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A Sizeable Giant Days Retrospective Part VI: Thems the Breaks

Hello all you happy people and welcome back to my look at one of my favorite comics ever Giant Days. For those just joining us here are your notes to catch up: the first four parts in one convient link pile and the previous chapter

So last year I started one of my proudest projects, largely funded by my good friend Emma, A Sizeable Giant Days retrospective, a look at on

Welcome and welcome back one and all to a Sizeable Giant Days Retrospective, my look at one of the best comics ever made and what's at the v

With this batch we reach the end of Year Two of the golden trio's time in university and the beginning of the end as we enter Year Three. Like last time Year Two goes out with a bang, and goes even harder this time: A major character is introduced and she's a delight, Ed makes a major confession, the comic gets it's biggest and best guest star

No no not you bruce. That's for another day.

Where was I ah yes, Daisy FINALLY breaks things up with Ingrid and then naturally has to deal with the fallout because of course she dosen't go quietly, and we begin year three as our heroines settle into new places, think about the future, and make living in a box comfortbale for ed.

All in all it's a good time: While some of these issues are just okay, mostly our season 3 opener and this first issue here, we have some of the best in the entire comic and even the mid ones have some truly standout moments. Giant Days may have it's down moments but if this retrospective has proven anything it's that it's never had a remotely bad issue. I'll be very sad to see it go but thankfully we'v estill got a bit of the ride left before that happens... so let's get in the queue shall we and throw our arms up as Giant Days starts it's race to the end.

Issue 33: Edecision 201X

We pick up where we left off: Ed and Esther aren't doing so great in the great roomate disporia of 201X with Esther just kinda flailing around crying a lot , with even Emilia pitying her just a little, and Ed having options but neither sound great. The above is brought by Dean, already a red flag, who considers Ed a true friend something our hero geninely has no idea how to process or if that's a good thing. It's also really sad in hindsight as it's clear by his present day in Solver dean regrets pushing people like Ed away without meaning it. Dean GENUINELY meant it... he just didn't realize he was the bane of Ed's existnce for the last year and most people he interacts with.

After the Colonel decided to move in with Susan , and it delights me to no end that Dean calls McGraw that, Dean's decided to move into a nerd hacker cave, farm crypto and presumibly freebase pizza rolls. Everything but that last part sounds like my own perosnal hell and Ed agrees.

His other offer.. is better but also worse. A bunch of jocks have offered to let him move in, something he is considering a bit and their friendly lads, all fine with chestbumps and their friend chad, who judging by a poster also fancies men, good for chad, had to bow out after an x games accident. So Ed would be in a friendly enviroment but he also might not survive the love. Good people, they'd just snap ed like a twig on accident. There is someone there who wants to do it in a fun way though.. someone i've been DYING to introduce all retrospective

This my friends is Nina, our last main character. We still have a few one offs and one major supporting character left to add to the roster, but in terms of people who make a major impact on the story for year 3.. this is it. She's australian, muscular and VERY into ed. He dosen't realize this as maybe the spinal injury would be worth it if he could get laid. For now she's just a one off joke and I didn't even realize she'd shown up before when she pops up later in this batch on my first read.

So Ed .. ends up going with the Hacker Cave, not because he raelly WANTS to.. but because Esther has been calling him sobbing and is homeless with no options. As Daisy correctly figures, feeling guilty, Esther SEEMS like she'd have a lot of friends.. but she really dosen't. Daisy does, ed has more than we thought, but like Susan Esther's an introveret. I relate to the type: one who wants to be around people, wants to get out and do stuff.. but badly needs time away from them just grinding away on the 3ds or watching tv. It's not the same with Daisy and SUsan because she's comfortable around them.

So Ed makes a sacrifice: he agrees to let esther see the hacker cave. A snifter of the old crush still exists with him bringing up that maybe if they lived together she .. only for McGraw to shut it down. He's right to but it is part of an issue I have with HOW he gives his advice we'll put a pin in for now.

But really.. Ed's mostly doing it out of kindness. HE even moves into a horrible little box he's sure he'll go mad in, because... his friend needed him. She even gets the big room which naturally pisses off Dean who rants about her being poison and shit. The good news at least is that Dean was actually right for once: this is a good group of boys and they aren't just a pack of deans: the head of the group seems geninely concerned for ed and they all seem to genuinely like him. While he probably didn't need to take the windowless box, he DID make the right decision in regards to roomates. Nina and Co would've broke him and not in the fun way she wants to and Esther needs a friend not just a place to live.

