Chasing Smaller Sheep

Boom! Box Mixtape 2015 and 2016: Fridge Raider/Music Is Important

I haven't talked about this at all so far, but Giant Days was part of BOOM!'s sadly defunt BOOM! BOX imprint, basically the ya and teen books joining Lumberjanes, Jonesey and Other Classics.

So to promote this line and try and get the cool teens to check it out, BOOM did something really neat: An anthology comic both to test possible new series and promote both upcoming series and current ongoings. Giant Days participated with 2015's Fridge Raider, to promote the series debut and 2016's Music Is Important because by that point the series was a big deal and it made sense to try and get even more Buzz while bumping up other comics included with a bonus story for those reading giant days. I did not read these for years till my big reread and I was missing out. Their simple, fun little stories that really higlight what the series is, a microdose of giant days goodness.

The first story Fridge Raider is my favorite, just a four page burst. Both stoires are done soley by John, both to keep the main book on schedule and likely because John did geninely enjoy drawing these characters he just didn't often as the whole point of giant days was to have a dedicated artist to ease his workload

It's a simple story set during year one: Someone's been pilfering goodies from the communal fridge and our heroines try to figure out who done did it with Susan's plans ranging from poison which daisy shoots down

A stake out which given how narrow the kitchnette is is impossible and interviews... which yields nothing but great jokes. Daisy being daisy takes the sensible route and asks the ra.. who turns out stole their olives, halloumi and milk and has a problem.. and apparently a livnig sentient stomach which is weird for giant days but entirely plausable in this cinematic unvierse. I love his anguished cry of HOW DO YOU KNOW THESE THINGS.

The second one Music Is Important got about two extra pages, and is another fun little side adventure. I suspect both of these shorties were first thought up as issue ideas, but didn't fit a full issue so John reporpused them for here. This time around Kully has a band, but their opening act dropped out and for some reason they can't perform without one.

Esther volunteers them to make his dreams come through and understandably none of their musical tastes mesh and they end up going to their corners then essentially performing three seperate acts at once. I'ts beautiful. it's seemingly not appreciated but may be the future of music. Simple, Silly, I like it.

Overall these aren't bad at all, reminding me of Scott Pilgrim's Free Comic Book Day Issue and FCBD stories in general: a simple brisk intro to the characters that gets you to buy the series proper. I love tha tnostlagia feeling of finding something new.. it's harder and harder in this day and age. You really have to dig and I often just.. forget to. So it's nice to be reminded of that. Okay onto

What She Said

Onto the first Holiday Special which takes a wilder swing: while John would settle into finding a place in the story to slide these specials in, just before and just after an issue of the main series respectively, here he had no real place to do that. Year One completely skips the holidays and uses that to create a mystery over where Susan is. So John's options were to do something completely diffrent or do a solo adventure. His choice?

So we have two stories and first up is a clever what if that also has the reutrn of Lissa Tremain. I forgot she came back to that but it REALLY ads to this: the story's set back when she was main artist, around the christmas ball where Ed tried to confess, Daisy crahsed out and kissed Ed, Susan and McGraw hooked up and Esther was just sad really sad.

It was in a time.. but this isn't that timeline. Instead we see a slightly diffrent alternate unvierse where the circumstances that brought the big three together never happened: The Bitch Posse gets to Esther first and keeps her at arms length from anyone else, and Susan hates esther as one of them so the friendship that's the bedrock of the series never happens.

This is a good concept: What WOULD Esther, Susan and Daisy be like without each other. The results are as sad and depressing as you'd expect: Daisy is still a tad withdrawn, Esther is stuck in a never ending party that's slowly killing her and has still broken up with Eustace thanks to the bitch posse, and Susan is.. well what yo'u expect without any of her mitigating influences: Angrier than usual at the world. SHe's also with, of all people Ed. It's a baffling and honestly works more and more for me the more I think about it: Susan has no one to ballance her and Ed, only meeting Esther properly months in in this timeline and right before the bitch posse pantses him, is lonely, weak willed and likely easily seduced and despite being clearly unhappy willing to put up with it. Her and McGraw work because their both strong personalities who won't take the other's shit and ballance each other out. Ed just hadn't buitl enough of a spine yet for this to go well and his only friend is that douchey hat guy who betrayed him in the sacred timeline. I have NO idea how they met, but as much as that idea bothered me at first he DOES live in the building. It makes almost no sense, yet makes sense in that way: they were both lonely and made a bad choice together and Susan is too stubborn to amdi her relationship is a failure and has no one to tell her no. With someone actaully backing her up on Mcgraw, something Esther and Daisy never did as they didn't have the full icture and even with it it was clear he wasn't satan like she thought, she shut him out and Grahm ended up a hermit pinnig after daisy... barking up the entirely wrong tree.

This unholy union is what evcentually sends the cast crashing back together: The bitch posse pants ed after he talks to esther, Susan prepares to go sickhouse on their asses but achieves nothing, and Esther geninely trying to apologize makes Susan realize she has an in.

Ed does point out the obvious:S usan isn't good with people. It's why I can buy this: he is snarky enough to fit her, he' sjust not a good fit at all. She's his type but he isn't hers. So being Susan she proves it by going to Daisy.. and befriends her almost instantly, realizing she was mad at the nicest person in the world for months and Daisy wanting revenge on the bitch posse makes it clear they were meant for each other and Etsher in turn apologizes. This is the one aspect i'm kinda ont he fence about: the timeline.. resets pretty damn quickly and goes about the same. Esther just was in far less classses even by her standards, befriends everyone later and ed's crush on her possibly never happens, his disasterious relationship giving him more backbone and if he does get into esther, more of a shot at actually asking her out with her in a much diffrent place where she might actually say yes or at least turn him down properly. The eustace wound is still fresh but not as gaping.

It's sad they lost time but the gang just fall into their rythum quickly, susan even realizing from the bitch posse'ss comments they somehow have a point: she IS traeting ed bad and frees him. We don't really get a sense of how some big events paid out: Did Daisy realize she was gay still? How DID esther break up with eustace this time? It leaves some answers, but I wouldn't mind revisting this timeline in fanfic or john himself touching back on it to see just how it plays out with the dynamics scrambled just enough.

McGraw ends up winning the day as susan's plan devolves into trying to drunkely fight the bitch posse, but his months long gambit of having them appear on a stage as awful people wins, he and susan are back on their collison course but perhaps in a place to not break up this time, and Daisy.. wakes up from her head injury having dreamnt all this. It helps paper over things.

Overlal this story isn't abd.. I just feel it needed more time to really play with the aspect or a followup head injury dream to really dig into how things would diverge. It's not horrible and has a good moment or two, but it could've been more. What If indeed.

How Desmond Fishman Despoiled Christmas

This one is just.. bonkers in it's guest star and floored me at the time. It still does.

John Allison's wider universe.. is weird. We discussed all the way back at the start how Esther was first introduced as a fangirl for a rock band whose dark lord was both satan an da praying mantis living in a man's beard and how her best friend got dragged to hell by a reborn allister crowley.

Yet Giant Days keeps the fantasy parts of the verse very light: They only show up in the first pilot issue as part of an experiment to see if John would enjoy doing a scott pilgrim style mix of slice of life and shonen fights, which worked but just wasn't for him and the third had a death metal cult sacrifice a character off panel. Outside of that we just have the Ra's demonic stomach, a few hints at curses in Daisy's new archelogy job in the last ongoing issue and as time goes by going full tilt weird again as an intetnional bookend.

So it was an utter shock to see Desmond Goddamn Fishman be the star of the backup story. Desmond is one of John's faviorite characters: he grew from hating the guy as much as some of the audience, to joyfully using him to shit post to this vary day.

Des was one of the main cast of Scary Go Round, a weird fish person Shelley found and basically adopted. He was stupid, mildly ungreatful choosing Shauna's family over Shelley because they had chips, and just kinda there. He had a great design but it's easy to see why fans weren't big on him. Me I just thought he was there.

Later on John made him b etter by making him ore of an absolute mess: he turned out to be the lost inbred son of a major baron rather than an aquaman, reunited thanks to Lottie and Shauna, her best friend and Des' briefly adopted silblings efforts. He then spent the fortune doing desmond fishman things, bossed around his butler and had gone full grey gardens by the time Ryan and Shelley found him again and then promptly fled.

Thankfully Des eventually found someone with more patience for his nonsense yet enough backbone to get him to actually straigthen up: Claire LIttle, one of Lotti'es best friends who was introduced early in Bad Machinery and went from a major part of a case lilkely not intended to come back, to one of the main characters and currently still one of the main characters of it's indirect sequel solver. She's a peppery but kind young lady with a lisp who dosen't pamper des and has him actually pitch in. He tried to murder her but it didn't take and instead she actually changed him, making him better and decide to raom the earth. Judging from various jokes about fishman industries, Des has earned his fortune square. He was also a vampire in a non canon Giant Days sequel where he tried to seduce esther. So there's that.

