History ComicBook / PaperGirls

* StrayShotsStrikeNothing: Averted: the bullet accidentally fired as Mac and her stepmother struggle for her father's gun hits [[spoiler: Erin in the stomach, just to the lower left of her navel.]]

* AlternateHistory: [[spoiler:The four grown-up counterparts of the girls that show in issue #26 say that they've made millions of attempts to rewrite the time stream and prevent the girls from finding the time machine in issue #1, but always fail. In issue #30, they finally succeed, as with the Adult/Teen war over, there are no travelers to steal Tiffany's walkie-talkie, i.e. for the girls to look for, i.e. for them to think they might be hiding in a basement.]]

* BadassNormal: [[spoiler:In the original timeline,]] KJ was certainly this. [[spoiler: She willingly attracts the attention of men she knows to be rapists so the other girls can run, later kills one of the men by bashing his skull in with a stone club, and unflinchingly stands up to someone pointing a gun in her face. And she's only '''12 years old'''.]] Subverted in issue #30 [[when the Reset Button'd timeline means ''she'' is the one the three boys corner instead of Erin, and she doesn't yet have the self-confidence of her other self.]]

''Paper Girls'' is an ongoing (2015 to present) 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 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.

* AbusiveParents: Erin's father can be this way, at least verbally, according to [[spoiler:her twelve year old self. When 2016!Erin calls herself fat, 1988!Erin replies "that sounds like something Dad would say."]]
** Mac's parents also appear to be abusive to some extant.

* BadassNormal: KJ is certainly shaping up to be this. [[spoiler: She willingly attracts the attention of men she knows to be rapists so the other girls can run, later kills one of the men by bashing his skull in with a stone club, and unflinchingly stands up to someone pointing a gun in her face. And she's only '''12 years old'''.]]

* BigDamnHeroes: [[spoiler: At the end of issue #19, Charlotte shows up to kill the Adults who are menacing the girls and have already taken Chris. Doubles as a BrickJoke, since KJ earlier claimed Charlotte wasn't prepared to kill someone.]]

* ComicallyMissingThePoint: Seems to be developing into a RunningGag with Erin. She first takes hearing that her mom is "in heaven" literally (dead, instead of "in heaven" emotionally, i.e. happy), then later misunderstands Mac referring to KJ's "time of the month" by saying that they don't even know what ''year'' they're in.

* CruelAndUnusualDeath: [[spoiler: Charlotte is incinerated by one of the Adults staff weapons in Issue #20. It doesn't look very pleasant.]]

* DefrostingTheIceQueen: Mac becomes less cynical and more accepting of her fate, more open to her friends, and gets over her homophobia and [[spoiler:seems to embrace her own sexuality]].

* 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.

** Tiffany convinces an invader to back down by threatening to shoot her pterosaur.
** All of the adults--good, evil, indifferent and even imaginary--scold the girls for swearing.

* ExtraordinarilyEmpoweredGirl: Subtle but significant: the girls become immune to the invader's tracking technology after they get zapped by an alien artifact early in the story.

* FishOutOfTemporalWater: The girls are this both when three of them get shunted to 2016, and when all four eventually meet up in prehistoric times.
* ForeverWar: The invaders appear to be locked in a perpetual inter-generational civil war, with adults as the enemy and teens leading LaResistance.

* HeroicBSOD: [[spoiler:1988!Tiffany has one after 2000!Tiffany dies in an attempt to save the girls lives.]]

** In the earlier issues, Mac frequently starts smoking whenever something particularly stressful or frightening happens.

* MarsNeedsWomen: [[spoiler: The invaders are specifically seeking school-age females, though it hasn't been revealed for what reason.]]

* MemoryWipingCrew [[spoiler: 2016!Erin theorizes this is why she can't remember being shot, despite her still having the scar and 1988!Erin recalling it quite clearly. She concludes that her memory was wiped sometime between 1988 and 2016.]]

* NeverTheSelvesShallMeet: Halfway averted; [[spoiler: as of issue #25, Erin and Tiffany have met future versions of themselves, but KJ and Mac haven't.]]

* OutofFocus: Erin. She was the main character in earlier issues, but after Issue #10 she stays in the background and most of the time is given to Mac and KJ. She does have a pretty important role in issues #23-#25, though.

* TheSlowPath: According to Altar Girl, the Adults are forbidden to travel farther into the future than they are actually ''from''. Not even Grand Father is willing to break this rule, so when the gang escape in Issue #20, his only recourse is to wait until he encounters them later in his life.

* StableTimeLoop: Another possible explanation for [[spoiler: 2016!Erin's]] LaserGuidedAmnesia. Also, the message on KJ's field hockey stick that [[spoiler:1988!Erin]] finds turns out to [[spoiler: have been written by her because she'd already found it.]]

