History ComicBook / PaperGirls

** Mac is prone to offhand homophobic comments because casual homophobia was considered normal in the 80s. She also smokes cigarettes, [[spoiler: which supposedly eventually contributes to her death from leukemia in the '90s]]. All of this helps establish her as the redneck girl from the WrongSideOfTheTracks.

* GoofyPrintUnderwear: Not exactly 'goofy', but issue #12 shows KJ wearing striped boxer shorts instead of panties.

* HappilyAdopted: Tiffany, probably from somewhere in Central America based on her appearance. Central America was ''the'' source for adopted children in the 80's just as was Russia in the '90s and China in the early 2000s. Further supported by her statement that she's taken three years of Spanish (a girl who was an immigrant from a Spanish-speaking country or whose family were immigrants certainly wouldn't need to learn the language in school) and later confirmed in issue #13 when Tiffany says she was given up for adoption because her birth mother was only seventeen years old.

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* FutureSlang: When the girls watch a 2016 news report, Mac is dumbfounded by talk of Website/{{Vine}}, {{Website/Twitter}} and [[ScreenName odd combinations of words and numbers]] (internet handles) being used as names.

* MundaneObjectAmazement: Coming from an era of (at best) [=TV=]s with 480i analog resolution, [[EverythingsBetterWithSparkles the girls are transfixed]] by the clarity of the image on [[spoiler:2016!Erin's]] 46-inch 1080p Sony [[UsefulNotes/HighDefinition HDTV]]. [[spoiler: 1988!Erin]] says that "it's like 3D without the glasses", and [[spoiler:2016!Erin]] warns them that their reaction is freaking her out. Tiffany is also impressed by how many buttons the remote control has, and [[spoiler:1988!Erin]] asks how [[spoiler:her future self]] was able to afford something so incredible.

* GamerChick: Tiffany is addicted to ''{{VideoGame/Arkanoid}}'', and sharp-eyed fans noticed, with Word Of God confirming, that there's an UsefulNotes/XboxONE in [[spoiler:2016!Erin's TV stand.]]

* MacGuffin: The girls find a mysterious, futuristic high-tech artifact -- instantly recognizable to modern readers as an [=iPod=] Nano -- but it's the apple symbol that's significant, not the object itself. [[spoiler: At least until chapter 5 where we learn it isn't just an [=iPod=] and it was deliberately planted for the girls to discover.]]

* TheEighties: The comic is explicitly set in 1988 and is filled with Eighties pop culture references. 1988 was the election year marking the end of the Reagan administration. The UsefulNotes/ColdWar was still going on amid a great deal of fear-mongering that the Soviets were actually winning. It was also the high water mark of analog culture. Personal computers were still rare and the internet was just a pipe dream. CD players were still a relatively new and exotic technology. Most people still got their music on LP or cassettes and their news from newspapers which were still delivered by FreeRangeChildren in the predawn darkness.

* AmazonChaser: [[spoiler:PlayedWith. At first Mac is both closeted and disgusted by any hints of homosexuality, but once KJ holds a knife to a doctor's throat telling him to save Mac or die, Mac starts falling for her.]]

** Representations of and references to apples show up everywhere, from Erin's dreams to an Apple Records t-shirt. Even Erin's name, which is rather Irish sounding for an Asian-American girl, is awfully close to ''Eris'', the Greek goddess who created the original AppleOfDiscord. However despite all of the apple-related imagery no actual apples (the fruit) have shown up in the comic.

* BittersweetEnding: [[spoiler:The girls are returned to November 1, 1988 with only the barest impressions of memories making themselves known in quickly forgotton dreams, but instead of going their seperate ways at the end of their shift, they decide to hang out some more, insinuating that they may continue to team up instead of riding solo the way they did in the original timeline. Mac is still seemingly fated to die, however, but at least she no longer knows and can't worry about it happening.]]

* DeathSeeker: Played with: [[spoiler:Mac develops a mild case after learning the approximate year and supposed cause of her death. She rationalizes it with the statement that, since she knows when she's going to die, any ''other'' situation she finds herself in won't kill her. Tiffany doesn't seem to buy it and Mac finds her one death seeking experience so terrifying it scares that attitude right out of her.]]

** Erin also mentions (in a discussion of Halloween candy of all things) that her neighbors don't like her family, likely due to good 'ol middle American racism.

* FutureLoser: [[spoiler: 2016!Erin]] fears that she's given this impression to her younger self, but it turns out it's not so bad as she fears.

* HappilyAdopted: Tiffany, probably from somewhere in Central America based on her appearance. Central America was ''the'' source for adopted children in the 80's just as was Russia in the 90's and China in the early 2000's. Further supported by her statement that she's taken three years of Spanish (a girl who was an immigrant from a Spanish-speaking country or whose family were immigrants certainly wouldn't need to learn the language in school) and later confirmed in issue #13 when Tiffany says she was given up for adoption because her birth mother was only seventeen years old.