Meanwhile Susan sees Daisy's new living space and has questions. McGraws a bit too hypnotized by the excellent woodwork INgrid's done to be useful, but Susan understandably worries about this while Daisy decides to throw herself into the party and just not worried about it.. and given the frazzled gremlin of a Wooton that's left after there might not be much daisy left if she sticks with this. Thankfully the solution to her problem is a comin. But she'll have to wait an issue as next issue is all about Edsther.

Issue 34: Ed and Esther's Big Night Out

I love a good format bender in a sitcom, on page or screen and this one is a dozy, one of the series best issues and one I geninley forgot how good it was. It's also a faviroite of a chap in the Scary Go Round server I was invited to after the last part and has given me a healthy outlet for all this beyond reviews. It's also convinced me to review bad machinery but more about the when and how of that later.

For now we have an excellent character focus issue. We do pop in on Susan, Daisy and their black eyed peas coloring book Susan got on sale

But it's really just a one page gag. The focus is on Esther and Ed as they do a pub crawl. Ed simmers a bit over the room looking pensive when she brings it up but deciding not to hold it against her because he's not an arse. He can be one SOMETIMES, but he's ultimately a good kid and ultimately can't begrudge esther when he made this choice for himself. She's not abusing his crush, she came to him because she badly needed help and was lost and didn't put any pressure on him.

He's still a bit annoyed by her and presumibly himself for falling back into the old rhythums and is less than enthused to go on a pub crawl, only doing so for the promise of a big egg the next morning. I mean i'm not a drinker either but I would also do it for a big breakfast or a goth girl. I'm not made of stone.

SO they go and Esther realizes something crucial, something i'd picked up logn ago.. we really DON'T know much about ed or where he comes from. And the explination for why is brilliant

It fits so well.. we didn't know.. because no one asked and what he gave freely Esther just forgot. I can understand that I too can accidently drown people out with the sound of my own head. As for Lewes it's a real english town and one with a bunch of neat castles about. Sounds like a great place to visit.

Esther wants to know more, to know who ed was as a little rascal, the juciy stuff. He's less than willing to open up since she just admitted "I haven't been paying attention two years straight while you've soaked up every word i've said"

So she decides to ply him with her own backstory and John uses this for something really interesting, something I alluded to in the first part: he decides to answer a question longtime fans who read Scary Go Round might have: Why was Esther so diffrent in her first apperance? Since it's been almost a year since part one and some of you might not have just binged this a refresher.

Yeah Esther.. was nothing like what she'd be next time, a whispy trickstery goth who socializes , crushes on one nerd and has a combination of genuine friendship and romantic tension with another. The Esther who we see at the start of this comic help someone at random take her trunk up the stairs. How'd we get to our esther? So John gives us the origin story in a way that dosen't feel extraneous: She's trying to get Ed's origin story, she has a reason to, and it helps shade in the character a bit in a way that works wether you've read SGR or not.

Esther admits to being in her words

So the terrible trio were assholes in the classic scrooge mcduckian style: They don't like nobody and nobody liked them. It explains why they'd be into a band enough to assault poor amy for the crime of sliding up to a band they like, and with what we saw in an early SGR flashback it all lines up. Esther was a year or two before this really shy, withdrawn in herself.. if willing to light a man on fire. It was just a slight bit of standing up, but Eustace noticed her and made her feel like a person. So while the slight change up isn't commented on, it's not a stretch to say making friends with Sarah and Big Lindsay before either were good people to be around steered her to the darker side.

The three ruled the school being nasty little shits and their faviorite target was Mrs. Pugh, a kindly old lady who just tried gently to get them to settle down, be nice, just basic decency. For that they put ham inbetween every textbook and let it rot over half a semster, something Esther geninely regrets and Ed understandably finds vile. And Esther.. did't stop there, eventually cornering the poor woman.. literally

She didn't come back, with Mr Knott, an eyepatched surly man came in to inform her and the way he looked directly at esther tells me he KNOWS and wanted to stress the gravity of things. Punishing her MIGHT of done something.. this... clearly stuck with her. She dosen't say "this changed my life or anything"... but it clearly did.