Here he's between homes. Not because anyone threw this poor thing out on the street, he just ran away because Amy and Ryan were busy with each other and no one thought to ever check in on him. So he tries to steal Esther's turkey for family christmas while she's talking to Shelley because he wanted to remember what christmas takes like and she naturally take shim home. She of course sees the good in helping someone on christmas.. her family are just annoyed... which is mildly valitated as he eats al ltheir sausages and sets a rug on fire, but still Esther's heart was in the right place. This is a funny nice little sidestory that takes us back to tackleford in a second in a way that's far more joyous than the series really gets to. Esther's ongoing estrangment from her old home is a running plot thread and both home visits hammer in how much she no longer fits. This.. is just her getting SOME family shenanigans in even if it's very clear things still aren't great. But more on how not great her family life is later, it's time for what you all came to see, what i've been building up to for the entire retrospective, one of the truly best and most bonkers crossovers ever

Giant Days/Batman: Snooker Could Be Better

Yes my friends... this is very real. I was not making this up. This is a real thing and John fully pitched it to DC during Giant Days run, but they passed on despite being totally up for weird crossovers with Hanna Barbera and Looney Tunes at the time that were just as delightfully bonkers as this as well as fun experiments with Hanna Barbera like Scooby Apocalypse or the previously reviewed Exit Stage Left: The Snagglepuss Chronicles which recasts the gay icon as a closted playwright during the MCarthy Hearings and is really good and poginant. I suspect they just didn't think Giant Days was big enough to warrant lending out their biggest character, which is all kinds of bullshit as Giant Days was both a masterful title and a real success. Thankfully they seem to have unclenched a bit as the recent DC Ko tie in with Beneath the Trees Where No One Sees, a recent indie smash about a serial killing bear, shows. It's just as bonkers as this was.

John didn't have the best luck with the big two: Marvel had him do a short power pack story that honestly felt like it easily could've been a full series, but rejected all his various pitches for smaller characters. She Hulk I suspect is simply because they were going in that angister direction that actually kinda worked at first, I can now admit Mariko Tamki's run is damn good, then did'nt when she just became savage hulk with no nuance and undid the ending of Tamaki's run but why they wouldn't greenlight a slice of life teenage story about power pack from the guy who'd proven through both bad machinery and giant days and his tryout he could or a fun death's head romp is beyond me. Books like that were selling, with Chip Zdarsky's Howard the Duck , Ryan North's Squirrel Girl and Christopher Hastings Dr. McNinja, the latter two also having started in Webcomics. So why they rejected him I can only guess that they wanted him to just shut up and do what ask, he didn't so they showed him the door and likely looked down on him despite being a big deal at the time. DC likely did the same.

It probably didn't help John dosen't really like to do traditional crossovers. He said outright at Giant Days height at requests for things like Bad Machinery/Lumberjanes or Bad Machinery/Gotham Academy he just wasn't intretsted in that kind of team up, and instead liked to get fucking weird pitching Giant Days/ROM Space Knight, a crossover I still want some day. It shows in the crossovers he HAS done on his own time: He choose to cross over his slice of life with the goddamn batman and create an AU with conan the fucking barbarian, something that didn't sit well with the dickheads at the robert e howard estate.

The Conan Crossover ended up scrubbed from the web. I HOPE it's floating somewhere out there, and the universe was salvaged for the giant days AU Savage Sword of Susan recently, but the sheer legal quagmire really rattled john for a while and lead to him having to take stock. It's only in the last two years he's really seemed to recover from both that shit and Dark Horse dropping his series steeple and I still hold a grudge against the Howard Estate for suing a webcomic man who was just having fun and geninely had no profit.

And as exibit B for how bad they are... this crossover IS STILL UP. I did not have to scour the internet to read Snooker Could Be Better. He hasn't put it in print and never intends to unless DC decides "Hey let's do this", but it remains up for all to enjoy and he was able to even put the pdf out on patreon with no issue. The same can be said for his X-Men tribute Kit + The Wolf. Yes John made an x-men issue and yes it was awesome, a fun one off where Kitty Pryde and her real father Wolverine go to a Bruce Springstien who was in a transformers comic once's concert and fight to save him. It's weirdly entirely in character and fits the style of 80's marvel where I suspect John is most comfy. And given all the flashback series now a days I question why they havne't tapped him for one. Disney, one of the most litigious companies on earth and Warner, ran by the biggest idiot ever who may soon be replaced by a bigger idiot if Ellison isn't stopped, both said "eh he's just doing a fan fiction basically" and let it ride.

And i'm glad they weren't hollowed out ghouls like the Howard Estate because not only did I not finish this one in print, I didn't even get to Bruce in costume, but it's a real blast, one of the series best to the point I struggled to decide if I'd put this series or issue 4 on my best of list. It just barely didn't make it.

Snooker Could Be Better takes place during Year 2, impliclity before Ingrid crashes back into their lives given the fall setting and the fact Susan still isn't talking to McGraw. The gals are attending a big museum shindig as Daisy's been doing volunteer work there

Susan wanting to touch the mummy is one of my faviorite jokes series wide and one I remembered. I just lost track of the series.

The opening is being attended by one Bruce Wayne, the most elligible bachelor alive, ethical billionare who could only exist and of course The Goddamn Batman. Speaking of which John apparently said during this the Batman in this story is the same one from All Star Batman and Robin. And I never thought i'd have to get into this tire fire in a Giant Days retrospective but here we are. I do think John was kidding and the reason is the Batman in ASBAR is well i'll let him tell you

Yes that is The Godammed Batman calling a 12 year old an R Slur for no real reason and answers nothing. ASBAR has Batman kidnap a 12 year old who just watched his parents die, try to make him eat rats, slap his butler for daring to, beating up the justice league because he's a giga chad and they all admit he's better, and have rough sex with Black Canary on a dock all while talking about Gotham as if he's about to have rough sex with it too. The series is one I haven't read but have seen enough of in reviews to know it's batshit insane and would gladly cover if anyone's intrested. My sanity might take a hit but there's enough goddamn batman for a million reviewers.

My point here is John Allison's Batman does not match Crazy Uncle Frank Millers.. because John's version of Batman actually RESEMBLES Batman. He plays up being a bit dull in public to hide his facade, but John does a good job making it clear i'ts an act and that Bruce can be more clever than he seems, shooting pool and being far more himself. He's far closer to Batman the Animated Series in his portryal, being direct and buisnessy with the cases but willing to Joke with Alfred instead of put him in a choke hold and show compassion to his enemy. He's what batman should be: Gruff, violent, a tad standofish but ultimately a good man doing the right thing. ASBAR Batman is a violent egotist who thinks he's a god and just punches people. ASBAR batman is what Susan thinks of Batman in this story: A facist who just beats up mentally ill people instead of a man working within and without the system to make everything better. It was a good joke, don't get me wrong, just fathoming this madness is what John Allison's america is is hlarious, but John is just too good a writer for it to be more than that.

While Bruce is in the story and given enough pov moments to show his personality, the Batman is restrained, only showing up in newspaper clipings till the final stretch with Bruce taking up most of the screen time. It's a smart move: too much batman would probably break the immersion but keeping him to the side keeps the grounded nature of giant days, while the weirder nature of the wider allisonverse and the first and last issues of Giant Days itself means a costumed villian themed around Snooker (Pool for us americans), fits right on in.

Said masked fiend wants to clown on the world snooker asscoiation as he was once a major player but his attempts to inovate the game instead go thim blacklisted and left him bitter. It's the delightful kind of nonsense that creates a silver age super villian and I like that while Batman still feels modern, John's supervillian sensiblities are as silver agey as fuck, whiel still giving the man the modern tragedy you'd expect from a batman: The Snooker Man is really not horrible he just wants to say Snooker Could Be Better and isn't commiting nay high crimes. His technical name is 147, a refrence to how that's the optimal score while his game vairant raised it higher, but Snooker Man sounds more on brand.

The focus is less on the bat and more the rest of the cast: Susan wanting a reward for a tip line, ropes Daisy into sluthing whlie Esther naturally is VERY taken with the goddamn batman. Also Susan htis on bruce wayne at one point. It's not plot relevant but it is fucking golden. So esther puts on embarassing fan gear and ends up bonding with McGraw. Alas Batman just isn't intrested in Bat Groupies and is more in love with the job or cats in latex so it could never be. Also she's like.. the same age his son would be.. or younger depending on the canon here. Batman has a lot of children but for all his manhowring for apperances never seems to sleep with college kids. He has lines that good ole brucey.

As for Susan she doe sfind the culprit.. but goes to bat for him, faking an Alibi. And this is my faviorite part showing susan, as black and white as she tries to see the world.. can see this is just a sad man railing against an unfair system who committed no crimes except painting snooker could be better.. and Batman is on the exact same page, seeming to just take their explinatoin.. but it's Batman. He's a detective among 50 other things. As good as Susan is at like 15 diffrent things, she's not a good liar. But this is where that compassion I mentioned comes in: he lets the man go because he did no real harm and only went after him because well.. Batman spends most of his time fighting people who DO genuinely use their tragic backstories as an excuse to harm people and do usually esclate beyond just simple graffito tagging. While Batman CAN sometimes be that level of unforgiving asshole to one's past this is how he should be: Willing to punish yes bu talso geninely trying to help. I wouldn' tbe suprised if Bruce reached out to him after with offers to sponosor his league in the us. It's who he is.

