Episode 29
Please join Johnny, Frances, and Dennis in this episode of Graphic Novel Explorers Club as they discuss Paper Girls. Brian K. Vaughan wrote the comic and Cliff Chiang illustrated it.
Paper Girls is the story of four girls in 1988 who discover that not everything is as it seems in their sleepy little town while out delivering newspapers the day after Halloween.
First, the gang discusses the 80s settings of the book; the four girls (Erin, MacKenzie, KJ and Tiffany) who make up the quartet. Next, they chat about how Mack (MacKenzie) use insults from the 80s that would be considered homophobic or insensitive by today’s standards. Finally, they look at how Mack broke the “paper ceiling”.
Other topics include the use of Realistic by the paper girls; the possible influences of 80s pop culture like Jam and the Holograms, Mac and Me, and David Cronenberg’s The Fly; why you do not play with guns during The Rapture; the deciphered meaning of the “glyphs”; why future staff technology emits pink rays; where the future volumes of the story might be going; and our opinions about the storying telling and the art of Paper Girls.
Note: Johnny mentioned a movie that he could not remember the name of when the gang recorded this episode. The movie title is The Quiet Earth. He said it was an Australian film, when it is actually a New Zealand film (please forgive him, he was 10 years old when he saw the film). It is the story of a man and two other people who wake up to find the rest of the world has disappeared and their attempts to figure out what happened.
Check out our reading lists for previous seasons by clicking here. We would love to hear your suggestions for future episodes of Graphic Novel Explorers Club.
Songe d’Automne by Latche Swing