Paper Girls on Bikes

Imaginary Worlds

Eric Molinsky

Arts, Science Fiction, Fiction, Society & Culture

4.8 • 2.1K Ratings

🗓️ 4 August 2022

⏱️ 27 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

When the artist Cliff Chiang co-created the comic book series Paper Girls, about four suburban kids in the ‘80s who get caught up in forces that can break space and time, he thought they’d come up with something totally original. But soon after the comic book came out, Stranger Things debuted on Netflix. Both creative projects are part of a genre that’s more popular than ever: Kids on Bikes. I talk with Cliff about why he wanted Paper Girls to stand out from other Kids on Bikes stories. Screenwriter Stephany Folsom discusses how she adapted Paper Girls into an Amazon Prime Video live-action show by pitching it as “anti-nostalgia.” I also talk with game designers Jon Gilmour and Doug Levandowski about how they distilled the elements of Kids on Bikes stories into a role-playing game, and whether the genre is ready to outgrow its 1980s setting. Our ad partner is Multitude. If you’re interested in advertising on Imaginary Worlds, you can contact them here. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Transcript

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0:00.0	This episode is brought to you by Slack. With Slack, you can bring all your people and
0:05.9	tools together in one place. It's your digital HQ where you can increase productivity,
0:11.1	enable flexibility and automate workflows. Plus, Slack is full of game-changing features
0:16.7	like huddles for quick check-ins or Slack Connect, which helps you connect with partners
0:20.9	inside and outside of your company. Slack, where the future works. Get started at
0:26.9	Slack.com slash DHQ. You're listening to Imaginary Worlds, a show about how we create them
0:32.7	and why we suspend our disbelief. American Malinsky.
0:37.3	In 2015, I interviewed Cliff Chang for an episode about Wonder Woman. Cliff is one of my favorite
0:43.3	comic book artists. He draws with simple, heavy, graphic lines that convey a lot of emotion.
0:50.1	And every panel is perfectly framed to express whatever story he's telling. I interviewed
0:55.3	him at a studio and after we were done, I was packing up my recording equipment. And he
1:00.9	showed me artwork that he was working on for a new series called Paper Girls. The image
1:06.5	was four girls on bikes in the suburbs. They're wearing 80s clothes. And the sky looked
1:12.5	menacing above them. Hinting, there was something large and powerful out there. I was instantly
1:19.2	hooked.
1:20.2	Yeah, I remember showing you what we had. Yeah, the issue hadn't come out yet. But I
1:26.3	did have the first issue of ink artwork in the studio. And it's amazing to think how
1:31.5	many years ago that was. Paper Girls ran for 30 issues until the story
1:37.1	wrapped up in 2019. Not long after that, Amazon Prime bought the rights for a live-action
1:43.9	TV adaptation in the show Just A Bute. Cliff and his running partner, Brian Kavon, are
1:50.9	executive producers.
1:52.9	Maybe everybody has already been evacuated. That standard procedure when there's a nuclear
	...

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