It’s a farewell for the ages as we get one last look into the lives of the Sheffield Three in the series finale of “Giant Days.” And for such a momentous event, we called in two of our biggest “Giant Days” fans, Mignolaversity contributor Mark Tweedale and Social Media Manager Kate Kosturski, to take a look at how Daisy, Susan, and Esther ended up one year on from graduation.
Please note there will be spoilers throughout this review.
Written by John AllisonCover by Max Sarin
Illustrated by Max Sarin
Colored by Whitney Cogar
Lettered by Jim CampbellOne year after their graduation from university, Esther De Groot and Daisy Wooten are back in Sheffield for a reunion with Susan and McGraw.The year apart has not been easy for all of them, and this reunion will only draw out the secrets they have all been keeping for too long!
The series finale of one of the most acclaimed comics series of the decade reveals the future of everyone’s favorite best friends!
Mark Tweedale: Back in 2009, when John Allison finished his webcomic series “Scary Go Round,” he started work on a new series, “Bad Machinery,” about a bunch of mystery-solving kids. However, not “Scary Go Round” were immediately on board with “Bad Machinery”; its characters were only eleven when it began and some readers weren’t ready to read a “kid’s story.” (If you’ve read “Bad Machinery,” you’re probably gasping at the idea that anyone could be resistant to it.) So, in 2010, Allison started another series, taking Esther de Groot from “Scary Go Round” and sending her off to a university in Sheffield. The series wouldn’t properly take off until 2015 when it was picked up by Boom! Studios, but that first self-published issue is where it all began.
If you look at that issue now, you’ll recognize many elements of “Giant Days” taking shape, but other pieces are rather different, almost “Scott Pilgrim”-esque, except instead of beating up evil exes, the “Giant Days” girls beat up privileged head girls from posh schools that had sunk their claws into Esther.
“Giant Days: As Time Goes By” brings the story back full circle. The head girls rule London, and with Esther now living in their playground, she’s once again ensnared in their clutches. Just as before, it’s up to Susan and Daisy to snap Esther out of it and do epic battle with the forces of evil.
Kate Kosturski: As I said when I reviewed “Giant Days” #51, even when this series tackles the hard life lessons, it does so with a healthy dose of humor. Susan and Esther are dealing with their own respective existential crises—Esther adjusting to the publishing world (I work in publishing, so that’s something I can certainly relate to) and Susan at a crossroads in her relationship with McGraw, as he seems to be turning down good job offers to stay with Susan in Sheffield. But there’s laughs. Still plenty of laughs, some at each other’s expense, some at supporting characters’s expense. The only one that seems to be happy and settled in her post-college life is Daisy, and with the trials, tribulations, and growth that she went through over the course of the series, I’m happy to see her being. . . well, happy!
Mark: I must admit, I got a kick out of seeing Daisy so happy. I those last few issues of “Giant Days” when Daisy was having such a tough time keeping other students in line and missing out on everything, I just felt so bad for her. I needed this to give me that warm “Giant Days” glow.
Kate: Everything about her just glowed, from her job to her romance to that cute short haircut!
But back to that humor thing. Was there too much humor, too much zany in this issue? Yes. It was fun watching all three take on the posh London hipsters in a cemetery. Great for the Halloween vibes, and it certainly brings the series full circle to its “Scary Go Round” roots, but for me, who came into the series when it came to BOOM!, something felt off to me. There was too much zany, perhaps. Whenever I would recommend this series to friends and family, I always praised its realism. That wasn’t there as much as I expected in this finale, but if it went too Very Special Episode, I would have been disappointed.
Continued below“Giant Days” does not do maudlin.
I was also expecting a bit more equal treatment to all three girls when it comes to the “Where Are They Now?” moments. This turns out to be more Esther’s story than anyone else’s, with Susan and Daisy just along for the ride. It’s a case of the solicit really not matching the actual plot.
Mark: Honestly, I think it’s not just a case of the solicitation blurb being a mismatch here, but the title sets up a different mood too. ‘As Time Goes By’ is wistful and nostalgic, and this issue is not really that at all. It’s more ‘Attack of the Cressidas.’ Also, I can’t help but associate the title with the feeling of a classic British sitcom with the same name.
Kate: Oh yes, when I was looking at that title, I was expecting more nostalgia. Not a skeleton key in a cemetery and an army of the hipster posh.
But is it a true ending to the series? Not really. The final page does leave a door cracked open. Esther’s defeated the Cressida Twins, but now she has to go back to London without them and figure out her own life. Naturally, Susan and Daisy offer two different ways to tackle this problem, but Esther says she knows what she needs to do. Allison gives us both that security that hey, Esther’s going to be all right, but still leaves you wondering.
I don’t know if this classic ’80s sitcom aired in Australia at any point, Mark, but I always got a Facts of Life feel from “Giant Days” minus a Mrs. Garrett parental figure.
Mark: I’m the wrong person to ask. There was seven-year-long stretch when I was a kid where we didn’t have access to TV.
