The Tool Desk
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Paper Girls begins with four 12-year-old newspaper delivery girls in the early hours after Halloween 1988. Image Comics presents it as a young-adult adventure, while the publisher’s collected-edition copy emphasizes nostalgia, first jobs and the last days of childhood. The combination of time travel, survival, self-discovery and loyalty is why the best follow-up depends on which ingredient you want to keep.
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What makes Paper Girls distinctive?
The starting point matters because “similar” can mean several different things here. The four leads are children doing an ordinary early-morning job when a mystery turns their town into a survival zone. Their age keeps the story grounded in the awkward final stretch of childhood: they are capable enough to act, but still discovering who they are and how much they can rely on one another.
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Time travel supplies the large-scale plot engine, yet it is not the only reason the series works. The emotional core is the group’s friendship under pressure, their relationships with family and future versions of themselves, and the shock of seeing a familiar world become unknowable. The New York Public Library’s description of the series highlights time travel, nostalgia, friendship, self-discovery, survival and coming of age as connected attractions.
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That gives you four useful routes after finishing the series:
- Family and secrets: choose The Magic Fish.
- A young heroine changing into a new role: choose Ms. Marvel Vol. 1: No Normal.
- Older teenagers facing an uncertain next step: choose The Gulf.
- Friendship, first love and gender identity: choose I Wanna Be Your Girl, Volume 1.
Only the second option uses overt superhero speculation, and the cited descriptions do not establish time travel for any of these books. Treat them as thematic follow-ups rather than identical premises.
Best for family, stories and a secret: The Magic Fish
Why it fits
Trung Le Nguyen’s The Magic Fish is the strongest choice if the part of Paper Girls you want to preserve is the way young people use stories to understand family and themselves. Penguin Random House describes it as a young-adult graphic novel about Tiến, a boy who loves his family and friends while carrying a secret that may change everything.
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What to expect
- Young characters growing up: central to Tiến’s experience.
- Family: the primary emotional focus.
- Friendship: present alongside the family story.
- Speculative element: the cited publisher description does not establish time travel.
- Format: a YA graphic novel; a series volume is not indicated in the supplied description.
Pick this first if you remember the quieter moments in Paper Girls as vividly as the action: the conversations, fears and realizations that make the larger adventure matter. It is a thematic match for secrets and self-definition, not a replacement for the series’ time-travel mechanics.
Best for a young heroine and a sudden new identity: Ms. Marvel Vol. 1: No Normal
Why it fits
G. Willow Wilson’s Ms. Marvel Vol. 1: No Normal follows Kamala Khan, whose ordinary life changes when she gains extraordinary abilities. The publisher description centers the tension between her new powers and the legacy she inherits. That makes it a natural choice for readers who want another young protagonist forced to renegotiate identity while dealing with expectations from home and the wider world.
Kamala’s transformation is not the same kind of temporal disruption that drives Paper Girls. It is a superhero origin, with powers and legacy replacing the series’ time-travel mystery. The shared appeal is the viewpoint: a young person is suddenly confronted with a version of herself she did not plan for, and growing into that role is as important as using the abilities.
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- Young protagonist: Kamala is the central viewpoint character.
- Identity change: the story asks how she defines herself after gaining powers.
- Family and community: part of the pressure surrounding her new role.
- Speculative element: superhero powers and inherited legacy, not a verified time-travel premise.
- Format: the first collected volume of a continuing series.
Choose this when what you miss most is the energy of young characters making decisions far beyond what adults expect from them. It offers a clearer action-and-superpowers route than the other recommendations, while keeping the emotional focus on adolescence and belonging.
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Best for older teens at a crossroads: The Gulf
Why it fits
Adam de Souza’s The Gulf moves the coming-of-age question to the end of high school. Its publisher describes a group of friends who run away to join a commune and labels the book an “anti-coming-of-age road trip adventure.” The same listing identifies it as YA for ages 14 and up.
This is the most grounded option in the group. Instead of children discovering a hidden war across eras, older teenagers deliberately leave the path laid out for them. The commune becomes a test of friendship, independence and the difference between escaping a future and choosing one. The road-trip structure also changes the emotional rhythm: uncertainty comes from decisions and consequences rather than from an external anomaly.
What to expect
- Age and audience: YA, listed for ages 14 and up by the publisher.
- Coming of age: the central subject, approached as an “anti-coming-of-age” story.
- Friendship: the group’s shared choice drives the narrative.
