What I Bought 7/14/2018

While meeting my dad in town last weekend, I went hunting for some comics I'd missed from earlier this month. I only found one of the three, but it's the one I like best, so that's OK.

Giant Days #40, by John Allison (writer), Max Sarin (artist), Whitney Cogar (colorist), Jim Campbell (letterer) - That's the danger of running away, you leave your back exposed.

Ed returns to Sheffield, and things are awkward. He's struggling to talk to Esther, and Esther dislikes how things stand, but can't figure out how to fix it. Also, Ed thinks Esther has probably blabbed to Susan and Daisy, but she hasn't. She and the others do spruce up the broom closet Ed's calling a room, and then the two of them talk a bit. It seems Ed has truly given up the ghost, and Esther may be bothered by it? In other troubling developments, Ingrid is back and has a new boyfriend. I'm sure Daisy will not go into any sort of tailspin about how she's single but Ingrid has seemingly rebounded with ease!

What I found interesting is that Esther says (to herself), that she's known how Ed felt about her, which I was I not expecting. She liked it, but wanted him to remain her friend. She liked their friendship, which I understand. And her goal is do-able, I guess? It would have helped if they had discussed it at some earlier point, but that would fall on Ed to initiate, since he's the one with romantic feelings. When he did confess, he promptly climbed a wall and busted his ankles, and has been avoiding her calls ever since. I'm concerned she compared Ed to her high school boyfriend, considering she cheated on that boy five seconds after she got to college. "He's kind, so I can take advantage of him," may not have be the comparison she meant, but it's one that flitted across my mind as I read that. Considering she confesses feeling guilty about getting the room Ed was supposed to get, maybe she thinks she took advantage? At the same time, I can appreciate her desire to not lose a good friendship, so it's all a big mess, and the room thing was ultimately Ed's decision, so it's one he has to own.

Max Sarin is back as artist after a two-month hiatus. There aren't any hallucinations or moments to really exaggerate the characters in this issue, but he continues his usual fine work with expressions and body language. Susan mimicking a cat in the sunny spot in Esther's room was a particularly good one, if only because it's odd to see Susan so happy when she isn't verbally eviscerating someone. In the panel on the left, Esther reminds me of a different fictional character, but I can't decide if it's Kate Bishop (which might be from the color of the shirt and that awful simile) or Chi-Chi from DragonBall (mostly based on the hair). I doubt Sarin was thinking of either of those two, just showing Esther changing up her hair, as she does periodically.