Kate: To the YouTubes and get ready for excess and shoulder pads galore! (Given the show had an entire four-part episode in Australia, and featured musician and Sydney native Sherrié Austin in the cast in its final season, I figure it had to have aired over there at some point.) Anyway, I went on a bit of a binge of the show this past weekend of old episodes, and found a lot of parallels between the two series—small moments of growth and learning mixed with some deeper life lessons, core characters with very distinct personalities who find common ground with each other, school as a backdrop and secondary character for all adventures. The spirit of Eastland lives on in Sheffield, I guess.
I’ll pose this question to you, Mark. Do you think the series should have just ended with graduation (“Giant Days” #54)? Did that feel more like a finale to you?
Mark: “Giant Days” #54 was unquestionably the finale in my mind. “Giant Days: As Time Goes By” is one last hurrah. I get the feeling Allison wanted to play with these characters one last time without being tied down by the need to wrap things up. And for me, that was the point of that final scene. The very first issue of “Giant Days” ended with the three girls united. Whatever university had in store for them, they could tackle it. Since then they’ve gone their separate ways, but in retreading this moment, it’s saying they’ve still got each other’s backs.
Kate: John Allison agrees with us.
I was also reminded of how Gotham ended with a time jump to the future, a chance to have those characters in the universe just one last time, whereas the previous episode really provided the closure to the series. As well as introduce Batman and get to a 100 episode order. It was fun, but was it really necessary?
For “Giant Days” I ask the same question, or did until I got to the final scene. That brought everything back home for me, but there could have been better ways to get there that fit the tone of the title.
Mark: I did feel like it was carrying a bit too much baggage from that first issue, and it was off-center by focusing so much on Esther. For me, I’m a big fan of the little things “Giant Days” does, like Daisy dipping a biscuit in her tea, but it’s one of those cruddy ones that breaks off. Mundane disappointments like that are just very funny to me. The Agent Smith-like Cressidas however are much less interesting, and for an issue that is our goodbye to “Giant Days” they stole a lot of page real estate. This is a common criticism I have of endings in general though. I don’t like to say goodbye to characters at an arm’s length, and for me “Giant Days” #54 delivered the intimacy I hoped for, whereas “Giant Days: As Time Goes By” didn’t (nor do I think it was even intended to). It’s zany, but also somewhat colder, especially when it comes to the supporting cast like Ed.
Continued belowKate: Oh, that made me a bit sad that we did not have enough Ed. What the hell was with this one Ed cameo in an arcade? How’s the banking life? How’s the short hair? How’s Nina? I HAVE QUESTIONS.
And while we’re on the topic of everyone’s employment prospects, one of my gripes about “Giant Days” #54 was that everyone had easily landed that first post-college full-time job. That’s not the reality of the 2019 college graduate (at least here in the U.S.), so to see McGraw underemployed was refreshing, even if it was by his own choice.
Mark: Yeah, I don’t like thinking about the disappointing years immediately after graduation. *shudders*
All this said, there’re a lot of moments I love in this issue, like Susan prescribing amputation as a panacea, seeing Daisy so happy with Saffy (even if it does drive their roommate nuts—actually I have to point out how much I appreciate Max Sarin’s panel composition there, with the roommate barely framed in the panel, it made the moment that much funnier), or Esther’s awe at a mouse squashed flat like a flower in a book.
Speaking of Sarin’s art, whatever they’re doing after “Giant Days,” I’m there for it. I’d pre-order a trade now if I could. I am always in awe of the character they imbue in facial expressions, in hands, in a pose, in clothing, in hairstyles, in locations… No detail is wasted.
Kate: You said something earlier about the small moments being the ones that brought the best joy to this series. When I look back on this entire one-shot, those were my favorites: Susan using the bone saw to fix any kind of health ailment (even in DNA!), at least in McGraw’s mind, a busted biscuit, a bank error of toast. Small slice of life moments. That’s what made this series for me, and will always be a joy for me when I re-read it.
I also noticed something just now on my third (fourth?) read through of this issue. The Cressida twins look a fair bit like Esther. It’s a clever trick on a manifestation of what she could be worried she’ll become, and how she doesn’t want to lose her sense of self.
Mark: Oh, for sure. You can see all the way through how she’s struggling with giving up bits of her identity (like giving up her boots—shocking).
I’m going to give this issue a 7. I found it an issue where the big moments didn’t have as much impact as the small. Though I thought it leaned too heavily on that first self-published issue of “Giant Days,” the zaniness at play is totally on-brand for the specials. ‘What Would Have Happened If Esther, Daisy, and Susan Hadn’t Become Friends (and It was Christmas)?,’ ‘Love? Ack, Shelly!,’ and ‘Where Women Glow and Plunder’ all have this aspect too. (And given the Halloween release, I should have expected the supernatural to rear its head.) Perhaps this is a case of my own expectations getting in the way a bit.
Kate: I’m not too far off from you, and I’m giving it a 7.1. I appreciate the callback to the very first issue, and it’s in the spirit and tone of the other one-shots, a title that gives a tone of nostalgia wanted me to have just a little bit more of that nostalgia feel in it.
Final verdict: 7.1 – “Giant Days” bows out with a tribute to its beginning.
Mark: Kate already linked this above, but John Allison did a comic commentary, and I absolutely must recommend it—in fact, I hope it makes it into the collected edition somehow.