- Speculative element: none is established in the cited description.
- Format: a graphic novel; the supplied listing does not describe it as a numbered series volume.
Read The Gulf if you are ready to move from childhood’s last days to the more immediate problem of what happens after school. It is not a science-fiction analogue, but it speaks directly to the fear that growing up means accepting a life you have not chosen.
Best for friendship, first love and identity: I Wanna Be Your Girl, Volume 1
Why it fits
Umi Takase’s I Wanna Be Your Girl, Volume 1 is the manga pick for readers who valued the bonds between the Paper Girls and want a more intimate story about support and self-definition. Penguin Random House describes a childhood best friend who begins living as a girl shortly before high school. The publisher characterizes the series as a thoughtful story about first loves, friendship and allyship.
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The transition into high school provides a clear coming-of-age threshold. The central question is not how to survive a temporal crisis, but how friends respond when one of them is becoming more open about who she is. That makes allyship an active choice rather than a background virtue: listening, standing beside someone and rethinking assumptions all affect the friendship.
What to expect
- Friendship: the foundation of the story.
- Identity: gender identity and the process of living openly are central.
- Romance: first love is part of the publisher’s description.
- Speculative element: the cited description does not establish science fiction or time travel.
- Format: Volume 1 of a manga series.
Select this when the emotional afterimage you want from Paper Girls is the sense that friends can help one another become more fully themselves. Its scale is personal and school-centered, not apocalyptic or temporal.
How the four choices compare
| Title | Closest shared element | Speculative material | Age or format information |
|---|---|---|---|
| The Magic Fish | Family, stories, secrets and self-discovery | Time travel is not established in the cited description | YA graphic novel |
| Ms. Marvel Vol. 1: No Normal | Young heroine, identity change and extraordinary responsibility | Superhero powers and inherited legacy; time travel is not established | First collected volume of a continuing series |
| The Gulf | Friendship and the uncertainty of leaving adolescence | No speculative element is established in the cited description | YA for ages 14 and up; graphic novel |
| I Wanna Be Your Girl, Volume 1 | Friendship, first love, identity and allyship | Science fiction and time travel are not established in the cited description | First volume of a manga series |
Choose by the part of Paper Girls you want more of
If the family relationships mattered most
Start with The Magic Fish. Its secret-centered plot keeps the focus on what young people owe to the people who love them and how stories can make difficult truths speakable.
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If you want another young hero discovering unexpected power
Start with Ms. Marvel Vol. 1: No Normal. It delivers the most overt action and the clearest transformation from ordinary life to extraordinary responsibility.
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If you are now looking for older, messier adolescence
Start with The Gulf. Its characters are near the end of high school, and its road-trip premise treats adulthood as a decision they may resist rather than a future that simply arrives.
If friendship and identity are the priority
Start with I Wanna Be Your Girl, Volume 1. The book places allyship and first love at the center of a transition into high school.
If time travel itself is non-negotiable
None of the four cited publisher descriptions confirms a time-travel premise. Do not choose one expecting another version of the 1988 paper route, alternate futures or timeline mechanics. Choose based on the emotional element you can trade for that missing device: family secrets, superhero transformation, older-teen independence or identity-focused friendship.
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Where to find Paper Girls again
If you want to revisit the original before starting a thematic follow-up, Image Comics lists Paper Girls: The Complete Story TP in its catalog. The publisher also lists newer Backpack Edition volumes; the first Backpack Edition volume collects issues #1–10. Those editions are useful options for readers who want the complete arc or a smaller-volume format, but current price and stock depend on the bookseller and region.
The publisher’s catalog language also identifies the series’ core mood: nostalgia, first jobs and the last days of childhood. Keeping that description in mind helps set expectations for the recommendations above. They are different kinds of books, selected because they preserve one or two of those emotional or thematic qualities rather than because they duplicate every plot device.
A practical reading order
- Read The Magic Fish if you want the closest family-and-secret conversation after finishing the series.
- Move to Ms. Marvel Vol. 1: No Normal for a faster, more action-oriented story about a young person adapting to an impossible new role.
- Choose The Gulf when you want the characters to be closer to adulthood and the conflict to come from a deliberate escape.
- Finish with I Wanna Be Your Girl, Volume 1 if you want a friendship-led story about identity, first love and allyship.
You can reverse that order without losing continuity; these are independent recommendations, not a shared universe or a sequence. The useful decision is which part of Paper Girls you want your next book to echo.
Quick Recap
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