** At the end of issue #25, [[spoiler:the girls have been seperated throughout time ''again'': Tiffany is seemingly sent further into the future, KJ ends up in 1978, Mac is either in the far-distant future or prehistory (judging from the monstrous creature right behind her), and Erin is seemingly in 2018.]]

** Erin's younger sister Missy seems to have this for Erin

* IndyPloy: Pulled by [[spoiler:1988!Erin]] when she sees the message [[spoiler: "Don't trust other Erin"]] written on KJ's field hockey stick that's sticking out of a fold. She isn't sure who it refers to [[spoiler:once another Erin who looks just like her shows up]], but doesn't tell anyone about it until [[spoiler: the other Erin (a [=FutureClone=]) tries to kill 2016!Erin, at which point she chooses to save her older self. Takes a meta turn when it's revealed in issue #13 that [[spoiler: Erin herself is the one who wrote the message, [[StableTimeLoop since she knew what had already happened]] ]].

* {{Irony}}: [[spoiler:Mac thought she was going to die of leukemia, but a medical exam in the future reveals that not only will she not, but she never ''would'' have had it. Instead, she's going to contract a different form of cancer which only affects...time travlers.]]

* BoomerangBigot: [[spoiler: Mac is an outspoken homophobe, presumably as a way of covering that she's gay herself.]]

** When [[spoiler:[=FutureClone!Erin=]]] attacks [[spoiler:2016!Erin]], [[spoiler:1988!Erin]] teams up with Tiffany to knock [[spoiler:[=FutureClone!Erin]]] through a fold back into the future.

** [[spoiler: When [=FutureClone!Erin=] attacks [[spoiler:2016!Erin]], [[spoiler:1988!Erin]] teams up with Tiffany to knock her through a fold back into the future.

* INeedAFreakingDrink: Inverted: [[spoiler: looking for 2000!Tiffany with the girls while dodging GiantMecha that only 1988!Tiffany can see, Chris laments that he ''really'' shouldn't have taken mushrooms earlier that night.]]

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

** [[spoiler: When [=FutureClone!Erin=] attacks [[spoiler:2016!Erin]], [[spoiler:1988!Erin]] teams up with Tiffany to knock her through a fold back into the future.]]

* UnusualEuphemism: The alien translation devices produce some very odd but still understandable idioms.

* WhamEpisode: Wham Issue: Vaughn seems to love putting them every 5 issues.

* WriteBackToTheFuture: Actually "writing" back ''from'' the future in the form of an Apple-logo'd virtual reality device.

* EveryoneHasStandards: Tiffany convinces an invader to back down by threatening to shoot her pterosaur.

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

* AbusiveParents: Erin's father can be this way, at least according to [[spoiler:her twelve year old self. When 2016!Erin calls herself fat, 1988!Erin replies "that sounds like something Dad would say."]]

* AdamAndEvePlot: Thoroughly subverted. One high school boy sees the invasion as his big chance to finally get the girl of his dreams. Unfortunately for him she has never liked him much, thinks he's a total creep for even thinking of such things at a time like this and wants nothing to do with him--shortly before the invaders kidnap them both and render the whole idea moot anyway

* ArcSymbol: 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.

* ArtificialScript: Untranslated alien speech is rendered in CypherLanguage using a simple substitution cypher.
* BadassNormal: KJ is certainly shaping up to be this. [[spoiler: She willingly attracts the attention of men she knows to be rapists so the others can run, later kills one of them by bashing his skull in with a stone club, and unflinchingly stands up to someone pointing a gun in her face. And she's only '''12 years old'''.]]

* BigBrotherWorship: Mac has a ton of this for her older brother; she constantly mentions different things he's told her about various topics, and insists that he's "right about everything". Considering that most of what he's told her is complete nonsense, the other girls tend to mock her for it.

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

* TheIngenue: 1988!Erin doesn't like either "F word" ("fuck" and "faggot") and worries she'll get in trouble for swearing ''in her dreams''.

* {{Irony}}: [[spoiler:Mac thought she was going to die of leukemia, but a medical exam in the future reveals that not only will she not, but she never ''would'' have had it. Instead, she's going to contract a differnt form of cancer which only affects...time travlers.]]
* JerkWithAHeartOfGold: Mac. She's snarky, calls the other girls names on occasion, gets angry easily, and is extremely homophobic, but it's quickly apparent that most of her behavior is a side effect of her having a troubled family. She's also very protective of her friends, gets tears in her eyes when KJ remembers exactly how they met, and is able to keep Erin alive [[spoiler: after she was shot]] for long enough for them to get help.

* 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.]]

* MundaneUtility: [[spoiler: 1988!Tiffany convinces Chris who she is by showing him old pictures of her.]]

