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A review by billcoffin
Giant Days, Vol. 9 by John Allison
5.0
Every once in a while you stumble across a book that comes really highly reviewed by darn near everyone, and even though you read a lot, you haven’t heard about this book that’s on everyone’s Must Read lists, and you feel kind of stupid about it, so you just dive in so you don’t get embarrassed by the hole in your reading. And you hope you won’t be disappointed, because you know, that happens sometimes, so you don’t get your expectations too high. And then you start reading and it’s like the clouds parted and you realize why everybody told you to Read This Thing: because it really is as delightful as everyone says it is.
Giant Days is that book.
Having finished reading the entire series, this reviews stands for every installment of it, not just because they are uniformly excellent, but because the pacing of the story is such that it really does get a little hard to tell where issues and indeed, entire volumes start and finish. There are defined story lines, sure, but the book employs a webcomic-like pace so every page is itself a bit of a micro-story, usually with a satisfying payoff or laugh-out-loud moment that has been totally earned. But all in al, Giant Days is the kind of thing that will draw you in entirely if you let it. And you should. You really, really should.
The story begins as three young British women begin their three-year journey through university together. There’s Susan, a tough, hard-bitten medical student who smokes way too much for somebody who’s supposed to be advancing health, and who often gets by on the sheer power of her animus. There’s Daisy, who is sweet, brilliant, orphaned and innocent and having been home-schooled is a bit out of her depth being away from home and at school. And then there is Esther, a walking drama machine of gothic intensity, who cannot resist breaking hearts and everything else as she hand waves her way through life. Together, they form a nucleus through which we shall experience their many capers and episodes involving schoolwork, romance, personal drama, financial destitution, sexual identity, bad decisions, sketchy run-ins, more romance, hopes, dreams, futures, true friendship, and more.
Backed by a terrific supporting chase of characters - including the shy Ed Gemmel and the lovable ramrod Graham McGraw - Giant Days is a masterclass in deep characterization, world-building and tonal comedy. Creator and writer John Allison draws in with his compelling, lovable, over-the-top and yet grounded-in-reality protagonists and crafts a meta narrative in which most readers will see something of themselves along the way. The stories never get too massive; they often are just one slice-of-life episode after another so that by the time we get to the last two or three volumes, we realize this thing is coming to and end, and we slow down because we wish to forestall the inevitable. Meanwhile, the artwork - initially by Lissa Treiman but mostly by Max Sarin - is pitch-perfect for the kind of story Allison is telling. Cartoony without ever getting too goofy, beautifully rendered but never overwrought, bright but never neon, convention-breaking when it has to be, and amazingly able to tell a joke visually with one a single panel to do it. This book is an awful lot of fun to look at, but its harmony between writer and artist really is something special.
Throughout this thing, there is a lot of atmospheric comedy - comedy that works because we laugh at getting to know these characters, and then see them doing funny things that reward our investment in them. There are just great sight gags, where Sarin’s ability to veer into wild caricature yields hilarious results. And then there are sublime meta-jokes that get set up and pay off entire volumes later, or are never given a proper close at all, but we the reader see them for what they are. (The best among them involves an art class, and that is all I’ll detail for fear of spoiling it, but it it an act of supreme artistic confidence to set up a joke that awesome and then never actually pull the trigger on it so that the characters in-story know what we know.)
Giant Days is often mentioned in the same breath as Lumberjanes as the kind of comic series that not only has helped to make Boom! such a successful and accessible comic publisher, but it stands as the kind of story that frankly, a lot of other Boom! titles try to emulate and can’t quite do. There’s no shame in that - Giant Days captures lightning in a bottle for 14 volumes straight, and if every book could do it, we wouldn’t value it as much. It’s good that the things we love end, we are told near the end, because the best things are rare.
Well, if that is so, then Giant Days is a rare book, indeed. I am glad it is over, so I can step away and take stock of it, but I’d be lying if I said that part of me wishes it kept on going like Love and Rockets and just told Susan, Daisy and Esther’s story for the rest of their lives. They are characters I would not mind staying with forever.
Giant Days is that book.
Having finished reading the entire series, this reviews stands for every installment of it, not just because they are uniformly excellent, but because the pacing of the story is such that it really does get a little hard to tell where issues and indeed, entire volumes start and finish. There are defined story lines, sure, but the book employs a webcomic-like pace so every page is itself a bit of a micro-story, usually with a satisfying payoff or laugh-out-loud moment that has been totally earned. But all in al, Giant Days is the kind of thing that will draw you in entirely if you let it. And you should. You really, really should.
The story begins as three young British women begin their three-year journey through university together. There’s Susan, a tough, hard-bitten medical student who smokes way too much for somebody who’s supposed to be advancing health, and who often gets by on the sheer power of her animus. There’s Daisy, who is sweet, brilliant, orphaned and innocent and having been home-schooled is a bit out of her depth being away from home and at school. And then there is Esther, a walking drama machine of gothic intensity, who cannot resist breaking hearts and everything else as she hand waves her way through life. Together, they form a nucleus through which we shall experience their many capers and episodes involving schoolwork, romance, personal drama, financial destitution, sexual identity, bad decisions, sketchy run-ins, more romance, hopes, dreams, futures, true friendship, and more.
Backed by a terrific supporting chase of characters - including the shy Ed Gemmel and the lovable ramrod Graham McGraw - Giant Days is a masterclass in deep characterization, world-building and tonal comedy. Creator and writer John Allison draws in with his compelling, lovable, over-the-top and yet grounded-in-reality protagonists and crafts a meta narrative in which most readers will see something of themselves along the way. The stories never get too massive; they often are just one slice-of-life episode after another so that by the time we get to the last two or three volumes, we realize this thing is coming to and end, and we slow down because we wish to forestall the inevitable. Meanwhile, the artwork - initially by Lissa Treiman but mostly by Max Sarin - is pitch-perfect for the kind of story Allison is telling. Cartoony without ever getting too goofy, beautifully rendered but never overwrought, bright but never neon, convention-breaking when it has to be, and amazingly able to tell a joke visually with one a single panel to do it. This book is an awful lot of fun to look at, but its harmony between writer and artist really is something special.
Throughout this thing, there is a lot of atmospheric comedy - comedy that works because we laugh at getting to know these characters, and then see them doing funny things that reward our investment in them. There are just great sight gags, where Sarin’s ability to veer into wild caricature yields hilarious results. And then there are sublime meta-jokes that get set up and pay off entire volumes later, or are never given a proper close at all, but we the reader see them for what they are. (The best among them involves an art class, and that is all I’ll detail for fear of spoiling it, but it it an act of supreme artistic confidence to set up a joke that awesome and then never actually pull the trigger on it so that the characters in-story know what we know.)
Giant Days is often mentioned in the same breath as Lumberjanes as the kind of comic series that not only has helped to make Boom! such a successful and accessible comic publisher, but it stands as the kind of story that frankly, a lot of other Boom! titles try to emulate and can’t quite do. There’s no shame in that - Giant Days captures lightning in a bottle for 14 volumes straight, and if every book could do it, we wouldn’t value it as much. It’s good that the things we love end, we are told near the end, because the best things are rare.
Well, if that is so, then Giant Days is a rare book, indeed. I am glad it is over, so I can step away and take stock of it, but I’d be lying if I said that part of me wishes it kept on going like Love and Rockets and just told Susan, Daisy and Esther’s story for the rest of their lives. They are characters I would not mind staying with forever.