Paper Girls: Cyborg Chrononaut to English Decoder Ring with Playlist

October 14, 2015 by thedinglehopper 9 Comments

Paper Girls #1 features these guys. They’re a bit old to be trick-or-treating. And their costumes are either oily mummies or DIY stillsuits.

They speak a sort of alien logographic language. The imagery suggests something entirely alien but somehow familiar. Like if you’re not really familiar with Kanji or Mayan Glyphs you might accept it as a substitution.

The practical effect is that the protagonists don’t understand it, but it’s carrying information for the speakers. And it’s carrying information for the reader. It turns out it’s a simple substitution cipher. Just like you would have found in an old decoder ring. The Paper Girls would probably reference A Christmas Story.

Here’s the decoder ring… box… chart:

For folks who think it’s a keen idea, but would prefer not to do the translation themselves, here are the relevant panels from pages thirty four through thirty eight.

For a bit more obsessive fun, Erin’s curating a Spotify playlist for Paper Girls in the vein of Kieron Gillen’s playlist for The Wicked + The Divine. She’s looking for recommendations.