* NeverTheSelvesShallMeet: Halfway averted; [[spoiler: as of issue #19, Erin and Tiffany have met future versions of themselves, but KJ and Mac haven't.]]
* TheNicknamer: Mac calls [[spoiler: 2000!]]Tiffany and Chris "Ms. Facepaint" and "Fright Night". She's also the one to start calling Erin "new kid"

* NostalgiaAintLikeItUsedToBe: The series is both nostalgic and realistic, pointing out some of the less glamorous parts of the '80s such as the casual homophobia.

* OminousMessageFromTheFuture: The past, actually. 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 2016!Erin, 1988!Erin figures this means her, then a clone identical to her 12-year old self shows up and starts acting strange...

** [[spoiler: When [=FutureClone=]!Erin attacks 2016!Erin, 1988!Erin teams up with Tiffany to knock her through a fold back into the future.]]

* RapeIsASpecialKindOfEvil: Mac seems to feel this way, given her AngerBornOfWorry reaction when KJ returns to the group after escaping the men who raped Wari. KJ ''definitely'' feels this way, as she later [[YourHeadAsplode bashes one of the men's head in with his own club.]]
* {{Scotireland}}: Mac is like a living Scotireland example. Her first name "Mackenzie" is Scottish, her last name "Coyle" is Irish, she has red hair and green eyes(traits not uncommon in both countries) and at one point refers to KJ's field hockey stick as a shillelagh, much to KJ's confusion.
* SetRightWhatOnceWentWrong: On a macro level, the girls set out to save their town. [[spoiler: On a micro level, 2016!Erin warns 1988!Erin against withdrawing from the world and never seeing any of the other girls again like she did after her own 1988 "Hell Morning", though the MemoryWipingCrew may have had something to do with that.]]

* StableTimeLoop: Another possible explanation for [[spoiler: 2016!Erin's]] LaserGuidedAmnesia. Also, the message on KJ's field hockey stick that 1988!Erin finds turns out to [[spoiler: have been written by her because she'd already found it.]]

* TimePolice: [[spoiler:According to Charlotte, The Adults see themselves as this. They're trying to ensure that history still unfolds as they know it happened, while The Teens are attempting to change things.]]

* TranslatorMicrobes: The invaders speak heavily-accented English using translation devices attached to their throats. When [[spoiler:1988!Erin rips the one off [=FutureClone!=]Erin]], they can no longer understand her, and 1988!Erin later has the idea to put it on [[spoiler:Wari, the native girl they meet in 11,706 BCE]] so they can communicate with her.
* 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. She's also pretty homophobic, treating 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 #25, [[spoiler:the girls have seperated throughout time ''again'': Tiffany is seemingly sent further into the future, KJ ends up in 1978, Mac is either in the far-distant future or prehistory (judging from the monstrous creature right behind her), and Erin is seemingly in 2018.]]

* YourDaysAreNumbered: [[spoiler:Mac]] learns that she's going to die of leukemia sometime in the next three or four years, though the source of this information (the man who bought her parents' house in 1992) isn't exactly authoritative. [[spoiler:2000!Tiffany later reveals in issue #19 that her death notice was also listed in ''The Preserver''.]]

* HeroicSacrifice: [[Spoiler: In issue #25, 2000!Tiffany jumps on a cop's hoverbike to allow the girls to escape, but her struggle with the cop leads to it blowing up.]]

* AmbiguouslyGay: Played with a couple of ways. In issue #17, [[spoiler: KJ tells Mac that she thinks she might be a lesbian, though the ambiguity disappears later when she decides she really ''is''. However, the flash-forward in issue #13 of her kissing Mac seems to suggest this about Mac.]] [[spoiler: Confirmed for both when they kiss in Issue #24]]

* HeroicSacrifice: [[Spoiler: Double-Oh-Tiff purposefully lets a hovercraft blow-up with her on it, in order to save Mac, KJ, and Tiffany is Issue #25]]

* InSeriesNickname: All four girls. Mackenzie is almost always called "Mac", KJ is called "Kaje"(pronounced "cage"), Tiffany is referred to as "Tiff" on one occasion, and all three often refer to Erin as "New Girl" or "New Kid".

* 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.

* AmbiguouslyGay: Played with a couple of ways. In issue #17, [[spoiler: KJ tells Mac that she thinks she might be a lesbian, though the ambiguity disappears later when she decides she really ''is''. However, the flash-forward in issue #13 of her kissing Mac seems to suggest this about Mac.]]

* AmbiguouslyGay: Played with a couple of ways. In issue #17, [[spoiler: KJ tells Mac that she thinks she might be a lesbian, though she later decides that really ''is''. However, the flash-forward KJ gets in issue #13 of her kissing Mac seems to suggest this about her.]]

* AmbiguouslyGay: In issue #17, [[spoiler: KJ tells Mac that she thinks she might be a lesbian.]]

