Giant Days - Volume 6

If I could come up with a tattoo idea like that, I might actually get one. No I wouldn't, because I'd regret it five minutes later. But it's still clever.

Covering issues 21-24, we see the girls' home burglarized, Daisy's relationship with Ingrid kick off, and Susan's father arrives to care for Susan when she takes ill. There are also difficulties with the next-door neighbor, Susan trying to come to grips with McGraw and Emelia's relationship, and Esther's hunt for better part-time employment. We learn the story of what happened to Daisy's parents. I was expecting something a bit more mundane on that one. Perhaps Daisy's family is drawn to a life of wild adventures. In which case, the inaccurate image Esther had of archaeology might not have been as far off as Daisy said.

Also, the final fate of Susan's extremely unhygienic laptop computer! Allison didn't bring that one up constantly, but he'd mention it just enough for the payoff to work.

As always, if the general description sounds mundane, the joy is in the details that Allison and Sarin (with Liz Fleming on inks, Whitney Cogar as colorist, and Jim Campbell as letterist) bring to it. The different approaches the girls take to searching the house when they suspect the burglar might still be there. Esther's attempt at a eulogy for a person she only barely knew at the end of the volume. Ingrid ruining everything, purposefully. Because she's that sort of person. I'm an unpleasant person, but I have the common decency to be antisocial, so as to spare everyone else from having their Good Times spoiled.

I hope more than five people show up at my funeral.

The character death was a surprise, wasn't expecting that at all. Lots of unexpected developments in this volume! And I'd forgotten the story of how Esther got those stuffed ravens in her room. I've said this before, but things move fast in this book. Esther and Susan are ecstatic to see Daisy with Ingrid here, and 6 issues from now they're going to hate her guts, and nearly destroy their tripartite friendship. Actually, Susan seems to be souring on her within one issue, but still tries to be hospitable towards her. Probably a critical mistake.

Maybe it's random, or just selective memory, but it seems like Allison and Sarin brought their "A" game to the page-ending gags for this stretch. That's a normal approach for this book, to have a conversation or scene culminate in some sort of a joke at the bottom of the page. Sometimes it's a one-liner or some other funny dialogue. Other times it's Sarin drawing some sort of reaction shot or other strange thing.

I've raved about Sarin's work on expressions and body language, but I continue to be extremely impressed by it, so what else am I gonna do but rave about it? I wouldn't have thought of that for a 'being of white hot energy', but considering Susan is sick as a dog and use a dangerous number of nicotine patches, it fits she appears to be getting consumed by her power. I pulled over a dozen single panels or two-panel set-up/punchline bits in here because I liked how they looked or they tickled my funny bone, and I left several out.

If I ever get around to scouring my collection for all the panels and pages that I enjoy, Giant Days is going to require a week's worth of effort all on its own. I don't know when I'll get around to it.