[Paper Girls] is very much is about how we are thinking about our past and growing up.

[Paper Girls] is very much is about how we are thinking about our past and growing up.

It starts with the writing. We have to think of all these characters - we have to treat them all equally. We have to think of them as having an interior life and having motivations. When I'm drawing female characters, I'm looking for that. I'm looking for subtext. I'm looking for ways to make the reader relate to them in a way that goes beyond the pure aesthetic value. You know, just drawing an attractive woman really gets kind of boring after a while.

[Paper Girls] needed to have a certain kind of almost neon style to it, but at the same time we wanted also to show the modern perspective that we had.

We wanted the book [Paper Girls] to feel to evoke the '80s, but not necessarily feel that it was drawn then.

I realize that this is not what you want to put on a cover with Wonder Woman emblazoned on it. She could be in trouble, but she doesn't need to be completely out of control. So whenever I'm doing these covers, I try to make sure that there's an element where, even if there is danger, it's not something where agency is taken away from her.

I don't think I've ever worked on a project [Paper Girls] that is this personal. We draw so much on our memories of growing and we're putting so much of our present day into it as well.