Charlotte and Lindsay were bad a BIT longer, both deciding to stuff Erin in the toilet for having a crush on the boy, something Esther didn't really back. As for why THEY straighted out it's not said but it's easy enough to figure: For Sarah her dad died around this time and given her sister starts to hang around with her and esther a lot, I suspect she had to watch the little gremlin more and it softend her just enough. With Big Lindsay she got beaten the fuck up then teen pregnant.. that makes you grow up fast. Why this didn't rattle them as much I can't say, but they turned out alright.

A few pubs later Esther continues to dig into ed and he finally gives the monster what she wants.. and we get good reason WHY Ed wasn't really happy to talk about high school. While Esther had some rough times starting out as a hoodlum, evolving into a social butterfly and netting Eustace improved things even if it set out the dominos that got her non-sarah best friend sent to hell. And that's mostly on allestier crowley and bad writing. Mostly it was just random adventures, sexing a boy, haging out with Sarah and her little sister and just dancing through life. It's part of why College hit her like a brick: she was a big fish in a medium sized pond scooped up and thrown in the ocean. She never developed the practical skills her two best friends did from being an older sister figure to small children or being a hardboiled noir detective respectively.

For Ed school was less Harry Potter meets Degrassi and more Lord of the Flies, as intellgence and bein ga bit scrawny was rewarded with a punch to the face, as were trips to the toilet and existing. St Chads was a nightmare and Ed barely survived his first few years. He found some friends to be invisible with but was still surviving rather than living.

That changed when his second year saw the drama club's production of Little Shop of Horrors.. and Ed met Callie

BTW I both love a little shop of horrors refrence, did a retrospective on it a few halloweens ago, and the framing of Older Ed sitting on stage.

We see ground zero for why Ed prefers tall women who challenge him a bit. That crushing on Callie drove him to actually change for the better, to risk a pummeling if it meant getting to sniff her hair. Which is gross but as a teenage boy who just fancied many a girl from afar but didn't have the courage to actually ask any out, I can understand. He was 14. He grew out of that if not out of shooting for the moon.

And Ed did have his goals low: he just wanted to be around her and figured going for the lead in a musical version of twin peaks, something in his wheelhouse, would at least give him a few minutes with her before he got laughed out. Instead he channeled his crush into the roll and played a Damn Fine Dale Cooper. Kyle McLaughln would be proud. I assume that energy also got him the role of shirtless tennis playing Trey in their sex and the city musical. This also got him exactly who he wanted as at the cast party he and Callie make out.

Ed shot for the moon.. and instead of horribly crashing landed safetly and became it's king. Dating someone just a year older took him from beat up nerd to young king, and their relatoinship survived through her entire time in high school. He got to be withs omeone who challenged him but geninely liked him for who he was, didn't mind when he got taller and was sweet.

It was also something that sadly didn't quite survive university. That last year was rougher: he tried visiting but just felt.. small and out of place and while they made it to march it was clearly not a happy time.

This whole story explains.. everything about ed and feels so naturally it's geninely impossible to tell if John had it in his back pocket a while or just came up with it to fill in the gaps. He's outgoing but a tad nervous because his once stab at going for it netted him his dream girl, yet he still has a lot of self doubt from a combo of being pummled for several years straight and how his relationship with Callie ended. He shoots for the moon not because he's being overly specific or a wanker who only cares about apperance, but because his first relationship.. changed him. It made him more outgoing, got him out of bullying, made him happy. He wants that feeling again but is mature enough to understand WHY it's a good thing: it wasn't the status or the looks of his partner.. it was having someone who supports you but gets you to try diffrent things. To not shove you into things you don't like but maybe poke around at things you might.

Ed likeyl never would've gotten on stage without that push from his hormones. His crush on Esther, while not exactly healthy for a while and good he mostly kicked, did get him two wonderful friends in Daisy and Esther. His attempt with Amanda brought down a corrupt figure. His sacrifcing himself not only got Big Lindsay to open up and have actual fun on her weekend and repair her friendship with esther but got him laid by someone who was kind, gentle and still taller than him.

A lot of this has hurt him, love or infatuation can be fucking painful.. but it all helped him grow as a person. Every step made him better and was good for the people around him: Callie got a patient steady boyfriend for three years, Esther got a new friend who was willing to sleep in a murder closet to keep her from being homeless, Daisy got conformation she didn't like boys and a close buddy, Amanda er.. moving on and Big Lindsay got a night of quick fun with a very sweet little guy. Ed taking risks in turn worked out for those he took a risk for..e xcept amanda as she got fired but she also sucked a bunch. Not every experince is going to be a net positive... but most have gotten some. The pain was bad.. but it helped him become the Ed we know and love.

