Giant Days is a comedic comic book written by John Allison that was launched in 2015 by Boom! Studio (Lumberjanes, Buffy) with Lissa Treiman as the main artist for the first six issues, then Max Sarin for most of the next 48 issues—it won the Eisner Award for “Best Continuing Series” in 2019.
The story follows the lives of Susan Ptolemy, Daisy Wooton, and Esther de Groot, three students, and roommates at the University of Sheffield, England, from their first to last days, and a bit beyond. Susan is a grounded medical student who smokes a lot and often hides behind a tough attitude; Daisy is an optimistic archaeology student who’s a bit too sweet for this world; and Esther is a goth—and a bit of a drama queen—who’s into black metal and study English Literature.
There’s also Graham McGraw, a childhood friend and love interest of Susan who’s a bit too much into being handy; and Ed Gemmell, a friend and roommate of McGraw’s who’s in love with Esther, tragically for him.
For years, Giant Days offered fun, breezy slice-of-life stories with a lot of humor, romantic entanglements, British idiosyncrasies, and a lot of personality. And overall, it’s a great friendship story about becoming an adult.
If you don’t know John Allison, this was not his comic debut, but the first one he didn’t draw himself. In fact, he is a veteran in the webcomic space and Giant Days was also a webcomic before joining the Boom! Box imprint. Allison started with the rudimentary Bobbins in 1998, an office comedy-type comic in the newspaper comic strip format. Once it ended in 2002, he took some characters he liked to a new series called Scary Go Round that he describes as a “magically real soap opera.”
He found success with this series and continued through the years to launch new ones (mainly Bad Machinery, New Bobbins, All-New Scary Go Round, Wicked Things, Solver), all set in the same universe—called the Bobbinverse and taking place in the fictional town of Tackleford. Characters went from one series to the other, growing as the years went on. This includes Esther de Groot who went from Scary Go Round to the Giant Days webcomic—composed of three short Giant Days stories between chapters of Bad Machinery that are now collected in one volume, see below.
Even with a connection to the Bobbinverse, Giant Days offered a more realistic, and clearly less paranormal atmosphere than the rest of Allison’s work, but the humor is still the same.
A Reading Guide to the Giant Days Comic Books
There are now three collections of Giant Days comics, the traditional paperback editions, a deluxe hardcover limited collection and the new Library Edition. What you need to know is that the main series is composed of 54 issues, but there also are three Holiday Special, a few short stories for the BOOM! Box Mix Tape anthology, and a special called “Giant Days: As Time Goes By” which is the conclusion of the series.
Giant Days: The Library Edition
- Giant Days: The Library Edition Vol. 1
Collects Giant Days #1-8 + Self-Published Giant Days #1 + Extras - Giant Days: The Library Edition Vol. 2
Collects Giant Days #9-16 + Self-Published Giant Days #2 + Extras - Giant Days: The Library Edition Vol. 3
Collects Giant Days #17-24 + Self-Published Giant Days #3 + Extras - Giant Days: The Library Edition Vol. 4
Collects Giant Days #25-32 + 2016 Holiday Special + Extras - Giant Days: The Library Edition Vol. 5
Collects Giant Days #33-40 + 2017 Holiday Special + Extras - Giant Days: The Library Edition Vol. 6
Collects Giant Days #41-48 + 2018 Holiday Special + Extras - Giant Days: The Library Edition Vol. 7
Collects Giant Days #49-54 and As Time Goes By Special + Extras
Giant Days: The Paperback Edition
- Giant Days – Volume One
Collects Giant Days #1-4. - Giant Days – Volume Two
Collects Giant Days #5-8. - Giant Days – Volume Three
Collects Giant Days #9-12. - Giant Days – Volume Four
Collects Giant Days #13-16. - Giant Days – Volume Five
Collects Giant Days #17-20. - Giant Days – Volume Six
Collects Giant Days #21-24. - Giant Days – Volume Seven
Collects Giant Days #25-28.
- Giant Days: Extra Credit
Collects Giant Days: 2016 Holiday Special, Giant Days: 2017 Holiday Special, “Fridge Raider” (BOOM! Box Mix Tape 2015 short story), “Music Is Important” (BOOM! Box Mix Tape 2016 short story), and Destroy History (webcomic strips). - Giant Days – Volume Eight
Collects Giant Days #29-32. - Giant Days – Volume Nine
Collects Giant Days #33-36. - Giant Days – Volume Ten
Collects Giant Days #37-40. - Giant Days – Volume Eleven
Collects Giant Days #41-44, Giant Days: 2018 Holiday Special (Where Women Glow And Men Plunder #1). - Giant Days – Volume Twelve
Collects Giant Days #45-48. - Giant Days – Volume Thirteen
Collects Giant Days #49-52. - Giant Days – Volume Fourteen
Collects Giant Days #53-54, Giant Days: As Time Goes By.
Bonus
- Giant Days: Early Registration
Collects Giant Days #1-3 (the original Giant Days webcomic)
Giant Days: The Hardcover Edition (aka Not on the Test Edition)
Due to some difficulties, those are not all available for now. They are coming soon though. See here for more info.
- Giant Days: Not on the Test Edition Vol. 1—Fall Semester
Collects Giant Days #1–8, Giant Days #1 (webcomic), “Fridge Raider” (BOOM! Box Mix Tape 2015 short story) - Giant Days: Not on the Test Edition Vol. 2—Winter Semester
Collects Giant Days #9–16, Giant Days #2 (webcomic), “Music Is Important” (BOOM! Box Mix Tape 2016 short story) - Giant Days: Not on the Test Edition Vol. 3—Spring Semester
Collects Giant Days #17–24, Giant Days #3 (webcomic) - Giant Days: Not on the Test Edition Vol. 4—Second Year, Fall Semester
Collects Giant Days #25–32, Giant Days: 2016 Holiday Special - Giant Days: Not on the Test Edition Vol. 5—Second Year, Spring Semester
Collects Giant Days #33–40, Giant Days: 2017 Holiday Special - Giant Days: Not on the Test Edition Vol. 6—Third Year, Fall Semester
Collects Giant Days #41–48, Giant Days: 2018 Holiday Special - Giant Days: Not on the Test Edition Vol. 7—Third Year, Spring Semester
Collects Giant Days #49–54, Giant Days: As Time Goes By
Beyond Giant Days
If you want to read more John Allison Books beyond Giant Days, there are a lot available, most notably on the author’s own website where he publishes a lot of new material (mostly Solver stories set in the Bobbinverse). Also, The Bad Machinery Collection was published by Oni Press, and the spin-off Wicked Things (with art by Max Sarin, and can be read as a standalone).
Not in the Bobbinverse, Allison worked with Christine Larsen (from the Adventure Time comics) on the 12-issue supernatural (fantasy) series “By Night.” He also writes and draws the supernatural “Steeple” at Dark Horse.