls but are reading this review, stop right away! It will ruin everything.

Masterpiece. This is the word that can best define Paper Girls, it's a masterpiece. Not only it's one of my favorite comics of all time, but it got to surprise me and to captivate me even though I knew before reading it that it would be one of the best comics I'd ever read.

First off, MAC AND KJ KISS! Only that is enough to deserve five stars, I mean come on, how can you not find their relationship the sweetest?

Now for the rest... Well I love chapter 28, the one with pages divided in four, the storytelling is just great! It tells 4 compelling stories in one, using aproximately 5 pages per Paper Girl. It's just... You have to be a genius to imagine that.

I love everything around time travel generally, but this one is just so amazingly appealing and attractive. Once you start it, you really really want to keep reading! It's... How do I put it? It's a masterpiece! There is no other word that can define Paper Girls properly!

If you've read it (because if you have not, you shouldn't be reading this), you may have noticed that every arc is about one specific papergirl except for the first and the last ones. To me, the best arc of the series is the fifth, the one about Mac, because THERE'S THE KISS! I'm sorry if you think I'm exaggerating, but the kiss must be my favorite page of the whole book, among with the double spash page where the four of them are smoking cigarettes in a park.

The open ending is just the final touch that the series needed to be perfect, it just... fits. The four of them separating in an intersection, then suddenly: "Wait!"
Has something happened in the universe? Did they challenge destiny? Will they separate either way? WILL SOMETHING HAPPEN BETWEEN KJ AND MAC? We will never know.

Apple. The apple thingy found at the beginning! And then at the very end of the 29th chapter: Apple! From the biblical tale of Eve and the forbidden fruit! It all unifies with the apple! From the beginning to the very end!

People may not think like me, but I feel like the end was not really heartbreaking, or sad or anything. The fact that they wouldn't remember a thing completes the fact that 2016 Erin and Y2K Tiffany don't remember anything, because it means that it had to happen anyway. But does that mean that they don't become friends after the finale and cancel the open ending?
The answer is no. At the end, they might have changed the timeline, or it might even not be the same papergirls! Maybe we are just watching different Erin, Tiffany, Mac and KJ. Maybe this is a parallel universe where they never time travelled! And also where Mac survives! Who knows?

Oh! And you may ask me about the dream they had at the begining of the final chapter? A premonitory dream! Maybe it's not the original Paper Girls future if they had remembered, maybe it's simply what will happen to these ones!

But hey, I'm not an analysis expert. I just wanted to have a word to say among many others about this perfect work of art. And the illustrator, colourer and letterer fit greatly!

Anyway, thank you for reading it to the very end, I'm very grateful for that, and don't hesitate to comment if you have something to say to me, bye!

[Mike · Rating 5 out of 5]

Vaughan has no limits to how well he can present a story, in my opinion. This is probably my favorite work of his besides Saga. It's so fun and dramatic while being bittersweet, and a story about friendship at its core. Awesome.

[casey · Rating 5 out of 5]

there is no greater full circle moment than mac saying the f slur in the first issue, to her subconsciously remembering she’s gay and not repeating it in the last issue.

[Jessica · Rating 5 out of 5]

A fun, satisfying ending a series I really enjoyed. I love all 4 of the girls, seeing their journey is so fun, and it's a time travel story that makes sense and is internally consistent!

[Matt Smith · Rating 4 out of 5]

Blew through this in one sitting simply because I wanted to know how it was going to end. And it was nice to get it off my plate.

I'm of two minds about this. On the one hand you have a very, very seasoned Brian K. Vaughan on script who is one of the great masters of comics form. For my money, there's basically no one this side of Alan Moore who I think uses the form better, and there are issues in this book that are just staggering (Issue 28 was really a tour de force of someone who understands exactly how to make a comic). That was probably the best issue of the run and rocketed me into the last two issues. It's also Cliff Chiang on art and my god is the art just absolutely gorgeous and always has been. And for as good as Chiang's art is it'd be irresponsible to mention his work without also talking about the work by colorist Matt Wilson, who brought a pop-pastel sensibility to this and made everything just... work.

But on the other hand, I think this is a case of the story spinning just a little out of control. There's not *really* any clarity at the end of this of what exactly happened here. The stuff with the main four girls is all great and the emotional spine running through this from beginning to end all works and is there...