This crossover works far better than it had any right to: instead of coasting on the novelty it geninely meshes the two while showing that of all characters, John Allison REALLY understands batman and understood how to best have him interact. Now I think about it the fact Batman isn't overemphasied probably didn't help DC wanting to make this, as Batman only shows up towards the end. Yet doing so let' sit still be a giant days story: just let our favs react to the bat's presecnse. We have tons of batman stories but we only ahve one giant days story with batman as the guest star. And that's special.

Issue 49: No Way Home

This issue is a rough one, one the series has been building to since issue 13 and hinted at: We've see how Esther hasn't really GONE home when she hasn't had to, how she's found ways out of it or to delay it when possible and how she dreads talking with her parents anymore, a far and sad cry from their tearful goodbye. Even planning to go home last time is more an act of desperation for her thesis than an actual warm return.

It's a common theme, that idea home changes and shifts as you age. Even not having left home myself, life just dosen't sit still and that's what our power trio has faced so far: Susan found her parents marriage was on rickety ground and there was really nothing she could do to fix it, only a distraction papered over it for now. Daisy found her granny, while loving, is as human as anyone and lashed out when Ingrid outed her... but also found that safety still mattered as her Granny made up as soon as she could. Both faced painful lessons that things can change or your perspective can and that MAYBE you can get a normal back but it's all up to other people.

With Esther her lesson is the hardest truth of all: Home.. isn't home anymore. She has nothing left here and her parents feel like absolute strangers who can't stop asknig what she's going to do next or questioning her struggles with her thesis. What was behavior they were used to in high school has become worrying as the end of University beckons, while Esther herself takes it personally as an indictment that she has no idea what she's doing.. because she knows she dosen't and it's scaring her. Instead of offering her comfort their only adding to her anxiety.

And her friends.. have all moved on. Shelley's in London, Ryan is "Lol on my honeymoon" even Sarah's visiting a boyfriend. Big Lindsay isn't mentioned for some reason, but likely she's also busy and has a whole life raising her child. We saw some of this last time, how everyone in her life moved on but by this late stage it's setting in more and more. Nothings the same and even a pub visit simply leaves her alone with people younger than her.

It does have her run into one of the only people left from her old life and the biggets loose end: Eustace. We saw he was still pining for esther at the end of their reunion and saw long before that in John's more direct sequel to scary go round, Bobbins NOW, following the cast of Scary Go Round and what they were up to during Bad Machinery, with this closing that gap: We see Eustace as a lonely man more than happy to return to his beloved hometown and insecure about the pounds he's put on, with Esther not at all phased and liking it.

He's also sadly still in love with Esther and while she enjoys the friendly face and warm memories... she can only call herself stupid after realizing that as warm and safe as things feel, as much as she'll likely always feel something... it's not right. He wants to go back to the place she's slowly realized is behind her now. That as much as it hurts and as uncertain as the future is... Tackleford isn't part of it.

She ends up not making their date for the next day, not wanting to lead him on.. and leaving a hole that will take years to fill. Eustace's life will not be that happy for a while, mostly binge eating and quite study while getting mocked by his boss' 11 year old daughter. Mildred is the best but she's savage to Eustace.. and also likes him because that's how children work. She's also one of Lottie's best friends by that point but that is a story for another day. He pines for someone whose not coming back till a cameo in the finale and had moved on from him.

Thankfully things get slightly better thanks to the return of his old Mentor Tim, whose a bit of a dick throwing out his xbox but does help eustace with his self image and living like a human because his own life is in shambles. The better one is Erin, who was back for Bad Machinery, and while Eustace can't remember her because of that whole Hell Amnesia thing, he still feels sparks with her and after blowing his first shot talking about esther too much easily gets a second.. and Erin likes a little cushion for the pegging so she's good.

Things naturally don't go smooth as they never have: John ONCE AGAIN tried to wrap everything up with a big crisis event telling himself this time would be diffrent.

Yeah he left the story with more questions than answers and ONCE AGAIN wrote Erin, who he's not very fond of, off by having her end up in hell. While she and eustace were reconcling after a rough patch to save his life she agreed to return to hell though it at least restored everyone's memories.

This one two combo of giving her life for him AND restoring their other shared history naturally left Eustace a depressed wreck and he ended up trying to contact hell.. and killing himself instead, reincarnating as Erin's horse science.

After a failed pilot about the two in hell, John finally decided to wrap it all up again but this time realized he had to give Erin and Eustace a satisfying ending. So he did: The two were ejected from hell and ended up in a weird limbo with all the characters john had forgotten or moved on from over the years. Or outright killed off. While there the possiblity esther was there caused the two to have another fight even though Erin had just admitted she loved Eustace to santa claus, and vice versa, but it wasn't and Eustace finally moved the fuck on and embraced the real love of his life. The two returned to life and whie Eustace was last seen faking his death the two still seemed to be together and fianlly got somethign resembling a happy ending. So while it took a LONG time, Eustace would be happy eventually and likely is now. Will we see him again? probably not. But at least he's happy. And no one's in hell anymore. So we're cool.

The other familiar face is Lottie and I love what John does here as she's still the same little chaos gremlin as before.. but the context is diffrent. At Sheffield she was a tourist who got to experince that side of things, drink too much sugar, give McGraw and Susan a taste of having a children, and free Daisy from her self made prison by getting her to see in pure logical terms her relationship was a nightmare. She was the guest star , everyone else were the main characters.

Here it feels flipped as while Lottie's happy to hang out, she's also busy. She's on the clock to solve a mystery. Lottie's side of things isn't a giant day story, but bits and pieces of a Bad Machinery Case we never saw that Esther just happens to be the guest star in. While Bad Machinery techincally starts a few months later in canon, in september of that year with Case of the School Spirit, it's shown Lottie and her bestie Shauna tackled tons of mysteries before hand, from the final story in scary go round with micheal jackson's child, long story, to finding Des Fishman's dad. So this fits just right in: Lottie is already a capable young lady in the middle of her own adventures and Esther is just kinda... ping ponged along, serving as the distraction while Lottie tries to steal holy water only for the vicar there to be like "There's a tap you can use" and later tricking our brave heroine into helping her with the climax of the mission

I love that little ho ho. So fittingly mischevous. But it underlines that while Esther used to kinda sink into these stories by accident she just dosen't fit into solving mysteries anymore. Adult life has drained her enthusasim for that out of her. She has bigger worries. Where as Lottie just found a loop hole when shit got too real and started solving people's problems instead. Again story for another time. While this retrospective is done i'm not remotely done with John Allison, I just need a minute. Though slots are open if anyone's intrested.

Eventually after tons of procstionation, escapism and defiance, Esther FINALLY breaks down admitting she just dosen't fit anymore to her mum who admits it's hard they never see her and she's grown past them. They reconcile, on slightly better terms.. but it never makes their relatoinship CLOSE again and as we'll see in the final issue doesn't leave it on solid ground.

Still it's an excellent issue, one that really sells that Esther just dosen't belong.. and gives a good explination to why she didn't pop up anywhere else aside from a cameo in what was intended to be the FINAL Bobbinsverse story ever till NEMS last year. Esther just dosen't feel at home, the one friend she has left is a children with her own life, Shelley wasn't back at the time. She probably still visits her parents on occasion but her old home just feels.. small now. The world is wider than that and she wants more. She's still not sure what she wants but she can tell this isn't it. Her showing up for Shelley, especially given a story we'll soon get to, makes perfect sense, but her hanging around long enoguh to be a cast member again just isn't in the cards.

It thankfully dosen't mean she's just ghosted everyone who wasn't a main cast member in giant days: In her current series as an adult herself, Lottie frequently refers to her friend Esther, and Shelley and Esther are still on great terms as seen by the climax of NEMS. So it's probable given their history she's also kept up with Sarah and probably Ryan and Amy. She kept what she could but Tackleford isn't home and as John moves away from it more and more, his most recent return being for the solver pilot circus windows and a few small scenes, it likely never will be.

Issue 50: Giant Days is my Faviorite Sports Manga

So here we are. Issue 50. A massive milestone for any series ESPECIALLY in modern day where that's about as far as you can resonably hope. We've been over all that before.

So for this anniversary John decided to have one last weird messaround issue, one last caper, one issue like the film festival back in year one that just takes an idea and spends the issue riffing on it. No emotional stakes, just pure character humor for 22 pages with only one hidden gut punch at the very end.

The setup is simple: McGraw is part of a pub league for Cricket, a sport I won't remotely try to explain and the best I can tell you is that bob fossil dosen't like it. Here's his reason why

Their about to go up against the best in the league, a bunch of douchey rivals with daddy's money to get decent equipment.

