Review: Giant Days #25
It’s safe to say that most people act differently around their family versus their friends. This idea permeates an extra-sized, holiday cheer filled Giant Days #25 where writer John Allison, artists Max Sarin and Liz Fleming, and colorist Whitney Cogar take a break from the escapades of Daisy, Esther, and Susan to focus on Susan’s return home for the holidays. On top of her parents’ marital troubles, she has five older sisters, a gaggle of nieces and nephews, a very Greek grandmother, and possibly her ex-boyfriend McGraw to deal with. This makes for riveting and hilarious reading and also shows us a different side of the usually stolid, “friend mom” Susan Ptolemy.
Giant Days #25 solidifies Sarin and Fleming’s status as cartoonists of the eyes, especially the bright, shining, belongs-in-a-Magical-Girl-anime variety. They and Allison intersperse the comic with small flashbacks of Susan’s childhood where she was simultaneously shamed and spoiled as the youngest daughter. One thing that connects the past and present scenes are wide and bright eyes when something in keeping with “the Christmas spirit” happens. For example, young Susan is happy that she got an Easy Bake oven just like she’s happy when her long lost sister Ellie shows up at the Christmas to break the tension between her parents and be a buffer with her crying child and giant backpack.
The Ptolemy family gives the Tenenbaums a run for their money, and Allison, Sarin, Fleming take this dysfunctional dynamic to whatever the British equivalent of Fort Knox is and withdraw some comedy bullion. There’s the patheticness of Susan’s dad living out in his camper, eating food out of cans, shrugging and saying it’s just an “escape valve” while her mom spies at him with binoculars. They’ve been together for
a long time and have had to parent six very different girls, and that takes a toll on a person. The reason that Mr. Ptolemy is living in his “caravan” is super hilarious though.
Geoffrey Ptolemy smoking alone outside is pretty sad, and Sarin and Fleming go for the feels again with Mrs. Ptolemy, who can’t hide her sad face as she laments the simpler Christmases of days past. Apparently, Mr. Ptolemy’s mom puts a lot of pressure on her to have the perfect holiday feast that can only happen when you bake until 4 AM with the help of your drunken daughter. There’s lots of hustle, bustle, and verbal sniping until you want to close the comic book and get away from it all like Susan and her Charmed binge watch. Susan is usually the boss when she’s with Esther and Daisy at university, but when she’s with her sisters, she’s the one who can’t get a word in edgewise and has to resort to random acts of adorableness (Like hanging mistletoe everywhere.) to get attention.
While building on her dad’s sorry plight in the previous, John Allison, Max Sarin, Liz Fleming, and Whitney Cogar do something a little different with Giant Days #25 by looking at family drama instead of friendship from the POV of Susan Ptolemy. She cuts a heroic figure in trying to save her parents’ marriage, but solving other people’s problem doesn’t end her own, especially if they involve McGraw.
Story: John Allison Pencils: Max Sarin Inks: Liz Fleming Colors: Whitney Cogar
Story: 9.0 Art: 9.0 Overall: 9.0 Recommendation: Buy
BOOM! Studios provided Graphic Policy with a FREE copy for review
When I was in college, probably one of my favorite parts of coming home for breaks or holidays was walking in and seeing a pantry and fridge just brimming with food and knowing that my mom could combine them into the tastiest things I’d had in months. In Giant Days #24, writer John Allison, artists Max Sarin and Liz Fleming, and colorist Whitney Cogar play on this momentous event and have Susan’s dad, Big Geoff, come to their flat for 3+ weeks to take care of her sick self. And along the way, there’s plenty of death (Shocking!) and meditations on the awesomeness/not awesomeness of having your parent return to take care of you as an adult.
rew around the extremely sick Susan were actually clever foreshadowing as the old neighbor, who called the cops on their dinner party, passes away in Giant Days #24. It is insanely awkward to learn about the passing of someone, who you weren’t close to and definitely hated you. It is also a little sad to think about an old man dying alone surrounded by model planes and taxidermied animals. Susan even feels a little guilt that her coughing got him sick, but Big Geoff is there to reassure that he died from a stroke. The scene where Esther, Daisy, and Susan are at his memorial service is darkly hilarious for Esther’s super-Goth funeral get-up alone. This is her Super Bowl, and she gives a wonderful speech about the neighbor’s skill in stuffing dead ravens. Gallows humor is an amazing thing.
“Adulting” is the theme of Giant Days #23 as Esther is between jobs and feeling a bit bored so she invites her entire circle of friends and acquaintances to a kind of fancy dinner party. Writer John Allison continues to juggle a cast of about a half-dozen characters and plotline ably cutting to a new scene just when thing seem to be slightly less exciting. Some of the secondary characters like Ed’s semi-disgusting, programming major flatmate Dean and Daisy’s girlfriend Ingrid have their own shining moments through boldly honest toasts and debates about superhero battles, which end up playing a big role in resolving a long-running subplot. And artists Max Sarin and Liz Fleming with colorist Whitney Cogar mine a tragic vein humor through the crazy gestures and sick state of Susan, who is suffering from a cough as well as struggling to see her ex-boyfriend McGraw with his new, Spanish guitar playing girlfriend Emilia.
that she uses for Ed, McGraw, and Dean’s flat after Dean had an all night coding session. You can definitely smell the sweet aroma of nerd sweat, leftover pizza, and half-drunken energy drinks and beers through that color choice. It’s the complete opposite of Emilia’s well ordered, stocked with pesto and angsty poet’s apartment that Sarin gives us a glimpse of in a neat nine-panel grid. As usual, McGraw is the crux between chaos and order as well as being in the awkward position of being Susan’s ex while still being close to most of her friends’ group. But he doesn’t get stuck playing peacemaker, and Allison and Sarin give him a beautiful romantic moment of kissing Emilia by the Guy Fawkes Day bonfire where she calls him by his real name “Graham”. (Maybe one day he’ll grow up to be the guitarist for Blur or a fun chat show host.) The yellow flames from Cogar makes the scene even more touching.
Giant Days #22 kicks off 2017 with quite the drama bomb: Daisy has a huge crush on a German psychology student named Ingrid, and that crush is definitely reciprocated. Writer John Allison, artists Max Sarin and Liz Fleming, and colorist Whitney Cogar skillfully show what happens when an extrovert goes out with an introvert. Aka this comic made me tired in a good way as Daisy and Ingrid ride a cab from Sheffield to Manchester and go to crazy underground parties, which is the complete opposite of Daisy’s usual lower energy lifestyle. Ingrid brings a manic energy to the pages of Giant Days as Sarin and Fleming make panels and figures literally bend like they are Adventure Time characters when she and Daisy hit the dance floor.
All good things must come to an end, including Giant Days‘ power trio of Esther, Daisy, and Susan’s first year at university in Sheffield, England. But before they head home for the holiday, writer John Allison, artists Max Sarin and Liz Fleming, and colorist Whitney Cogar lets them get involved in one last set of shenanigans, involving copyright friendly versions of Warhammer miniatures, a 24/7 lawyer service, and some college housing gentrification.
