Before it was my favorite ongoing series two years running, Giant Days was a webcomic, which Boom! eventually collected in a handy tpb (titled, Giant Days: Early Registration) for Luddites like myself who don't like reading comics on a computer.
It covers Susan, Daisy and Esther's early days in college. Moving in, making new friends. Being taken hostage by a society of annoying preppy girls who think you're just like them. The fresh bloom of new love, or at least basic physical attraction. Not being able to sleep because the people upstairs play loud music into the wee hours of the morning. Joining a new club and overthrowing the de facto president by challenging him to arm wrestling. Getting drunk and waking up with a tattoo. A tattoo that almost gets you initiated into a dark society.
The thing John Allison does here that I enjoy is the mixture of the banal and the absurd. Problems that kids out on their own for the first time encounter and are frequently befuddled by, but with some little element that pushes it over the top. The head girls trying to co-opt Esther because they think it's still high school and she should be part of their stupid clique isn't unusual. The fact each of them - including Esther - is the master of a particular fighting style is.
Allison's quick to fill out their personalities. Susan's blunt talking and general acerbic manner, coupled with a fierce loyalty. Daisy being compassionate and a little naive, but also oddly knowledgeable. Esther being simultaneously charismatic and easily charmed. Determined to do things her way, but flighty enough to be easily swayed. It allows for each of them to run smack into problems they can't deal with, but one of the other two can.
Allison has a very simple drawing style, but it works for what he's trying to do. This is a book with a lot of big action, mostly people talking and making clever comments. Allison's good at drawing people who dress and slouch or whatever like actual people would. Giving them realistic body language, but it's loose enough he can draw something a little weirder and still make it work.
Next week, the mini-series turned ongoing series I loved so very much.
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