* LingerieScene: A low-key, non-Fanservice example shows up in issue #12. KJ and Mac, having swum some distance in a river, hang up their soaking wet clothes to dry but keep their underwear on, while Mac also keeps her tied-up t-shirt on (though its unclear whether she kept it on over her bra for modesty, or if she wasn't wearing one).

* MarsNeedsWomen: [[spoiler: The invaders seemed to be specifically seeking school-age females, though it later turns out they're taking ''eveveryone''.]]

** The girls are all 12, but talk like longshoremen...or just like 12 year old kids who are trying to act tough.

* OminousMessageFromTheFuture: The past, actually. [[spoiler:1988!Erin]] retrieves KJ's field hockey stick from a fold, only to see "Don't trust other Erin" written on it. Given that KJ was seperated from the group before they met [[spoiler:2016!Erin]], [[spoiler:1988!Erin]] figures this means her, then a clone identical to her 12-year old self shows up and starts acting strange...
* OOCIsSeriousBusiness: Mac feels this way after [[spoiler: KJ says she might be gay. Mac takes it a little too far though, and think KJ has been replaced by a clone.]]

* SpiritualAntithesis: To ''Series/StrangerThings'', which, despite having similar aesthetics, is deeply critical of the very concept of nostalgia itself, multiple times doing things bout to make people question this line of thinking. Also, while ''Stranger Things'' is a horror with a lot of fantastical elements, series with majority male cast, ''Paper Girls'' is a firmly a hard science-fiction story with all four main characters being female. It also doesn't shy of portraying things like homophobia, bullying, underage smoking, and other negative aspects of 80's zeitgeist that ''Stranger Things'' tends to gloss over.

* TeenPregnancy: If the gang are correctly judging [[spoiler: Wari the archer in 11,706 BCE ]]to be around their age, then she obviously had a ''preteen'' pregnancy. Given that none of the four are interested in boys yet and that teen pregnancy was ''much'' more scandalous in the 80s than the modern era, they're understandably a little squicked by the realization. [[spoiler: Even more so once Wari reveals that her son is the child of a gang-rape.]]

** One of the invaders, when asked if they are time travelers or space travelers, helpfully points out that time travel must ''be'' space travel because the Earth is always moving: If you traveled in time without also travelling in space you'd end up drifting in vacuum because the planet would no longer be where you left it.

* TooDumbToFool: The girls accept things at face value and act accordingly because they're children and they literally don't know any better. They've seen ''Film/TheTerminator'' and the've seen ''Film/TheMonsterSquad'' and probably dozens of similar films and TV shows they act and react accordingly.

* TroubledSympatheticBigot: Mac. Tiffany dismisses her homophobic insults as just her way of speaking to "the herbs" (teenage boys) in a language that they understand, but it gradually becomes apparent she doesn't have the greatest homelife and is just repeating the slurs and attitudes she's learned at home. It also causes her to treat KJ harshly after KJ confesses that she might be gay. She even shoves KJ down at one point when KJ tries to give her a (comforting, not romantic) hug, but her attitude slowly changes when she realizes that KJ really only thinks of her as a friend. [[spoiler:Any changes in their relationship from their kiss in issue #25 will have to wait until or if they're ever reunited.]]

** At the end of issue #5, Erin, Mac and Tiffany get seperated from KJ [[spoiler: and end up in 2016, where they meet Erin's future self.]]

** At the end of issue #15, being near another time-travel device when it activates has seperated the girls again, [[spoiler: with Tiffany arriving at a version of January 1, 2000, where Y2K actually happened and caused a nationwide blackout. And with [[GiantMecha Giant Mechas]] in the background.]]

** At the end of issue #25, [[spoiler:the girls have been seperated throughout time ''again'': Tiffany is sent further into the future, KJ ends up in 1958, Mac is in the far-distant future, and Erin is in 2018.]]

* DarkSkinnedRedhead: [[spoiler: 2000!Tiffany is this, as she's grown her hair into dreadlocks and dyed it.]]

''Paper Girls'' was a 30-issue (October 2015 to July 2019) creator-owned Creator/ImageComics series written by Creator/BrianKVaughan and illustrated by Cliff Chiang. Early on the morning of All Saint's Day 1988,[[note]]That's the day after Halloween, for any non-Catholics out there.[[/note]] 12 year old Erin Tieng goes on her normal newspaper delivery route in a Cleveland suburb only to be menaced -- and then rescued -- from some teenage boys with dubious intentions by a trio of other paper girls who have banded together for mutual protection from any lingering Halloween craziness. That's when things start to get strange.

In July 2019, it was announced that Creator/{{Amazon}} was developing a [[Series/PaperGirls2022 series adaptation]] for Creator/PrimeVideo; Vaughan will be co-producing. The series is set to premiere on July 29, 2022.

* GenreSavvy: Erin is extremely well-versed in sci-fi movies, and is therefore the first to guess that it's [[spoiler: time travelers]] who are invading them.

