Initially, the continuation of Giant Days was going to be a six-issue mini-series, still written by John Allison, but drawn by Lissa Treiman. Pretty sure before those six issues were even close to done, it was doing well enough it became an ongoing series. It ultimately ran 54 issues, plus a host of one-shots typically released around the end of the year.
I started buying the single issues at #29, but I'd bought at least a few of the tpbs by then and was trying to catch up the rest of the way. I cannot remember what exactly prompted me to start buying this book mid-2017. There must have been positive word of mouth, but for the life of me, I can't recall from who. Tegan O'Neill mentioned it in a Twitter thread of comics she really loved, that's as close to anything concrete as I can get.
It has that element of the humor in the mundane, or just in the particular ways humans act like idiots. Couple that with Allison's knack for entertaining dialogue, whether it's dry sarcasm, bleak statements of doom, or gross exaggeration, and it was the comic most likely to make me laugh basically every month for 2.5 years.
We get to watch Daisy, Susan, and Esther progress through three years of college, experiencing all sorts of strife and conflict. Some of it's typical of college, like Esther doing horribly her first semester because she embraced freedom and never went to school, or Daisy's miserable luck with her first girlfriend, Ingrid. Housing difficulties, job difficulties, both in terms of part-time employment while in school and long-term employment prospects once out of school.
There's also the more bizarre elements Allison sprinkles in. The girls attending a music festival and Susan's drink being spiked by an old enemy right before a torrential downpour hits, putting everyone at risk of dying in a mudslide. Esther breaking up with some tech-bro billionaire because he endorses the hyperloop and she's convinced that thing is some secret plot of the Russians. Stuff where I have to laugh because it's completely absurd, but Allison has written the characters so well I can completely believe they'd react as they do.
Even so, there's still a core of something kind in it. It's not just sarcasm and jokes. The three leads inevitably pull together for each other when it counts. Even if someone behaves selfishly at one point, they usually try to make amends later, even if it isn't always accepted. There's acknowledgement that things change and that can freak you out, but it isn't necessarily bad. Bonds between people only break if they let them.
After the first six issues, Max Sarin took over as regular artist and maintained that role for the remainder of the book, minus a few issues drawn by Julia Madrigal or Allison himself. It's fun to watch Sarin's style progress as she goes along. Her linework grows more confident, less jagged and busy (she eventually starts inking herself). She gets a little more creative with the panels. not necessarily the layouts; Allison's writing is set-up so pages often end on a punchline or verbal jab, but making the borders wobble or wavy if the characters are tired or inebriated.
Beyond that, Sarin's just excellent at body language and expressions. Not only the more exaggerated effects, like giving Esther all sharp teeth when she snaps at Daisy about something, or drawing Susan as a spectral form when she's running on 4 nicotine patches at once. But the more basic stuff of characters moving or standing or making faces that seem entirely appropriate and natural to the situation. I think the first time I noticed it was in issue 29, when Esther's noting how clean Daisy's gotten everything and she's running up finger along the door frame while partially leaned over and smiling appreciatively. It was just a perfect representation of that action.
In 2017, I didn't buy enough single issues for it to consider it for Favorite Ongoing, but it would have been in the running for #1 (up against Unbeatable Squirrel Girl) if I had. The third volume was my #3 tpb I purchased that year, and Allison and Sarin were my #2 favorite writer and artist, respectively. In 2018, it won Favorite Ongoing and One-Shot, Volume 6 was the #2 tpb, Allison was #1 writer, and Sarin came in behind only Carla Speed McNeil for Favorite Artist. In 2019, it almost ran the board. Favorite Ongoing, Writer and Artist, but came in #2 on One-Shot.
I just really love this series.
2 comments:
I loved Giant Days, but I was following it in collections, and they were super expensive for some reason so I stopped after volume four. Maybe I'll pick them up again in digital form, as that's a bit more sensible in terms of price.
I bought the first seven trades to catch up to where I started buying it in single issues, and I think it took me a year and a half in part because each trade seemed prohibitively expensive for only being 4 issues. I figured it was just me being cheap, but maybe they really were that pricey.
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