McGraw is convinced he can do this... but things end up going tits up as you'd expect and as is necessary for shenanigans: the fish everyone but McGraw, who had already ate and his friend Paul, who was too nervous to at the pub was what bad and his whole team's out. Susan is susan about this at first, but feels geninely empathy for her boyfriends loss and decides to do the most classic play in all of sportsball: gather a team of untested underdogs.

So susan grabs whoever she can: There's the completely understandable choice of Nina, as she's a sports machine and comes from a country that's apparently really good at cricket, Ed who couldn't run away fast enough, Cully who she racistly assumes is good at cricket and looks exausted but still shows up , Esther who naturally thinks this is a sports anime and her outfit is key, and Dean in his last major role, as he just so happened to be walking past. Rounding out the team are Daisy who brought Saffy along. Daisy is of course their other ringer while Saffy has confident eyebrows susan is in love with. there's a little heart even. I love all the possibly accidental hints at bi susan and wish I could've included every last one.

The resulting fracas is just an excuse to play into the characters and do shenanigans. Susan butchers the rules of the game in the most susan way possible.

Esther gets her anime moment, and Daisy is extremley good at this till the opposing team realizes bad bad bad bad girls make her feel so good and use their striker against her. Susan tries to both smoke and drink on the pitch, and Dean just cowers in fear as you'd expect

It ends up down to Paul who was having confidence issues but McGraw and esther ar eable to pepper him up, McGraw by pointing out they have no one athletic left by that point and her by having him hit as if he was saving the sun. He does, and the game is won.

I'm REALLY oversimpflying this one as there's just so many gags packed in and this being the final chapter I have to be VERY judicious with my image and video space. But Daisy's attitude to bad girls being I can fix them, esther's anime crashout and inspiring speech, pauls' genuine relief at saving the sun there's a ton of fantastic little gags packed into this and facial experessions as mcgraw is understandably on the edge whole game even if he's the GOAT. Also him saying daisy is "too horny to bowl" will live rent free in my head. This one's well worth checking out an da good intro if your intrested. It's one of John's faviorites and mine too, just a masterpiece from start to finish.

It does end on a downer. McGraw had been talking to his dad earlier, his dad asking annoying questions about his printer and had his phone off for the game.. and

Issue 51: Mourning

This is another standout issue. The final stretch is incredibly strong, with nothing left to do but fucking nail the landing and get in every last story that needed telling. And while I was hard on the noir issue for not really needing to exist when two subplots needed the time.. this issue is absolutely necessary. The story coudl've been done as a reunion or whatever but it works so well because like death is in life, like it was when I lost my grandpa and felt a lot of this pain... it's most often sudden. You don't see a slow decline coming you just see maybe one for a few days at most then poof. Someone who was core to your being is gone. It works best coming smack in the middle of this final stretch, where it sucker punches you as much as him and the announcment works so well because it comes after such a silly issue... McGraws life was just going on as normal, his last argument was getting fed up with his dad's need for wireless on his printer soley because he paid for it and now he's just.. gone.

We skip past the funeral, a solid choice as McGraw is everyone else's rock during it and most of the cast wouldn't have the time to attend. Susan is the only one approaching graduation, and the one he needs right now.

The problem is exactly that: McGraw was fine.. but he hasn't really emotoinally broken yet. He's clearly not.. okay, no one would be and after being sent home by his mum spends his time either sleeping or on the roof.. just weirdly quiet even for him. He eats, Daisy being daisy takes time out of her busy if kissing free (to susan's annyance) schedule to make them all the meals they'll need, but he's just not present and Susan is bad at this and is frustrated by the fact she can't relate: she was a small child when all but her last remaining grandparent died. Daisy was likewise young when it happened hoping...

It's intresting to see Susan like this.... just plain stuck on a problem she can't bulldoze along or at least try her damndest to. It's not the first time: her breakup, the brief rift with daisy , her own self loathing, trying to comfort ed all flumoxed her but all of those either had ways around or someone to step in and fix it. Here.. she sorta gets that but the underlying issue isn't something she can fix; She can't MAKE McGraw ready to grieve or make him feel any better. She can try everything she's got, but he's lost in his own head, his grief and as he admits later the struggle with the expectation he needs to grief. He dosen't hold it against anybody, he's just honest; i'ts hard to grieve when you don't know how.

Thankfully while Daisy only does what she can, Esther has a solution: a weekend getaway to a small cottage with the whole team squad, Nina very much included. As announced at the start of the issue, Esther won that essay contest she broke her thumbs over, and has decided to use that prize money to treat everyone.. and because frankly two of her best friends REALLY need this. I mean Daisy, Ed and Nina likely do too, but Susan and McGraw need this and the trip helps him soften up a bhit, finally at least talk again. As does Esther, figuring he's had enough death, wearing a flower print dress she got from Shelley.

While Esther frets on her job offer from the bank men who made her an offer back at the career fair, the emotional damn FINALLY snaps and mcgraw cries and confides the issue opener to susan: that he just felt guilty and dosne't really ugly cry. And Susan proves she's far better at this than she thought as all he really needed was support till he was ready to burst and a gentle hand to remind him no you didn't cause your father's death and things can be better. Esther gets her interview and McGraw is happy to celebrate with her.

So with that Esther goes into the machine

Issue 52: La Winters Folie Au Deux

So it's time for another Esthercentric issue. She's got the heaviest focus in this final batch but it does make sense. Esther got less focus than the other two last season, and her arc here has been well built up all series: Esther has spent the series dancing through life, caring more about her fits than her grade average, and while very smart, having no real direciton other than "Enjoy the moment brah". She's not brainless in the slightest, being highly emotoinally intellgent, an excellent friend and very clever when she needs to be, she just has no direction, taking up an english degree largely because "eh I like writing enough". I Sympathize as while I knew I wanted to be a writer, I didn't lock in enough to get that as my degree instead getting general because my anxiety was getting to be too much. You think you have forever to decide your future but then the years slip away more and more and your left wondering where the hell your going. Even having a steady-ish career here.. I sometimes wonder if this is remotely sustanable or how i'm going to live for much longer.

So having no idea Esther decides to just immitate who she thinks is the most succesful person in her life: Shelley, who comes back for another spotlight issue and another case of John using Giant days to close the gaps in his story. Post Time Skip Shelley had gone from working in the ministry of history to a succesful children's book author. The change wasn't too radical, Shelley's careers always felt like god picked them out on a spinning prize wheel and her bubbly personality and passion for nonsense were perfect.

Giant Days tells us how she got there and it turned out to once again be suprisingly later than I thought. Just like Amy and Ryan's wedding it only happens months before Bad Machinery and given the next issue is about the last week of school likely only about 5 at this point at best if not less.

Still it was a tell worth telling and one JOhn slyly set up at christmas: it was clear Shelley was miserable. Tons of booze to drown the pain after work, a job she really didn't care for that alternated between soul crushing office job and time travel shenanigans, and her love life was DOA as Shelley has an objectively weird and often disasterious taste in men. The most stable men she's dated are a mad scientst who nearly blew up Tackleford afte rblowing up his own life by sleeping with Shelley while married, and a preist with a need to beat magical creatures senseless and a talking car.

So naturally esther, not realizing most of this, decided to model her life on Shelley which Shelley understandably has a panic and wine attack about. It's one thing for her own life to be a miserable grind that will never seemingly end while her two best friends get married and happily move on with their lives, it's another for her to accidental drag Esther into it on the same impluse: Surely working for a big vauge office I don't really care about can't be that bad right?

Thankfully while Shelley worries so hard she gets half the day off work, she didn't need to as Esther spots how souless the bank she's come to interview is after all and while badly needing a job is smart enough to realize she's just going to end up a souless power suited money monster by the end of this with little hopes of advancement and gets the fuck out.

While Shelley treats esther to a soul cleansing metal concert and herself to a soul cleansing makeout with one of the band members, Daisy anticpating she and Susan would be really worried booked some end of school bonding time with her bestie

Both adorable and geninely sweet.

So after some heavy metal lovin, Shelley is finally unglued enough to admit she's unhappy, unhappy, very very very very unhappy. She just wants to write books but her one erotic novel is too potent to publish, a gag from Scary Go Round carried over here. Also her parents might see.

So Esther being a true friend and wanting to help decides to take a gamble and call Ken Lord. If you've forgot , which fair even if your binging these that was still back in part 5, Ken was a visiting lecturer at the school... and attempted to take advantage of esther while she was drunk, with Amelia barely saving our faviorite goth.

Ken being a powerful figure figured one attempt at getting creepily handsy with a much younger woman wasn't enough, and told Esther to look him up when she was in london. How he got that to her or knew her number I don't know and frankly I don't wanna. I just want to take a long cleansing shower.

Shelley shows she's a good mentor by both realizing "Look him up" means "have sex with him" and immeditley telling Esther she dosen't want her to do this. Esther already has so it's too late for that, but it's nice to show that as weird as she can be and as much of a mistake as she made with the Ryan and Sarah thing, Shelley DOES have good judgement about her young friends and "Just say no to a sex pest" is not really a plan unless you add "And stab him in the junk and run if he dosen't take no for an answer" as your second step.