* FutureSlang: When the girls watch a 2016 news report, Mac is dumbfounded by talk of {{WebOriginal/Vine}}, {{Website/Twitter}} and [[ScreenName odd combinations of words and numbers]] (internet handles) being used as names.

In July 2019, it was announced that Creator/{{Amazon}} was developing a series adaptation for Creator/PrimeVideo; Vaughan will be co-producing with Stephany Folsom (''WesternAnimation/ToyStory4''), who has also been tapped to write.

* ExtraordinarilyEmpoweredGirl: Subtle but significant: [[spoiler:the girls become immune to the invader's tracking technology after they get zapped by an alien artifact in issue #1.]]

* AdultFear: Not being old enough to have learned caution from experience, the girls are generally much bolder than the adults they encounter. [[spoiler:2016!Erin]] tries to protect the girls from themselves until she realizes YouCantFightFate.

** The "alien invasion" setup [[spoiler:(far future time travelers scavenging resources and people from the past)]] is a WholePlotReference to the 1983 Creator/JohnVarley novel/1989 movie ''Literature/{{Millennium}}''.

* FirstPeriodsPanic: Averted when KJ gets her first period in issue #12 after the gang travels to 11,706 BCE. Amusingly, ''Mac'' ends up being the one who's more affected by the situation (a preteen girl experiencing her menarche while stranded in the distant past, ''and'' with no feminine supplies) than KJ, though issue #13 makes it clear this is mostly because KJ is well-informed enough to stay calm; as she puts it: "I got my '''period''', not the plague." Mac unfortunately only got a gym teacher who told her that talking of such things was "unladylike", and she spends most of the issue peppering KJ with questions about it, much to KJ's annoyance.

* NoPeriodsPeriod: Averted when KJ gets her first period in issue #12 after the gang travels to 11,706 BCE. Amusingly, ''Mac'' ends up being the one who's more affected by the situation (a preteen girl experiencing her menarche while stranded in the distant past, ''and'' with no feminine supplies) than KJ, though issue #13 makes it clear this is mostly because KJ is well-informed enough to stay calm; as she puts it: "I got my '''period''', not the plague." Mac unfortunately only got a gym teacher who told her that talking of such things was "unladylike", and she spends most of the issue peppering KJ with questions about it, much to KJ's annoyance.
-->'''KJ:''' Jesus, you're obsessed.

[[quoteright:300:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/papergirls1_2x3_300.jpg]]
[[caption-width-right:300:From left to right: Mac, KJ, Tiffany, and Erin]]

* LooopholeAbuse: When Tiffany has Cardinal at gunpoint, the woman correctly assumes that Tiffany won't kill her. Tiffany admits this is true, then explains that she would have no problem shooting Cardinal's pterosaur mount, which quickly makes her cave.

* MoralDilemma: When Tiffany has Cardinal at gunpoint, the woman correctly assumes that Tiffany won't kill her. Tiffany admits this is true, then explains that she would have no problem shooting Cardinal's pterosaur mount, which quickly makes her cave.

* InTheBlood: A police officer accuses Mac of being up to no good simply because he recognizes her as a member of the Coyle family.

''Paper Girls'' was an 30-issue (October 2015 to July 2019) creator-owned Creator/ImageComics series written by Creator/BrianKVaughan and illustrated by Cliff Chiang. Early on the morning of All Saint's Day 1988,[[note]]That's the day after Halloween, for any non-Catholics out there.[[/note]] 12 year old Erin Tieng goes on her normal newspaper delivery route in a Cleveland suburb only to be menaced -- and then rescued -- from some teenage boys with dubious intentions by a trio of other paper girls who have banded together for mutual protection from any lingering Halloween craziness. That's when things start to get strange.

* NearRapeExperience: A low-key example. In issue #1 Erin runs into three teenage boys in the middle of their Halloween mischief, and when they find out she goes to Catholic school, one of them seems a little too enthusiastic about that, commenting "grass on the field..."[[note]]For those who don't know, the phrase being referenced is "If there's grass on the field, play ball." It's a rather misogynistic statement which conflates the false equivalence that an adolescent girl's '''physical''' maturity (i.e. being old enough to have pubic hair) means she's '''emotionally''' or '''psychologically''' mature enough to make an informed decision about the repercussions of engaging in sexual activities.[[/note]]

* IdenticalLookingAsians: Subverted; Erin is drawn recognizably Vietnamese, as well as having a Vietnamese last name (Tieng).

* BadFuture: The girls are somewhat convinced 2016 is a bad future until they notice the really ''huge'' televisions, and Tiffany points out that from a ColdWar-era kid's perspective, it's actually surprising there's ''any'' kind of future at all.

* ChildrenAreInnocent: The girls are all young enough and have just enough PopCulture-driven ColdWar-era GenreSavvy (or WrongGenreSavvy) to accept all of the weirdness going on around them at face value.