‘Giant Days #14′ Comic Review

created and written by John Allison; pencils by Max Sarin; inks by Liz Fleming; colors by Whitney Cogar; letters by Jim Campbell; cover by Lissa Treiman


The latest issue of Giant Days jumps right into the action as Daisy, Esther, and Susan come face-to-face with one of the worst chores in all of modern society: finding a new apartment. Like anyone in college who is learning how to be an adult, our fearless trio waits until the last minute to start their apartment hunt. This significantly raises the stakes for our heroes—if they don’t find a new place soon all of the good apartments will be taken and they’ll be forced to live on campus with the new batch of first year students (blech!).

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This is a simple but fun setup for the issue, taking the three friends on a journey where they meet a variety of offbeat characters and eventually have a confrontation with their occasional rivals Ed Gemmell, McGraw, and their pal Dean Thompson.

The main focus of this issue is Esther. Throughout, she is faced with several internal dilemmas—each having to do with one betrayal or another. She has to decide whom in her life she is willing to betray. This is illustrated most memorably in a scene that uses the old “angel and devil on shoulder” trope very successfully. Even the way the angel and devil are dressed was really clever. Traditionally in these scenes the angel wears a robe while the devil is dressed more provocatively—which is what happens here too—but it’s done in a way that stays true to Esther’s character.

Overall, Giant Days #14 is a really strong issue where the entire creative team successfully tells really a clever and funny story. The characters are all very charming, and written and illustrated with a lot of depth. John Allison’s writing is terrific in this issue; it’s full of clever dialogue and witty exchanges between Daisy, Esther, and Susan—there are some especially great one-off jokes during the house hunting scenes that showcase Allison’s talent with writing quips.

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The art team of Sarin, Fleming, Cogar and Campbell works well together to make a comic book that is delightful and fun. Everything in this issue is expressive and colorful and completely over the top when it needs to be. The character acting and color palate really work well alongside the excellent dialogue.

That said, the book falls apart a bit in the last few pages, where the story skips ahead in time and then just kind of…ends. The primary conflict of the issue is resolved without any explanation or emotional payoff. The issue ends on a cliffhanger that might work well once this story arc is collected in a trade paperback, but felt weak in the serialized format.

But, in the end, the creative team was able to take a simple plot and use it to tell a hilarious story. More than that, this issue shows us the oddball personalities of the main characters as they interact and play off each other. It’s the group dynamic of Esther, Daisy, and Susan that makes Giant Days such a fun book to read.

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