Thankfully for esther the Shelley part of the plan is easy: Just have her be charming to a bunch of literary types where her natural winning personality only spells dollar signs. It's one thing to write good it's another to be able to put on a show. Shelley can do both.

Thankfully Ken's tactics this time is just sit on his desk all shawn micheal sin playgirl like and say "Do I make you horny baby?" which fails as does his attempt to sell banging a college student as a way to get his often absent wife back.

This does impress a literarty agent who was curious why Esther would do all this just for a plate of cheese. Upon finding out Esther did this for the good of her friend and had picked up on how easy this would be for shelley, offers our goth a job while Barry, Shelley's future longtime agent, signs her. The two prance off in victory with Esther having achieved her goal simply by being.. that smart. While the ken part of it was a massive gamble that only worked because Ken wasn't willing to commit sexual assault that didn't involve wine first, it still took balls to just frankly tell a larger man who tried to drug you into sleeping with him once how your not going to fuck him ever. And the shelley part was just pure knowing people well a skill that could be really good in being an agent and that her future boss picked up on. Esther is good at helping people and knowing them. She can be oblivious but she's great at manuvering socially.

Esther almost dosen't take the job as she can't afford to live in london, but Shelley offers to let her stay: She owes her big time for all of this, and her apartment is more than big enough for two.

Issue 53: The Last Dance

And with this we enter the final three issues of the series, two ongoing and one special to wrap it all up. This is what I meant by it sneaking up on you: we go from what seems to be a pretty normal day to Daisy and Esther's final week of school. It's such a big event to just whomp you in the face suddenly and mostly spend on one last trip to the night world. I get not getting too stock finale with it, you can overdo it, but to end all this so suddenly feels off. There was more to do, more to say. Again I can't blame john in his exaustion, just recapping this entire series has been one of the biggest mountains i've climbed in my whole career it just felt over too soon. I lost a ballancing part of my month I never got back and still miss it. I have a slice of john every monday wedsday and friday but I miss it monthly, just this virbant wonderful series.

The issue is alright as Daisy tries to stop Coralie from commiting one big ole revenge prank after some smaller one sas a harbringer, bringing back the medciine ed got from poundland, it cost a pound and going full cyberpunk and obessing over Coralie.. which ends up being the point, using Daisy's determination against her to get her to waste the last week of school and time she won't get back. It's simple enough and frankly I adore the bookend of it being one last dance: We ended issue 1 with a ball, we ended the first semister with one and the first year. It only feels right ot return to the dance floor one last time with a full circle moment under the same tree as last time.

This moment is beautiful, a nice circle back.. and feels very true to both the author and audience. this is one of the best rides ever.. and i'ts almost over. The issue is fine but this moment is really a cut above everything else in it, a call back well set up.

Still Daisy does get a happy ending

This is one of the sweetest moments in the entire comic.. and even sweeter than I thought. I'm not taking credit for spotting that though as Swaaz, MetallicMudskipper and HeyHeyHaydn over at the scary go round server i've mentioned once or twice noticed something important; Saffy's kiss parallels and contrasts Daisy's last kiss with a girl

INgrid's kiss was forceful, somewhat selfish and while also a suprise more intentionally catching her off guard. Saffy's.. is gentler. Like Daisy with , ironically enough Ingrid, she cups her gently, kisses her far less roughly and keeps her space. It's intimate and romantic still, full of every bit of feeling she had as Saffy realized this was likely her shot and sure as hell made it count.. but there's an understanding of Daisy that was completely absent from he previous relationship. That it's okay to suprise her and to do this, she'll likely appreciate it, but to do it gently and conseually to give space for her to pull back if she dosen't like it but make it clear this is love and not just lust. It's such a well done moment and props to all involved for remembering the hand positiong and the mirroring.

Saffy and Daisy.. is rushed. I've talked about this and there's no real overt hints. She was juts holding in a crush this whole time. Part of that makes sense; Saffy loves and respects Daisy and knows Daisy wouldn't dare even approach a romance with a massive power imbalance, so waiting till Daisy's time as RA is basically done is understandable. IT again shows she knows Daisy and that's what's important: SHe knows and loves Daisy for the sometimes overly trusting but kind loving mess she is and not some fictoinal version who goes clubbing all the time. She's savy enough to ballance her out, but unlike Ingrid dosen't want to choke the innocnce out of her she just wants to be there for her. She's what Daisy needed when she was ready for it. It's beautiful.

Giant Days #54: See You Again

Gentleman, Ladies and that beautiful technicolor inbetween and beyond may I present the gayest page in comics history. Completely complimentary. And it's only not healthy because they didn't factor mcgraw in otherwise this would be fine. He can scooch between. Also adore the cameo by the creepy clown puppet and the guy fieri duvet. Thought it was macho man randy savage at first. Makes me realize we have no solid evidence Guy Fieri isn't the son of Macho Man Randy Savage.

Anyways Esther choose not to come back to her parents choosing to stay with Susan while Daisy choose sofa because of previous experinces. After a very gloriously bi few weeks it's time for the proper graduation and this issue is a great one. I love a good graduation story and while gilmore girls still has my faviorite ("I'm crying all of you are freaks"), this is up there.

It's a very relaxed issue too as everyone readies for graduation day and Susan readies to steal all the scrolls she can carry because of course she does. We see everyone: Dean Thompson is a dick one last time after Esther chooses to stay, see you again in solver buddy and just to put a pin in that lawsuit I mentiond he gave that up to help a friend before making an even bigger blunder in the most well meaning and dean thompson way possible. As his is lot... but at least he's no longer alone.

We get small moments: Ed has to suffer his parents, though Ken Lord get sosme well deserved karma by having to talk to Ed's, but does get a nice shorter hair cut for his mum, he and Nina are still going strong, and Amelia shows up one last time for what Esther knows is a hollow "We'll never see each other again goodbye". Just nice small bits. We've done most of the big "this is the end stuff" already. The good news is Ed will be in london. He'll be working for that heartless corpration. he's also also a literature grad.

The real drama of course is Esther who scraps with her parents who find out about her tatoo from way back in issue 3 that I honestly forgot about but has shown up here or there. Their pissy about it, she's upset their mad at her but some good words from ed finally get them to give it up and they reconcile at long last. especially since she's defintely getting more. Gonna have a whole sleeve that girl. Daisy gets an omnius warning from the chancelor of the archelogy department an da plum job offer and susan and mcgraw are fine as ever. It's really just a sweet, slow celebration of how close everyone is and a stock check. I would've liked an actual resolution for nina or at least a hint where her future's going, but there's enough here I can' t complain and like dean she coudl easily pop up elsewhere.

And with all degrees collected it's time to finally say the most painful word of all: Goodbye

Except i'ts not.. we get a bhit of a chaser as a year later Susan and Daisy have been regularly meeting for reunions.. but esther keeps slipping. One of the bitch posse from way back when mocks them telling them theyf inally won.. and this .. goes on to have nothing to do with the actual conflict keeping esther away. But it is good setup. While the final issue has the tearful farewell needed, a truly epic hug and one last good bye, all the endings necessary... John found an even better way to end the series: one last special, the extra sized, the amazing the one and only as time goes by

Giant Days: As Time Goes By: You And I Will Always Be Best Friends

So where we are. The very end of the comic... and i'm tearing up as I write this. The very end of one of the best comics ever written, one of my faviorites now and forever. I've had one or two age a bit on me, see New X-Men which I love but I have to admit has aged like fine milk on a hot sidewalk in places. Giant Days hasn't.. it's a timeless coming of age story that gets it's dynamics right. Maybe parts will but the core will always hold.

It's also the best ending John's ever written. It's not a stiff race, both Scary Go Round and Bad Machinery have satisfying ending but the former is largely a backdoor pilot for the latter and the latter, while a solid ending does leave some things hanging. It's hard as John dosen't want to just button up characters lives as you can't use them again and sometimes tries rushing it. It took three attempts to give erin a true ending to her story that felt right, one that leaves it open. Endings are fucking hard and while there's a ton of good ones, it's a rare bird to pull off a truly great one.

And that's what this is: a perfect thematic and character capper. Our heroines have come of age... so what's next? What comes about a year later?

For Daisy it's true happiness

The mentoin of ghosts isn't a joke: The previous issues mentioned curses and Daisy's next assignment, the tomb of footballer Derrick Dooley seems heavily cursed. But her life.. is belssed. She's in love, in a steady career and the two will likely move in together next year.

The other two are not doing so good. Esther is in hell trying to work and work, horribly lonely and in the cluthces of the cressidia's, two asshole girl bosses who constantly manipulate poor esther into constant parties and exaustion to get her to do more work. Her boss who hired her helps when she can but she can only do so much. esther is alone with Shelley on tour and keeps missing meetings because deep down she worries. It's her ultimate fears realized: She's trapped in a career she dosen't want and utterly alone.