* EagerRookie: [[spoiler: 2000!Tiffany decides to go with the gang when they try to go back to their own time, from a combination of wanting to use her knowledge of the future to prevent disasters like the Oklahoma City bombin, and feeling that she hasn't done what she wanted to with her life. She ends up being the one to pilot the time-traveling mecha they commandeer.]]

* InSeriesNickname: All four girls. Mackenzie is almost always called "Mac", KJ is called "Kaje"(pronounced "cage"), Tiffany is referred to as "Tiff" on one occasion, and all three often refer to Erin as "New Girl".

* SnarkToSnarkCombat: [[spoiler: Tiffany's husband Chris and Mac in issue #19.]]

%% When listing Tropes which concern the various versions of the girls interacting, please refer to them by the year of their origin. For example: 1988!Erin, 2016!Erin and FutureClone!Erin, to reduce confusion.(this last one has to have the bracket-equal sign-name-equal sign-bracket code placed around it)

* DarkSkinnedRedhead: [[spoiler: 1999!Tiffany is this, as she's grown her hair into dreadlocks and dyed it.]]

* FreeRangeChildren: The girls. Children actually were allowed this degree of freedom back before cable news and new media convinced everyone there was a pedophile lurking behind every bush. They even use Erin's newspaper bag as protective coloration because the truant officers "don't bother ''Preserver'' kids". [[spoiler: In issue #19, 1999!Tiffany tells her younger self that once shows like ''Series/AmericasMostWanted'' became popular, her parents forced her to quit being a paper girl, and without that connection, she and the other girls drifted apart.]]

* HappilyMarried: [[spoiler: Chris and 1999!Tiffany seem to be this.]]

* INeedAFreakingDrink: Inverted: [[spoiler: looking for 1999!Tiffany with the girls while dodging GiantMecha that only 1988!Tiffany can see, Chris laments that he ''really'' shouldn't have taken mushrooms earlier that night.]]

* InvisibleToNormals: [[spoiler: For some reason, 1988!Tiffany and her 1999 counterpart are the only ones who can see the GiantMecha battling it out on December 31, 1999.]]

* StressVomit: Happens when [[spoiler: 1999!Tiffany meets 1988!Tiffany.]]
* TankTopTomboy: KJ. She plays on her school's field hockey team, wears boxer shorts instead of panties, and wears a sports bra(which resembles a tank top) instead of a regular one.

* YourDaysAreNumbered: [[spoiler:Mac]] learns that she's going to die of leukemia sometime in the next three or four years, though the source of this information (the man who bought her parents' house in 1992) isn't exactly authoritative. [[spoiler:1999!Tiffany later reveals in issue #19 that her death notice was also listed in ''The Preserver''.]]

** [[spoiler: Issue #18 reveals that Grand Father was much less militant as a younger man, until a woman called Prioress was killed in a Teen attack. Whatever his feelings for her were, in the wake her death, he authorized the unilateral use of lethal force.]]

* NeverTheSelvesShallMeet: Halfway averted; [[spoiler: As of issue #19, Erin and Tiffany have met future versions of themselves, but KJ and Mac haven't.]]

* NoSympathyForGrudgeholders: KJ snaps at Mac when Mac makes a derisive comment about her [[spoiler: being gay. Understandable, since a Jewish girl in 1988 would ''not'' be having an easy time accepting something like that]].

%% When listing Tropes which concern the various versions of Erin interacting, please refer to them as 1988!Erin, 2016!Erin and FutureClone!Erin to reduce confusion.(this last one has to have the bracket-equal sign-name-equal sign-bracket code placed around it)

* FreeRangeChildren: The girls. Children actually were allowed this degree of freedom back before cable news and new media convinced everyone there was a pedophile lurking behind every bush. They even use Erin's newspaper bag as protective coloration because the truant officers "don't bother ''Preserver'' kids".

* PeopleJars: How Grand Father and the rest of the adults are storing the inhabitants of Stony Stream.
* RageBreakingPoint: [[spoiler: When [=FutureClone=]!Erin attacks 2016!Erin, 1988!Erin teams up with Tiffany to knock her through a fold back into the future.]]

** 1988!Erin tells 2016!Missy that she looks straight out of ''{{Series/Airwolf}}''

* YourDaysAreNumbered: [[spoiler:Mac]] learns that she's going to die of leukemia sometime in the next three or four years, though the source of this information (the man who bought her parents' house in 1992) isn't exactly authoritative.
* ZeppelinsFromAnotherWorld: The invader's ship resembles a giant zeppelin.

* MeddlingKids: The girls start out as meddling kids but work their way up to KidHero fairly quickly

* [[WhamEpisode Wham Issue]]: Vaughn seems to love putting them every 5 issues.

* [[WhenAllYouHaveIsAHammer When All You Have Is A Field Hockey Stick:]] KJ carries her field hockey stick with her while delivering newspapers. It gets used quite often, either to attack/defend or as a message board.