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As always, join our discussion on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, and our website.

Welcome to Storied Arcs! The podcast for deep dives into indie comics. In each episode, we will discuss one story arc, typically in the form of a trade paperback, for a completed comic series. In general, we will be avoiding ongoing or continuing series so that we can discuss a work in its entirety. We’ll also be avoiding the “big two” (Marvel and DC.) While we love those comics, there are plenty of podcasts covering characters like Batman, Superman, Spiderman, and so on. Instead, we’re excited to explore some of the great creator-owned stories. We’ll deep dive into the story while evaluating the prose, art, and all the easter eggs we can find.

In this trailer, we'll introduce ourselves and what we're here to do.

A Deep Dive Into Comics, One Story Arc at a Time

Thanks for listening to Storied Arcs

• Find us on your favorite podcast platform and leave a 5-star review!
• Find all links here: https://linktr.ee/storiedarcs
• Or specifically, find us on BlueSky, Instagram, Facebook, Threads, Twitter/X.
• Learn more about our hosts, the show, or where to find us at www.storiedarcs.com

Subscribe on Spotify, iTunes, Pocket Casts, Overcast, Google Podcast, or anywhere else fine podcasts are found!

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Join co-hosts Mike and Alex as they provide a spoiler-free preview of what's to come in the ensuing trade-by-trade analysis of Paper Girls by Brian K. Vaughan and Cliff Chiang from Image Comics. They'll introduce the creative team, key information, and most importantly, why they love this book and decided to start their podcast off with it.

As always, join our discussion on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, and our website.

Thanks for listening to Storied Arcs

• Find us on your favorite podcast platform and leave a 5-star review!
• Find all links here: https://linktr.ee/storiedarcs
• Or specifically, find us on BlueSky, Instagram, Facebook, Threads, Twitter/X.
• Learn more about our hosts, the show, or where to find us at www.storiedarcs.com

Subscribe on Spotify, iTunes, Pocket Casts, Overcast, Google Podcast, or anywhere else fine podcasts are found!

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Welcome to scenic Stony Stream, Ohio! Okay fine, it's just suburban Cleveland. In 1988.

In this episode, co-hosts Mike and Alex kick off the first season of Storied Arcs by breaking down Paper Girls Volume 1 (issues 1-5). They discuss the storytelling choices made by the creative team that are specific to sequential art, the use (or potential overuse) of nostalgia when dealing with period setting, and Alex gives his three immutable theories for time travel in fiction (as opposed to, you know, time travel in real life).

As will be the case going forward, this episode assumes you've read through issue 5 aka first trade collection but won't spoil anything beyond that.

As always, join our discussion on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, and our website.

Thanks for listening to Storied Arcs

• Find us on your favorite podcast platform and leave a 5-star review!
• Find all links here: https://linktr.ee/storiedarcs
• Or specifically, find us on BlueSky, Instagram, Facebook, Threads, Twitter/X.
• Learn more about our hosts, the show, or where to find us at www.storiedarcs.com

Subscribe on Spotify, iTunes, Pocket Casts, Overcast, Google Podcast, or anywhere else fine podcasts are found!

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If you could be told with exact certainty when you were going to die, would you want to know? Would you find that knowledge be freeing or burdensome?

Mike and Alex go deep on that very topic and more as they cover Paper Girls Volume 2 (issues 6-10). They touch on how prescient it was in 2015 to refer to 2016 as the begin of The Problems and how weird it would be to meet an younger version of yourself. Or an older one, for that matter. Not that 40 is old or anything because it definitely isn't. Nope. Not old at all.

As always, this episode will cover this trade collection and what's come before but won't be spoiling anything beyond issue 10.

*We had some audio issues early on, but this episode has been cleaned up so enjoy this freshly minted remastered edition of our early thoughts!

As always, join our discussion on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, and our website.

Thanks for listening to Storied Arcs

• Find us on your favorite podcast platform and leave a 5-star review!
• Find all links here: https://linktr.ee/storiedarcs
• Or specifically, find us on BlueSky, Instagram, Facebook, Threads, Twitter/X.
• Learn more about our hosts, the show, or where to find us at www.storiedarcs.com

Subscribe on Spotify, iTunes, Pocket Casts, Overcast, Google Podcast, or anywhere else fine podcasts are found!

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Travel back to 11,706 BCE and meet the woman who invented time travel! But she's not even technically the first time traveler because people from the future will use the technology she invented to go back into the past which will allow people from that past to go even further into the past and thus be present in that past when she arrives there after having just invented time travel in the future.

Everybody clear? Good.