Susan is better her medical school going well and McGraw and her still as good as ever.. at first. When resetting his wallpaper to be her looking nice for the meetup, she finds out he's been turning down jobs to stay with her and it leads to a nasty fight. Not the best mood to go into when Esther, thanks to her othe rboss FINALLY shows up.

Susan is naturally livid having no context, while Daisy is more sympathetic. Naturally reoncilation for Esther bailing dosen't come easy: Esther can't admit it and those darn bitches followed her to drag her away because they suck a bunch. It's only when things almost completely break down that esther finally sobs the trutha nd daisy admits it's hard: Esther hasn't let them in to avoid dragging them down, noticing the pattern of them always rescuing her.. but in doing so has nearly blown up their friendship. It's telling though that Daisy's breaking point is jus t"Please fucking talk to us".. and that's more than enough for Esthe rto finally do so and while Susan puts up a front of being ready to stab her best friend with a butter knife, the second Esther apologizes it's like the last year hadn't happened.

It's the perfect final conflict: Esther neglected her friends.. but only because she was drowning and afraid of pulling them down when theyw ere doing well.. yet we see how strong it is as it only takes mintues to rebound and less for Susan to not only suss out why Esther is miserable, she's in a job she hates with no emotoinal support only emotoinal vampires, but prepare to throw hands with these monsters. Susan can get volcanically angry, rightfully upset.. but she ultimately can't hate esther and Esthe rultimately can't drag them down... because they pull her up. It's what friendship is.. when your drowning and feeling shitty yoru friends help you up the best they can. Anxiety may make you worry you'll pull them down but your not.. eveyrbody needs help and while Esther's a drama magnet what she's caught in isn't a failure of her character or anything.. it just happens and you need someone to help you rage quit.

Things do get a lot trickier though as JOhn decided to bookend things by getting fucking weird again. It's not a full on scott pilgrim fight but the cressidia's turn out to be a weird hive mind of other office drones they've absorbed and want to add esther to the collective. I love the way max draws them as a spooky haunted ghost people cloud. It felt fucking weird at the time, but works so well on reread... they entered adulthood with a weird super fight, it ends with one that's also better paired for the series; the original fight was just more "Look I can do scott pilgrim". This one is metaphorical, about how a career or life you don't want can swallow you... the very thing Esther's been running from she acccidently ran into and now serves as the final boss.. and it's something she can't defeat alone.

While running for her life though susan naturally reconciles iwth McGraw, saying they can work through long distance if necessary and she'll go with him. THeir stronger than that and she was wrong to snap at him for just trying to be with her, but wants him to be his best self. He gives her a skeliton key as a response which in typical susan fashion she's not sure how she'lll use it.

It ends up being the perfect finale to Daisy and Esther's plan, worked up in a post office as the Cressidias would have to jump the queu. So the final plan ends up being luring them.. and then opening derreck dooley's tomb

So with that metaphor sucked into a ghosts mouth and the tomb resealed, Esther tries to sort out her life deciding to just shrug and make a face at the cressidia's absences and figure out what she really once. And we end on one of the best final sets of panels of all time

This is a truly perfect ending.. we don't know where Esther's life will go.. we just know it'll never be alone and that no matter how far they go.. her friends are there for her. The friendship may of gotten really battered.. but it was never broken and now fully repaired whatever Esther does next.. she's not alone.. and she never was.

Giant Days is one of the best comics ever. I've said that a lot and this retrospective only reinforced that. It's a masterpiece of character work, comedy and true growth with truly standout artists doing their best work here. It's John Allison's masterpiece: Solver may one day equal it but I doubt anything will suprass it. It's a true work of art and if all this has taught you anything please let it be to get out and read it. I hope one day BOOM is open to a webcomic partnership or something because this series needs to be readable by everyone everywhere> it's that good.

12. Love and Other Drugs (Issue 4)

Issue 4 was an important one in my Giant Days Journey. it was the last of the first collection of boom comics, one i'd picked up for only a dollar on digital, and while i'd had tastes of the characters depth over the previous few issues, McGraw showing himself to be far too kind to be the villian Susan painted him as in her pain at his rejection, and Daisy dealing with her lonliness and the death of her pidgeon friend Gordon, it's this issue that's the first of the ongoing to really dive into just how good the series could get at dramatic storytelling, at grounded moments of personal pain that still have a sense of a light at the end of the tunnel. It was my first taste as I hadn't read the online issues yet and wasn't aware they existed and damn if i'ts not a meal.

Issue 4 deals with two plots: the easier one first is that Susan previously painted her ex friend and crush mcgraw as a misognyist in a poorly made misandrist zeen. What she didn't expect was it to spread throughout Sheffield's teens with tweens who knew no better spreading it around and making the poor man, who'd GENINELY done nothing wrong in this case, a pariah. It does lead to one of the best jokes as a high as balls daisy accidently feeds into it

Susan ultimately has to both fess up to thier past and and be the adult and mend fences, giving us the painful story of their relationship: They were close friends, they got int rouble but when she asked him out. .he rejected her for reasons we never find out, something he clearly regrets. She ultimately puts the baggage aside ot make an uneasy peace that turns into a slightly less uneasy relationship that proves to be the backbone of both characters storylines.

The real main event though is Daisy who celebrates with her crush Nadia.. and her first crush period. Daisy is very gay, and Year One is in part her journey into dealing with that and is handled expertly. John dosen't write queer characters often, Daisy is the only one he's really dug into thus far, but proves he has a knack for it here as while Daisy clearly has feelings for Nadia, she's still not sure what they are or what her sexuality is and it's confusing as it is exilrating... and her nervously asking her out only to be gently told no hurts as much for the reader as it does for Daisy. Daisy got vunerable, took a big chance.. and like many of us absolutely lost. It's not even that Nadia is straight or anything, she just dosen't like Daisy that way. It's a painful first lesson for our poor Daisy.

The conversation with her and Esther is one of myf aviorite scenes in the entire comic, one where esther gently big sisters he bestie into realizing sexuality is a journey not a sprint and she can find it out along the way and does realizing she's gay as she goes. The rough roads won't end but that... is something we'll get to. Issue 4 is a complicated emotoinally brutal ride.. that also has Daisy get high on drugs and have to have dinner with her granny. Again giant days dosen't lack any levity even at it's saddest.

11. Where Women Glow and Men Plunder

This one admitley has two novelty points to it: It's one of the last issues of Giant Days I read, having put it off till my reread that kicked this whole thing off and being the only one of the holiday specials fully drawn by John Himself. While those are strong boosters WWGAMP is just damn good on it's own.

Jumping ahead to year 3 Ed takes a big step in his very new relationship with girlfriend Nina, his first in the series proper after a bunch of setbacks and a rather sweet one night stand, both of which we'll get to. I didn't realize till writing this how Ed heavy the list is, but he tends to get some of John's best issues and is well written: he's endearingly awkward and while occasionally an ass it's in ways that feel realistic and like the gals and his best mate McGraw never goes TOO far into making them completely unsympathetic, just enough to make him all too human.

WWGAMP has him at his most out of place: Ed already has eastablished issues not feeling up to standard at times, now he's thrown into the hypermasculine world of NIna's family. It's not overdone, her dad is just simply mayor and her brother a cop and both are jocks like her. No one is overtly hostile, at worst her brother is kind of an asshole pranking him (With Nina's help) and laughing at his attempt to use birdwatching at a sport and even then their less inetionally hurtful and more just him not getting he's being a dickhead.

Ed also gets thrown into a family fued, with this one really buildling up Nina's hometown of Hunter, with her dad's storied rivalry with a local magnate we never fully meet and the Creek Boys, the beagle boys but more australian and john allisony. Granny Heists and emus insue and while Ed helps best he can he's really out of it. Yet he never stops at least trying, and that's what counts. He dosen't fit into this world.. but he dosen't have to. He fits for Nina and that's the point, with helping her dad with wifi being all the man required to buy his ticket.

At it's core Where Women Glow and Men Plunder, adore that title, is just a fun romp that helps reinforce where ed is at a character, putting him through hell but making it clear he's never unwanted or anything while giving Nina some added shades as a character and a history of her own. It's a good time. It's far from the most introspective ed story, those are a ways up the list, but it's certainly the most fun. And having possibly my faviorite visual gag of the series certainly helps

10. I Do In Fact LIke Cricket (Issue 50)

Milestone issues mean a lot and while Giant Days was winding down, writer John Allison still celebrated in style. And rather than do a big retrospective about how far everyone's come as the end approaches.. he just decided to do a goofy romp about cricket when McGraw's team get's sick and it's up to a plucky team of underdogs consisting of the rest of the main cast and a few fan faviorites to turn the tide.

This is John taking one last time to just get zany with these characters: Daisy gets hornily distracted by a bad girl player for the other team, Susan brings a beer and tries to smoke at bat because even when doing a genine gesture of kindness fo rher boyfriend she's still susan, Esther thinks she's in an anime, Daisy's protege and future girlfriend Saffy likewise thinks so, and Ed is trying just not to die. We get McGraws one off friend paul saving the son, McGraw telling Daisy she's too horny to bowl and McGraw in general alternating between being an ace in cricket and having facial expressions of the gods as his friends do schtick and only three of them can actuallly play, two when daisy's extra triple horned up. It's a joke packed romp and one of the series best bar none... but not it's best pure comedy adventure. In that sense the series peaked early.