Beyond that, though? So much of this series is based around the big time travel sci-fi. And maybe a re-read would mean that this makes more sense now that I know where it's going to end, but it did make the ending of this series lack oomph in the last chapter. I got emotional having to say goodbye to these characters, but when it comes to Vaughan I'm still chasing the high of Y: The Last Man, an opus he has yet to top (based on how it's gone Saga can absolutely top Y, but Saga has another 52 issues in which to stick its landing and it can always slip a bit towards the end.

But then again, so did Y. The second to last arc of Y is a messy bench that feels like a lot of housekeeping so that the final six issues can breathe and end with the grace and beauty that makes the landing stick.

Here? I needed more than one issue, even if that issue did feel a bit longer than the other ones. It did what it needed to do, but where Y gave lip service to the premise in the second to last arc so that the final arc could do all of the emotional wrap-up, this was very premise forward throughout in ways that.... I wish it wasn't. Especially in the final arc.

Still, this was great and the sort of thing that makes me love comics and Brian K. Vaughan in a way that I haven't really wavered from (that's a side eye at you The Private Eye). I hope Vaughan keeps doing great projects like this with great artists and keeps churning out the sort of stories I like reading. He really is such an itch I love getting scratched.

3.5 stars (rounded up because I did really enjoy this series).

[Chaunceton Bird · Rating 4 out of 5]

Need more Stranger Things or Dark in your life? Look no further than this well-crafted nostalgic tale of adolescents adventuring through the time-space continuum.

[Trike · Rating 5 out of 5]

Great finish. Totally satisfying.

“No punch backs.”

[Philip James Ahlschlager · Rating 4 out of 5]

Amazing story and beautiful books inside and out. Only thing keeping this from a 5 is time travel; it just doesn’t work in comics.

[Vince Omey · Rating 5 out of 5]

Big 5/5 for me.

It does not happen often that I come across something that I would recommend to everyone who reads comics. But this surely is one of them.

The story is captivating and fast paced. The artwork is modern and absolutely gorgeous.
I've never seen a comic more beautifully coloured then this specimen.
More often then not I turned the page and stared at the mesmerizing artistry before even starting to read it.

Brian K. Vaughan knocked it out of the park!
Do yourself a favour and read this.

[Philip · Rating 5 out of 5]

A few days have passed since the end of October 31, 1988 and our four girls have travelled thoroughly between 11k BCE and (I think) 5B AD. They’ve met prehistoric cave people, future versions of themselves, and the creatures that evolved to survive on an earth long past being habitable by humans. It was wild to plow through these pages, I haven’t been this engrossed by a story in a long time. The ending was bittersweet but I think BKV did a good job of justifying and explaining why it had to end the way it did.

[Robert Lee · Rating 5 out of 5]

The saga of the Paper Girls comes to a close as Vaughn and Chiang wrap up the story threads laid out in this mysterybox adventure with some relative satisfaction, though perhaps a little too easily. I'm glad I basically binged this series in a week as it flows so well, and each chapter ends on a cliffhanger. The closing pages of the final chapter is both bittersweet and heartwarming. This is one of the best comic series I've read in some time with a lot of heart and inventive storytelling.

[Rumi Bossche · Rating 4 out of 5]

Brian K. Vaughan together with Cliff Chiang and Matt Wilson clearly saved the best for last. This is really a fun series and after a tiny bit less good book two,  totally back with a great finish and finale (which alot of comics dont have) the artwork from Chiang is amazing here, the story funny and fast paced, and the time travel never gets to complicated. This is a great book for the lovers of Sci-fi and the Stranger Things crowd. But it really stands on its own.

🌟🌟🌟🌟

[Jordi Balcells · Rating 4 out of 5]

Este lo leí hará un año, aproximadamente, pero hasta ahora no he podido comprarlo, ejem, oficialmente. ¡Lega-lega-lización!
Un locurote temporal a lo Doctor Who, una absoluta gozada visual y una caracterización de las que dejan huella.

[Jennifer · Rating 4 out of 5]

I really enjoyed this series! It’s not something I would have normally gone for but I’m glad it was recommended to me. All in all a quick read as most graphic novels are but I’d definitely recommend!

[Ken Yuen · Rating 4 out of 5]

Hmmm, that was such a big adventure, it feels like a shock that it's over

[Monique Scheidler · Rating 4 out of 5]

fun series!

[Carla · Rating 5 out of 5]

ahora estoy triste

[Madara · Rating 3 out of 5]

3.3/5
Quality of writing: 3
Plot development: 3
Pace: 3
Characters: 3
Enjoyability: 3
Ease of reading: 5

Not a fan of the ending...