As they jump into Paper Girls Volume 3 (issues 11-15), Mike and Alex try to parse through the timeline above and do a quick ranking of the story arcs thus far, working through where and how this arc fits in with the overall narrative. They discuss if the ins and outs of how time travel works within the story are even necessary to know, and also revisit the many biblical references that continue to arise throughout the arcs.

Be sure you're read through the first three volumes before you listen, and there won't be any spoilers beyond issue 15.

As always, join our discussion on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, and our website.

Thanks for listening to Storied Arcs

• Find us on your favorite podcast platform and leave a 5-star review!
• Find all links here: https://linktr.ee/storiedarcs
• Or specifically, find us on BlueSky, Instagram, Facebook, Threads, Twitter/X.
• Learn more about our hosts, the show, or where to find us at www.storiedarcs.com

Subscribe on Spotify, iTunes, Pocket Casts, Overcast, Google Podcast, or anywhere else fine podcasts are found!

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Where were you when Y2K hit? Were you hiding in a fallout bunker? In Times Square to watch the ball drop? Or were you defiantly at your computer, actively ignoring the explicit warnings of electronics retailers, like one of your podcast hosts? And if you were too young to remember Y2K or weren't even born yet, we're curious- what do you know about it? Do they talk about the giant robots? Because that totally happened. Trust me. I was there.

In this episode, Mike and Alex revisit the final year of the 20th Century (NOT the first year of the 21st Century, thank you very much) in Paper Girls Volume 4 (issues 16-20). They discuss the best way to deliver a whole lot of exposition in a story without having it feel like you've just been delivered a whole lot of exposition and how this arc starts to tie together threads that have been laid out going back to the first issue. We're on the back half of the roller coaster and gaining speed towards the end!

If you're here and listening, we assume you've read through issue 20, but no spoiler beyond that!

As always, join our discussion on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, and our website.

Thanks for listening to Storied Arcs

• Find us on your favorite podcast platform and leave a 5-star review!
• Find all links here: https://linktr.ee/storiedarcs
• Or specifically, find us on BlueSky, Instagram, Facebook, Threads, Twitter/X.
• Learn more about our hosts, the show, or where to find us at www.storiedarcs.com

Subscribe on Spotify, iTunes, Pocket Casts, Overcast, Google Podcast, or anywhere else fine podcasts are found!

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It's true, folks; the future's so bright, you gotta wear shades. But never mind that, we have more important things to discuss, like, if you had to say, which Ninja Turtle are you?

In this week's episode, Mike and Alex travel into the future for Paper Girls Volume 5 (issues 21-25) and talk about how things there maybe aren't so different from how they are right now. Over-policing? Still an issue. Hospitals? No insurance, no help. Libraries? Woefully underutilized always helpful. And it anyone happens to be listening to this in the year 2171, please leave a comment on how right/wrong they got things. I'd be interested to know.

In the homestretch now with just one more trade collection to go. This episodes covers everything so far through issue 25 but does not spoil the final arc.

As always, join our discussion on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, and our website.

Thanks for listening to Storied Arcs

• Find us on your favorite podcast platform and leave a 5-star review!
• Find all links here: https://linktr.ee/storiedarcs
• Or specifically, find us on BlueSky, Instagram, Facebook, Threads, Twitter/X.
• Learn more about our hosts, the show, or where to find us at www.storiedarcs.com

Subscribe on Spotify, iTunes, Pocket Casts, Overcast, Google Podcast, or anywhere else fine podcasts are found!

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Maybe the real storied arcs are the friends we made along the way.

In this season finale, Mike and Alex discuss the epic conclusion to Paper Girls in the final story arc, Volume 6 (issues 26 - 30). Endings are hard because it's nearly impossible to give everyone the satisfying closure they're looking for. Spoiler alert- this one nails it.

Thanks for listening along all season and we hope you enjoyed diving deeper into this incredible story. Don't forget to send in your comments and/or questions for the mailbag episode that'll be coming down the line. We love hearing from everyone about their experiences reading Paper Girls, whether it was the first time for them or a re-read.

See you guys again real soon for Season Two of Storied Arcs!

As always, join our discussion on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, and our website.

Thanks for listening to Storied Arcs

• Find us on your favorite podcast platform and leave a 5-star review!
• Find all links here: https://linktr.ee/storiedarcs
• Or specifically, find us on BlueSky, Instagram, Facebook, Threads, Twitter/X.
• Learn more about our hosts, the show, or where to find us at www.storiedarcs.com

Subscribe on Spotify, iTunes, Pocket Casts, Overcast, Google Podcast, or anywhere else fine podcasts are found!