9. Film Festival Film Festival!

If i had a nickel for every faviorite entry in a series I love that's a film festival i'd have two nickles..which isn't a lot but ya'll know the rest. Check out my patreon later this week to see the simpsons take on it and Matt Groening being mildly pissy about something.

Jacob Mattingly | creating Animation And Comic Reviews | Patreon

I know plugs and all but a fellas gotta eat

Giant Days take is just as good as the simpsons, which is some of the highest comedic praise I can bestow: Esther on the horniest of rebounds is making a stupid action film for an upcoming festival with a mildly pretentious but still likeable film student whose house their renting next year. She's being incredibly normal about it

So while she tries to make it with him, hitting roadblocks as the guy isn't used to attractive women hitting on him and isn't sure if this is real horny or film horny, Susan decides to both make a buck and parody her friends diva behavior with the help of a reluctant ed and Daisy, Ed because he has actual work to do and Daisy because she's insecure abou ther own apperance. Not helping is that she ends up playing ester in one of the standout most hilaroius moments in the entire comic

Props to max for makiing it so Daisy perfectly cpatures her expressoins and candance. It's very hard to do in print and a highlight of any sitcom when one of the main characters imitates another. Or any show period really. And it's far from the only iconic line from this one I just only have room for one more

It's good stuff and I love the justification for getting the films in: the rest are destroyed in an accident so we get Ed and Film Boy riffing over his unfinished film as Esther accidently fucked away the effects and Susan and Daisy realizing they maybe crossed a line. Thankfully Esther takes it as a tribtue and they give her a portion of the prize. I also like that the prize money comes back: While Ed spends his on the editing software he pirated out of guilt the rest goes towards the gang going to a festival a few issues later at the end of summer.

8. Now We're Only Falling Apart (Issue 30)

While a lot of these are good done in ones that can get someone on the series easily without much windup, issue 30 is instead the cumilation of a lot of build up: After getting justifably dumped by McGraw early on, Susan had started seeing him again.. behind his new girlfriend's back with it becoming increasingly clear what was going on while Daisy was in the midst of her relationship with Ingrid, a freshman she'd met touring the campus last year who was on paper a manic pixie dream girl: cool, confident and trying to pull daisy out of her seemingly boring life. the problem is Daisy's seemingly boring life was actaully fine and ingrid made it more difficult but also sexy and explosive which is why despite being a household pest Susan and Esther reluctantly put up with her.

That all explodes here. Esther whose been not so secret friends with McGraws girlfriend Amelia catches Susan in the act and the combination of being vunerable from that and seeing the massive bill Ingrid's wracked up that puts them all in finacial jeapordy causes Esther to go a bit TOO hard on Ingrid and scare Daisy away. She goes justifably hard on susan wanting to know how long but the two do ease up.. but the damage is done: McGraw has a messy break up with Amelia and Amelia and Esther break up their friendship. It's a hard issue to read, a painful one that breaks the fellowship.. if only for an issue. The followup is really damn good and I wish had made it but this issue shows the peak of Giant Days long term storytelling, painfully paying off the tension with a real banger.

7. Ed and Esther's Big Adventure (Issue 34)

Time for more Ed and this time we focus on his friendship and former crush on Esther. I love how the series handled this having him geninely move on and while wisps of it still linger, been there, he's a genuine friend to her. Still the frustration of once again doing something stupid if for the right reasons has left him a little surly and Esther only marginally helps matters by dragging him on a pub crawl.

What follows is Esther realizing she barely knows Ed due to her own self absorbtion, and deciding to pry and two truly excellent flashbacks and dozens of good gags as we bridge the gap between who esther was when she first appeared, a bully fine with restrom set tos to who she is now, all thanks to driving a teacher so far she flipped

It's a deepest regret that explains a lot. Ed's story is somehow even sadder as he went to school in a darwnian nightmare he only escaped thanks to the theater and a girl a year older he fancied that taught him to shoot for the mooon.. but left him in the dust when unviersity came, eventually flaming out byt he end of the year. It's a neat format bender taking place entirely on this night as the two grow closer.. and ed accidently spills the beans in one of the series best swerves

It gets me every time, just how suddenly it comes on, how freaked out they both look it's amazing. Then ed breaks a leg and gets a girlfriend out of it but story for just a bit later and all that. A really fantastic issue that like the one before it on this list , really builds off the continuity: You've seen how close Ed and Esther are, how much their friendship has grown, and it only deepens here.. only to possibly get wrecked. It doesn't but only because they thankfully stop being stupid and just talk to one another.

6. Medium Trouble with Big Lindsay (issue 10)

Love this cover and i'm thankful this list lets me spotlight some of the best. LIsa Tremain, who did the first 8 issues contined doing the covers till issue 25.

Giant Days is full of the kind of legacy cameos you'd expect in a sitcom spinoff, the characters we grew to love elsewhere who have to show up. We get pop in's from Esther's old mentor Shelley, old boyfriend Eustace, best friend Sarah, and a certain little moppet whose a bit higher up. We even got Desmond Fishman for one issue and for those who haven't read the retrospective yes that's a real character and no I won't be explaning him again.

Yet out of all of these one was a bit of a suprise: Big Lindsay was an early friend of Esther's, a bully who beat up Amy because she dared to look at a band they liked, and then beat up Erin, a friend of esthers because Esther and Erin both liked the same The Boy. The friendship was shaky by that point so it's not a huge suprise as Esther was growing past restroom set tos Big LIndsay just kinda vanished.

So it was a suprise that Big Lindsay came back for one of the best issues of Giant Days. And even more that John gave a throawawy character he probably forgot for years tons of depth.

The issue starts peacefully with Esther and Daisy ending up in the middle of nowhere on the way to the baths and finding a quaint heated outdoor bath to bond in. We also find out Daisy's past as a troop leader for the younger kids in her small town. I like the conversation as Daisy isn't at all bothered Esther has no idae how being homeschooled work or if it was a cult and it shows it in a positive light. It CAN be weaponized for political bullshit but not every homeschooled kid is weird or had a horrible life. I mean Daisy is weird but it has almost nothing to do with that.

The two come home to find Big LIndsay though the thought of it terrifying Esther , understandibly since one of her core memories with her old friend would be Big LIndsay beating up a grown ish 20 something for daring to like the same band they all did. Granted Amy wasn't a scrapper yet , but it's still something that just kinda sticks with you.

Big LIndsay seems to live up to the hype wanting to party hard and bringing the group to a club where we get shirtless mcgraw, ed hiding and Daisy starting a FIRE COMPLETELY ACCIDENTAL FIRE to get them out of it.

Ed ends up throwing himself on the big lindsay, forshadowing for later, to spare everyone else another round of this.. .and we find out she's actually a lot more chill than you'd expect. After going to a metal club which isn't really her thing, that's more esther, she and Ed just go bowling.. and she also reveals she knows all about ed's disasterous first almost time where he came early.

The two just bond, as Lindsay reveals she was partying largely because she thought that's what college kids do, not this crowd, and wanted to experince the life. It recontexulaizes her having gotten teen pregnant, a throaway to explain where she went to doubtless dozens of people emaling john about it, as having changed her life. She loves her boy, seems to be a great mum but it meant she had to grow up fast and didn't get to go to uni like everyone else. This theme of not going to college like everyone else also gets really explored in solver from a far diffrent angle.

The two just genuinely vibe, LIndsay having matured and Ed honestly happy to have a nice peaceful night... and then a far far less peaceful but ultimately satisfying one right after after he invites her to stay.

It's a genuinely sweet moment for both, just a bit of fun that both badly needed: A bit of sex that dosen't change her entire life for her and a first time that seems gentle, passionate and is with someone who geninely enjoyed it and unlike his first attempt dosen't look down on him. We will cum back to all of that very soon but it's a very sweet little moment. Of course Ed being a tad dumb worries he'll be responsible for her child now but she assures him this was no strings attached.. just something they both needed. Lindsay also reconciles with esther even letting her hold her son. While I hope we see lindsay again someday outside her cameo, she left a big impression with this excellent little issue.

5. Hooray Ed Episode!

Soon is now as this episode ended up bumped a few spaces down by the next two being that good and me realizing that. It's still an all time classic though and another early faviorite, coming just before the previous one and following Ed solo after he tries to break from his previous crush on Esther with a new gig at the newspaper.

He soon finds himself close with third year editor amanda as they investigate a big scoop on the student body president who has taken slacking to such an art form he leaves a dummy in his place to go on vacations (He ferris bullered us) and somehow has enough clout that the dean is coming down hard on the paper as this goes.

