One of my favorite things about comic is that they're the ideal visual medium to indulge in weird, high concept, "out-there" ideas. Movies are more hesitant to throw top-dollar effects into fresh, new stories because there's a less reliable return on investment, and TV doesn't even have access to that level of money most of the time. But comics? The strangeness of a comic is only limited by what the writer is capable of coming up with and what the artist is capable of drawing, and since comic readers are most likely fans with superheroes, there's a built-in audience for sci-fi and fantasy stories.
Comics can get weird like few other mediums can. Imagine my surprise, then, when one of the best new series of 2015 is the decidedly low-concept Giant Days, a series that follows three girls going through their first year of university...and that's it. There's no impending apocalypse or grand destiny in play, it's just them dealing with the struggles of everyday life. And you know what? It's actually pretty great; humorous, honest, heartwarming, and an absolute joy to look at.
Giant Days follows three very different girls who become friends through the circumstance of living next to each other in the dorms: drama student and drama queen Esther de Groot, home-schooled and naive Daisy Wooton, and cool-as-a-cucumber pre-med student Susan Ptolemy. Together, the trio navigate the obstacles of fall term of freshman year, including exes, crushes, rejections, chauvinism, revenge, self-discovery, illness, and - time permitting - actual school work.
Like I said, Giant Days is a relatively low-concept series, but has a bigger history to it. The series is the latest from British webcomic writer/artist John Allison, whose multiple series all take place in the same continuity. Giant Days exists alongside the comedy Bobbins, the mystery Bad Machinery, and the horror story Scary Go Round, where Esther De Groot first made her debut. There was also another, separate series called Giant Days that wound up serving as a prequel to the current series, retroactively retitled Giant Days: Year One (despite the fact that it only takes place a few weeks prior to the current series). Year One features a heightened sense of reality and grander adventures than the slice-of-life style of the current series (e.g. a Scott Pilgrim-style spontaneous fight between our heroines and a pack of predatory mean girls).
And the best part about all this? None of it is necessary reading. I dove into Giant Days knowing precisely nothing about its extensive continuity and was able to follow it without missing a step or losing the plot. There's a few panels in issue one that go over the highlights of Year One, but beyond that, you can read the story and not need to know anything about Allison's other series. The characters arrive fully formed and the writing focuses more on where they're going than where they've been.
There's still an exaggerated tone to the series, but it's more comedic than anything else, and that's one of the greatest strengths of Giant Days: it's really funny. The girls' archetypes are grounded in reality, but there's some out-there elements that move the stories in more humorous directions (e.g. Esther having a subconscious "drama field" that causes chaos around her whether she likes it or not, Susan having so many skills and trades that she stops just short of being Batman). The dialogue is snappy and clever and the characters bounce off each other and balance each other out well.
And then there's the artwork. Oh my heavens, is there the artwork. While Allison usually draws his own comics, in Giant Days he hands the duties off to Lissa Treiman. Treiman works as a storyboard artist and animator for Disney, and that style is very present in the series and used to great effect. Characters are expressive and charming and cute, movements are dynamic and cartoonish, and it all comes together to enhance the script and make the book truly shine.
Giant Days is fun, funny, clever, honest, and an absolute pleasure to look at. It was originally planned as a six-issue miniseries, but bumped up to twelve after positive sales and reviews. Sadly, this also meant Treiman is stepping down as artist due to the workload, but staying on to do covers for the back half of the series. The first half is available from BOOM! Studios in print and digital platforms. Highly recommended, check it out.
Thanks for reading and I'll see you next time!
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