Giant Days #16

Giant Days #16

Giant Days #16 covers several key moments of college life. Daisy is volunteering as a campus tour guide. Susan is getting over a breakup by jumping into dating again — in hardcore fashion, with three in one day. And Esther is running low on money and contemplating selling off some of her goth wardrobe to raise funds. Or maybe getting a job.

As told by John Allison and drawn by Max Sarin, these incidents either bring back fond memories of the irresponsibility of college life, or they spur the imagination of those who haven’t yet attended. There’s a nice mix of elements here, with money, love, and work all getting some focus, and although the main cast are split up on these tasks, that gives them something to talk about when they get back together.

Giant Days #16

Cover by Lissa Treiman

The personalities brought in as supporting cast are well-sketched, immediately understandable even though they’re intended to be just bad dates or ridiculous prospective students. Sarin’s art is nearly animated, matching the slightly ridiculous incidents with lightly exaggerated actions. And Allison’s dialogue is oddly realistic, as when Esther, comparing volunteer work to downloading music on BitTorrent, says, “It’s cool that we were there when the gates of capitalism fell.” Daisy responds, “You have a very worrying understanding of ‘events’.”

There’s a lot more that happens in this issue. That’s one thing I really like about this series: it is dense with happenings. No feeling of padding to fill a storyline here! And there’s a killer last line, too, which I won’t spoil. (The publisher provided a digital review copy.)



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