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Thursday 11 August 2016

Giant Days, Volume 4 Review (John Allison, Max Sarin)


After being persuaded to give university a second chance, Esther triumphantly returns to Sheffield with Susan and Daisy for the tubthumpin’ second year. And then they realise they got nowheres to live! Oh ladies. Classic Gigantic Hays! While Susan joins Tinder in the vain hope of getting over McGraw, Esther falls for a student film director and becomes the leading lady in his movie. This is Giant Days Volume 4… aannnnd ACTION! 

Among the many things I adore about this series, the balance between the characters is one I’ve really appreciated. The last book was mostly about Susan and Ed Gemmell and this one is mostly Esther with Daisy having some great moments. Everyone gets their time in the spotlight to develop! 

Seeing Esther’s homeplace was fun and full of the melodrama that follows her everywhere like a shadow. And, aww, Daisy is totally the girl at the party who does a jigsaw puzzle! The house-hunting issue was the least interesting one but then house-hunting isn’t interesting so John Allison had an uphill struggle finding ways to make that fun! It ends well though with a cray street-fight. 

The student film contest was the best issue by far. Esther can’t act but she can ineptly woo the clueless, emo student film director very entertainingly, and the whole episode (this volume feels more episodic than most) was all the better for Susan pressganging Ed and Daisy into making her a movie for the five large prize. We get to see all of the entries too and they’re so funny! 

The book closes strong with Susan cramming three hopeless dates into one day and Daisy meets her possible first girlfriend. These characters are so adorable. 

John Aliison’s writing is pitch-perfect as always – he knows these characters inside-out, what kind of stories to put them in, and his jokes and observations are genuinely funny. He IS Giant Days! 

Max Sarin’s art really helps sell the humour too with the facial expressions – the look on Esther’s face when she says “I’m going to DANCE!” cracked me up, as did Daisy’s running face and Susan’s deathly-bored face when she’s in her shoulder lecture. This is such an awesome creative team!

I envy the people in the future reading this because you’ll have way more Giant Days volumes to binge on after this while I have to wait for the next volume – and the next and the next and the next! This is the problem with discovering a great series long before it’s over - I’m a heroine addict and need my next Giant Days fix NOW!! Volume 4 is another effortlessly brilliant addition to this marvellous series. Come read the comic that turns me into a fawning idiot!

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