Giant Days

Giant Days
Publication information
Publisher	Boom! Studios
Schedule	Monthly
Format	Ongoing series
Genre	Varsity comedy
Publication date	2011 (webcomic) 2015 (comic book)[1]
Creative team
Created by	John Allison
Written by	John Allison
Artist(s)	John Allison (webcomic/minicomic) Lissa Treiman (issues 1–6) Max Sarin (issues 7–)

Giant Days is an ongoing comedic comic book written by John Allison, with art by Max Sarin and Lissa Treiman. The series follows three young women – Esther de Groot, Susan Ptolemy and Daisy Wooton – who share a hall of residence at university. Originally created as a webcomic spin-off from his previous series Scary Go Round, and then self-published as a series of small press comics, Giant Days was subsequently picked up by Boom! Studios first as a six-issue miniseries and then as a monthly ongoing series. In 2016 Giant Days was nominated for two Eisner Awards and four Harvey Awards.^[2][3]

Creation

Webcomic

Giant Days is part of the same universe as Allison's previous series Bobbins and Scary Go Round. When Scary Go Round came to end in 2009, Allison followed it with the series Bad Machinery. However, Bad Machinery – a mystery series about school-aged sleuths – was a departure from Scary Go Round, which had focused on a group of twenty-somethings, and Allison worried that the new series might alienate his audience. In case Bad Machinery failed, Allison began planning a second series based on the character of Esther de Groot from Scary Go Round.^[4] Although Bad Machinery ultimately proved to be a success, he produced three short Giant Days stories between chapters of Bad Machinery. These were subsequently printed and sold by Allison.^[5]

Ongoing series

In 2013, Boom! Studios launched "Boom! Box", an imprint for experimental comics from established artists outside the comics industry.^[6] Allison, who was friends with Boom! editor Shannon Watters after catching her when she fell at a convention, saw Boom! Box as a good fit for continuing the Giant Days story and pitched it.^[5] The series was initially picked up as a six-issue limited series with pencilling by Disney animator Lissa Treiman (who had previously written a guest comic for Scary Go Round). This was the first time Allison had written a comic but not drawn it.^[5] Giant Days was a success, and after the final issue of the miniseries was picked up as ongoing series, with Max Sarin replacing Treiman (although Treiman remains the cover artist).^[7]

Setting

Giant Days is set at the University of Sheffield and has a more realistic, less paranormal atmosphere than Allison's other comics, which take place in the fictional town of Tackleford.^[5] The series begins with Scary Go Round character Esther de Groot, a melodramatic goth, moving into her hall of residence and befriending her new neighbours: the cheerful homeschooled Daisy Wooton and the prickly but grounded Susan Ptolemy. The three webcomic storylines focus on Esther, as she is targeted by a gang of private school head girls, breaks up with her school boyfriend, and joins a black metal society. In the comic book series, Susan becomes the viewpoint character although the series remains an ensemble.^[5]

Reception

Giant Days was well received, with reviewers especially positive about its depiction of women. Oliver Sava of The A.V. Club noted that "College-aged women are a demographic woefully underserved in the world of monthly comics, so when a new title caters to this group, it immediately stands out"^[8] and that "Women make up a large portion of Disney fandom, and hiring a Disney animator for Giant Days gives the book a visual sensibility that will appeal to those fans while presenting a story they don’t get to see in the Disney house style."^[9] Janelle Asselin writing for Comics Alliance praised its depiction of online shaming^[10] while Comic Bastards singled out the depth of the characters, in particular the sympathetic treatment of Daisy's homeschooling and the nuance of her coming-out arc.^[7] David Nieves, reviewing the first issue for Comics Beat, described Treiman's art as having the "emotional grandiose [sic] of Scott Pilgrim" and the writing as having "the feminine voice of HBO’s GIRLS", both with a newspaper comic strip influence, but noted that "a slice of life story needs a little more emotional stakes".^[11]

Giant Days was nominated for Best Writer and Best Continuing Series at the 2016 Eisner Awards,^[2] and for Best New Series, Best Original Graphic Publication for Younger Readers, Best Continuing or Limited Series and Most Promising New Talent (for Lissa Treiman) at the 2016 Harvey Awards.^[3]

Collected editions

The series has so far been assembled into the following collections:

Trade paperbacks

References