As cultural phenomena, Marvel and DC dominate popular culture with television shows and movies. Their multimedia empires have created well-known characters upon which several generations of children have been raised, often overshadowing other publishing houses like Image, Dark Horse, Boom!, and Valiant. This means that word of mouth (or internet) becomes one of the most important resources for determining what books to try.
Over the last few years, some of the most original, most interesting stories on the market have come from Image, Valiant, Skybound, and Dark Horse. If you’re looking for some new, slightly-off-the-beaten-path reads, here are five books to try.
5. Paper Girls
A: Brian K Vaughan I: Cliff Chiang
Image
Papers Girls has been around for a little over a year. As a big Brian K. Vaughan fan, I give full disclosure that I’d probably read a book about dirt if he wrote it. However, even with that in mind, Paper Girls is one of the most intriguing books out recently. The story follows the interdimensional time traveling adventures of four tween paper delivery girls in 1988. Not only does this have that retro-1980’s feel that made Stranger Things so popular, but it’s a great story that has ongoing intrigue and truly unexpected plot twists. Trade Volume 1 and Volume 2 are available on Comixology and Kindle.
