Review by Ian Keogh

This second hardcover completes the story of the Paper Girls, first studiously complicating their circumstances from an already tangled vision of past, the present of the late 1980s, and future supplied in the first Deluxe Edition.

Erin, KJ, Mac and Tiff’s story began with them as twelve year old paper girls in 1988, yet they’ve been dragged through time where they’ve learned about themselves, met clones of themselves and met themselves when older, yet generally triumphed against ridiculous odds. Their journey here only becomes more difficult as they separate, pair off and reunite more than once.

There’s been little sentimentality to Brian K. Vaughan’s plot, and he ramps up the tension as more than one of the girls discovers their ultimate fate is an unpleasant one. Once learned can anything be done to mitigate the circumstances? Well, the answer to that is bittersweet and provides an unsentimental ending that’s par for the course. It’s clever, and narratively satisfying, but that’s a different matter from seeing everything you want for warm and likeable characters.

Much of their likeability is down to the way Cliff Chiang draws the main cast. As with Vaughan, there’s no effort to disguise these are young teenagers, so while Chiang never crosses a line into gratuitous shock, there’s a continual horror about what they’re being put through, and Chiang’s emotionally strong art transmits that. He’s also a wonder at providing full environments no matter the time involved. His 1988 recalls the movie versions of the era, while his future is technologically imaginative and involving, with the bright flat colours provided by Matt Wilson adding to the appeal.

The first book was a wildly imaginative journey, and Vaughan continues to expand minds and horizons as ever more possibilities are introduced. Everything becomes so tangled that only astute minds will actively follow throughout, but despite what may seem to be the case, sense can be made of everything. All questions arising from the first volume and more raised here are satisfactorily answered. Personality and resourcefulness is key, and while Vaughan may not provide the ending everyone wants, the one he does supply ticks a lot of boxes.

This content is available as Paper Girls 4, Paper Girls 5 and Paper Girls 6, or combined with the first three volumes in a bulky paperback as The Complete Story. In any form, Paper Girls is a gem.