SPEAKING OF COMING... yeah while Amanda is into Ed his first time dosen't go well and her telling everyone about it dosen't make it better and he feels utterly humilated telling McGraw.. which is well meaning, he's his best friend.. but boldly assumes Susan follows the geneva convention. She dosen't and thank god for that as we get this glorious scene as a result

Every part of this is glorious from Susan GENINELY trying to be nice and Ed immedietly suspecting what's going on from that alone, and of course the cake. It' sso gloriously made, with 7 multicolor lairs and the ed ur lovely icing. I also love it being just in frame when he gets inscensed. Ed will get pissy at times, he does here when he assumes esther knew and was insulting him, but in this case it's absolutely understandable. Sorry's overused so all mcgraw can say is splorry but Ed does understand with context Susan is a lot and it's clear while Susan forced the secret out, she did GENINELY regret learning it and try to use it for good. It backfired but it shows she's not all thorns.

This eventually gets ed to start a protest that gets parent out but scuppers the paper and Amanda gently turns ed down saying he needs someone more his speed and not knowing given how he tends to punch up how tha'ts even more insulting than it sounds. Esther does comfort him telling him that advice is bullshit and everyone's been a sex idiot sometime. It happens.

This issue's heart though is ed really diving into him, how he geninely feels hopeful with amanda, how much her laughing at the incident, likely meant ot brush it off but instead wounding him deeply because she didn't likely realize how much it bothered him. It shows some of his thin skin, he again assumes esther is just bein ga dick proving he may not know her as well as he thought, but also his heart and genuine drive, how just one bit of anger at everything is channled to topple a corrupt offical, how he was geninely good at journalistm and has talent and there's more to him than just being esther's simp, something the series expertly leans on as it goes.

4. I'm Glad We're Friends Daisy (Issue 2 Self Published)

This retrospective gave me a new appreciation for the pilot issues. On first read they were mostly okay but on reread their excellent. However while 1 and 3 are good they still have that pilot heft of trying to figure out what the series is issue 1 trying to splash some scott pilgrim in there and 3 adding a satanic cult and an old friend, neither of which lasted.

Issue 2 however is the one out of the bunch that feels like it could slide into the boom run easily, the one where John really locked the tone in , something that cult aside carries over to issue 3. This is what Giant Days is and one of the easiest due ot being free to show it off to people.

It's also vitally important as it has an event that even into the boom run, which soft resets a little, haunts esther for the rest of her first year: Her breakup with her longtime sweetie Eustace.

It's a painful one that's driven by the most mundane of things; He can't visit, their relationship is growing strained from the distance and being just a pinch bratty Esther crashes out over it, gets a bit too tipsy and sleeps with the first douchebag offering, breaking her relationship in pieces and shattering herself for a year and Eustace for a hell of a lot longer.

It was probably a hell of a stir at the time, breaking up such a long term couple.. but a common theme with John is that relationships can't last forever and they only do if you put in the hard work, and time and distance left her vunerable. Though I do like the issue clarifies she wasn't drunk enough for it to not be her decision, otherwise that's less cheating and more... assault on Steve, the douche in questions part. Instead it's just a massive impulsive mistake that breaks up a loving relationship and leaves a hole in her heart and a gaping chasm in Eustaces.

The issue is nicely melancholy , mostly taking place at night and having some really pretty night lighting. It was early in John Allison's career drawing his own work again, but it's some of his best

Love this scene showing Susan's senstive side. She's less senstive to ed who at first is pining hard for Esther despite having a boyfriend because he hasn't met eustace and thus his compettiion is just an abstract concept. I've sadly been there even after meeting the boyfriend, I just never got anywhere because like ed early on I have no game and even if I did I didn't think of the logistics or how scummy that line of thinking was. Susan spells it out.

Still damage is done, guitars are wrecked and we get what has to be the most poignant and beautiful ending of the entire series

It shows why Susasn needs Daisy.. she neeeds that light... and that Daisy is wiser than she appears ta first: She may be the most naive of the big three.. but she's not stupid and it's nice john makes that distinction. It showed even this early just how SPECIAL this series is

3. To Binge (Issue 45)

Issue 45 is one of the biggest gut punches of the series, starting innocently enough: Ed and Nina are going strong and having a couple's dinner party with McGraw and an entirely against the idea of couples get togethers Susan. Things seem to being going well for the mistmatched duo of an anxious nerd and a peppy australian jock who both done broke their legs.. and naturally Susan is worried. She feels even if they come together, oppisites can only attract for so long.

She's wrong about that but right trouble's a brewin as Ed encourages nina to go out with her rowing club friends as she hasn't. He soon regrets that when she drunkely breaks into his kitchen and breaks a window and a loaf of bread at 3 in the morning. Nina wakes up horrified and guilty and it's clear wha'ts going on: Nina.. has a drinking problem and while swearing off the booze post accident for Ed was just avoiding shenanigans, for Nina it's an addiction and ed trying to just be with her every minute he can is more a very loose week old band aid than an actual solution.

The issue is absolutely brutal in it's depcition of Nina's alcholism, how she swings around and whene ed tries to stop her when she goes to an event, she gets unecessarily cruel. It's this jekel and hyde situation I can relate to from my mental illness: you weren't really emotoinally PRESENT for what you did but part of it came from you and that's horrifying. It is VERY hard to read at times as you know things are only going to get worse before they possily get better.

It's only when Esther fully steps in that thigns do improve: She takes Nina to get the help she needs and while Nina annoys her slightly with cutsey nicknames, it's telling that her first repsonse to someone she's barely talked to that is dating someone she had a brief crush on is to help. No hesitation, just offering it and when Ed tries to break up with her over email, his dumbest moment, as while he has reason to break up, he's being a right immature dick about it, she takls him down from it.. in the most telling way possible

It's a real shame this gets.. no followup. Their just back to being happy which is good I just wish we got more. but what we get here is still absolutely spellbinding.

2. Problem Solver (Issue 35)

After some pretty heavy days of breakups and backstory, issue 35 is a nice little palette clenaser: Despite taking place the issue after Ed done broke his leg and with Esther feeling the most guilty, the issue is almost pure comedy. And that's thanks to one bright spark in these dim times

Bringing lottie in was both a welcome suprise and a genius move: her ten year old goblin energy shakes things up and brings out new sides of everyone: Esther, who she tries to get up and get out there , is a soft second big sister to her and Lottie lets her get her angst rest. Susan and McGraw get to try out parenting showing her death note , throwing away sugarry drinks before she goes mad and finding her when she gets lost in a department store. it throws everyone off just enough to reveal new sides or reinforce old ones. We knew Daisy was good with kids it's in her backstory but here we actually see it.

Yet it's Lottie who Daisy needed as after months nad months of convincing herself her relationship with engrid was at all okay, normal or not going to break her emotoinally, Lottie simply being her simple mystery solving self and being completely outside all this, only meeting Ingrid for an exact minute.. instantly dosen't get it. not the lesbian part

It's such a simple way to FINALLY get daisy ready to break up: Give her someone who mostly thinks purely in logic, isn't that scored in romance, and is just pointing out the practical concerns her friends are too scared to be that blunt about. By not getting the horny side of things as she's too young, Lottie cuts through to the real underlying issues of things and finally frees daisy while being aboslutely hilaroius in every panel. Lottie perfectly blends with the cast and it's a shame she didn't get to see most of them again. Maybe some day.. after all she's in Sheffield now.

Let's Make this Precious (Issue 48)

While issue 50 was the big celebratory issue, issue 48 has the bigger feeling of a milestone issue: it's less cameo dense only containing returns from mcgraws brother and susan's enemies the shaws, but it feels like a perfect distlation of the series. Everything it does right dramatically and comedically in one glorious issue drawn by John Himself. Max's art is just as good but it's neat to see the character in john's more polished by this point style.

Admitely i'm a sucker for wedding issues. Did a whole list of the best wedding episodes, so this was an easy sell to me but it works so well because it uses it as a springboard for great jokes and excellent character moment. Susan's paranoia about the shaws is both understandable and completely hilaroius, one of them did dangle her off a building and she's still attending the wedding.

While Susan deals with the specter of death, Daisy deals with the specter of feelings for a longtime friend as we end up in that classic shipping scneario of "oh look there's only one bed" as the well meaning ownder of thier frog themed hotel thinks thier a couple and Esther's playful teasing ends up giving Daisy mixed signals. The resolution ends up being hilarous as being mangled by esther in her sleep confirms it's not feelings it's just a tiny bit of horny. She's fine.

The deeper parts come from susan whose insecurity flairs up again, being unable to talk to mcgraws parents not out of passive agression but out of finding them intimdiating and worrying sh'es not good enough. A near restroom set to daisy narrowly prevents and Karen Shaw returning to dangle her emotoins off a building this time only highten things till Pa McGraw helps set her great: She's fine as is and who she is has made McGraw better. Their better together and wellcome in the family.. .she just terrifieds THEM a bit, a resonable reaction to one Susan Ptolemy.

It's an issue that at once gets to everyone possible, also featuring a heartbreaking i'mg onna miss you from daisy to esther image limits won't let me show. It's also REALLY damn funny in a lot of places. It's everything that made this series magic in one condensed package and it's beautiful for it.