Paperboy

Paperboy is an up-and-coming webcomic about disability! When a 12-year-old boy spends all his life in an ableist Special Ed program where he and his classmates are mistreated, he finally decides that enough is enough. 

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Here’s the other half of the Paperboy kids! Next to nothing should be changing about these designs from now on. [AUGUST 2021]

Characters 8-14 (out of 14) depicted here

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Some more recent character designs / updates!! Just about everything here is final. [AUGUST 2021] 

Characters 1 - 7 (out of 14) depicted here

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Concept art of RIVER CHAVEZ and SOLO GARCIA [May 2021] 

Matthew’s class isn’t the only class that’s important to this story! Paperboy takes place at PS 361, a k-8 school that prides itself on its “inclusive” Special Ed program, which actually isn’t so inclusive. Unlike Matthew and the rest of the kids, River and Solo are from the 8th grade Special Ed class, which is absolutely NOT the place to be... to say the least. 

River’s very quiet and stoic. The “gifted kid.” Nobody can really tell you all that much about her other than how she’s typically pretty stone-faced. River and Matthew are complete opposites; while he believes that Special Ed kids deserve better and that the adults can *do* better, River disagrees and shuts down anybody who says so. She thinks it better to just comply.

Meanwhile, Solo’s quite the charmer! He’s got an outspoken and outgoing personality, a real knack for getting in trouble too. He loves talking to others and learning more about them, and tends to take care of those around him like an older brother would. Plus, his attitude tends to rub off on the kids around him, which the teachers can’t stand! He and Matthew haven’t met yet, but when they do... oh boy.

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Some of the first pieces of concept art for Paperboy! Meet Matthew’s class, also known as “Nuccio’s Class” or Class 7-441! (June 2021) There’s more people in this story, but let’s start with them! 

- MATTHEW BOSTON is the class art kid, known for being a hard-worker! He is our protagonist and has a number of physical and health issues, although they don’t hinder him on a daily basis. 

- ANDREA BELTRAN is Matthew’s partner-in-crime, the feisty (and dyslexic) tomboy of the bunch. Many say she’s an absolute idiot, but not many really get to know her. 

- AZA KANAAN’s the loud-mouthed leader of the pack, an absolute agent of chaos! The “H” in ADHD is very prominent with this one. 

- LEVI TRAINER is a mean-spirited “popular girl” who manipulates others for the sake of entertainment. Her popularity all comes from a place of fear within the others, especially Matthew, and no one knows what her deal is. 

- Meanwhile her twin brother LINUS TRAINER is a pessimist who’s desperate for validation over all else. While he also has ADHD, he and Aza are very different. 

- AMELIA PIGNALOSA is a soft-hearted and spineless sweetheart. If she does have any diagnoses, she doesn’t know about them; all she knows is that she tends to lag behind the class academically. 

- And then there’s JACK MARINE, the all-star of the bunch... who nobody likes. Despite his stutter, he still manages to be the class bully through getting physical. 

- OLIVER HANES’ is an aspiring social media influencer who already thinks he’s king of the world. His dysgraphia plays a role in his love for technology, which lets him convey things without writing. 

- WILBUR WATTSON’s the top of the class academically, and a pretty chill loner. While the artwork here is too outdated to display it in his design yet, Wilbur’s blind in one eye. 

- RUDY DELAMERCED almost never speaks, but he does sell things like toys and snacks to other kids! While he isn’t exactly deaf, he does wear hearing aids; he just hides them under his hair. (Only one image here depicts this) 

- AARAN MUSA (who got a name-change very recently) is the happy-go-lucky type. His only troubles in life are when his Tourette's decides to interfere with his daily tasks. 

- last but not least we’ve got KARL HO, a very skilled gamer who doesn’t get enough credit for all he’s worth. He’s a loveable big guy who tends to be underestimated on account of his down syndrome. 

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Hello, and welcome to the official Paperboy account / blog! There is a post similar to this on my main, but it’s a tad outdated now. And since Paperboy is further along in development, I figured it’d need an update. This blog will be dedicated to posting further updates, concept art, and (eventually) teasers! 

Anyways, I often hear people advocating to put disabled children in Special Education but nothing on how that can impact them after the fact. Yes, Special Ed absolutely offers plenty of potentially useful services, but I never hear anything about the cons. I only experienced them and thought I was crazy when I couldn’t find anything on the issue. Hell, when we’re talking forms of discrimination, most people don’t even think of ableism. So Paperboy serves mainly as a story for the ex-Special Ed kids of the world to follow, and any of the General Ed kids who wondered why they were always “over there, with people like them.” 

Hopefully this gains traction just like it did on Instagram or my other tumblr.