At this ponit our heroes are heavily wasted having done the mile and holding onto each other.. and that's when a mistake is make. A very drunk esther asked what happened next

This... is one of the best moments in the entire comic and an utter shock to the system when I read it. After seemingly forgetting about Ed's crush for the most part, him moving on...it comes back like a sledgehammer to the throat and in just the perfect way. Such a well crafted moment that made me instantly forgive the bit of ship tease John never figured out what to do with at the end of the last year. Instead he took the right route in hindsight: instead of drawn out will they or won't they he plays it realistically:t here's embers of the crush underneath it all, we saw that the last few issues, but Ed has mostly moved on and as seen in the date issue was GENINELY trying to move on, he just couldn't find the right girl. Instead of having it be this constanst pulsating part of the narrative john moved past it, at most hinting ed might have a shot at some distant point, then focused on them as friends and showed how much they needed each other.

And then when they were in a better place, possibly a place to be more for once given all the drunken cuddling... he drops the hammer. He has the secret slip out long after it's an active thing. And unlike with Esther's reaction to his confession in year one by this point i'm confident John KNEW Esther knew and it's all over her face... the shock at him actually saying it.. and the horror at realizing from his tone just how much pining after her hurt him> that not pulling the plug, risking their friendship to let him go and hope he comes back as a friend... really hurt the guy.. and that it was now something they had to deal with.

Ed' sexpression is a large slow motion fuck ala hamilton and a quick climb to avoid actually talking about this while Esther looks on in pity and worry.. something that will come back to haunt her at the end of this batch. For now she's just worried ed feels invincible.. then a swarm of bats reminds him he's very vincible and we get a loud crack. I was GENINELY worried ed was dead. The fact I read dumbing of age at the time and a character just died also off a roof probably didn't help. Thankfully ed did not die.. but now the secret is out in the open, both parties are moritfied and like ed's bones it's going to take time for this rift to heal. esther has one hell of an emotoinal problem to work through> Thankfully.. she knows someone who can solve it

Issue 35: If You've Got a Problem, She's Got a Problem Too

This my fine friends is Charlotte "Lottie' Grote, Sarah's baby sister, ten at the time of this, mystery solver extrodinare, baby goth, little hellraiser, ball of energy and generally the best.

Lottie is one of John's faviorite characters and like Shelley one he's used quite a bit and for good reason. She's a fantastic character to read, funny but has a lot of depth to her, her black and white at times worldview being both a help, cutting through half truths to get to the solid ones that people sometims don't want to face, and a burden sometimes blindnig her from seeing the greys as a kid.

Lottie showing up here was a complete shock. Part of it was a long held misconception on my part: Bad Machinery, the comic i've mentioned a bunch as John's followup to Scary Go Round and what helped get Giant Days picked up in the long run, takes place three years after Scary Go Round. As i've said early in the retrospective, I thought it was five. So I assumed Lottie would be too young when really she's one year from bad machinery happening, with Esther, Susan and Daisy's graduation happening the same year in universe as the first case of Bad Machinery, while the epilogue for Giant Days takes place around the second case.

The other was the time it came out: John seemed set on retiring his wider cinematic universe and ended bad machinery and his ongoing bobbins stories. This was Lottie's first apperance since what was , on paper, her final bow chronologically. It was also in hindsight a hint John just.. wasn't quite done with her or the verse as once Giant Days wrapped he tried launching a series starring a now 18 year old lottie, Wicked Things. It.. didn't go well and I shall cover it someday, but it eventually lead to Solver, his current series and one of my faviorites following her in sheffield and how we got Dean back after all this time. It's clear he deeply loves Lottie and writing her so he couldn't resisit sliding her into his magnum opus

And despite being a ten year old in a world full of 19-20 year olds, she slides in perfectly and at the right time. The last few issues have been a pretty grim march, full of great jokes as always, but still involving Susan and McGraw cheating and how he emotoinally hurt emilia, Esther possibly being homeless, the friends going their seperate ways and Daisy's relationship getting worse and worse the harder she treis to cling to it cumilating in Ed's tragic backstory and drunkenly breaking his leg. IF ever our heroes needed a tiny chaos gremlin to lift their spiritis and speak truth to power, it was now. Like all the previous and remaning future cameos from legacy characters, this guest spot helps advance everything. it's fanservice, but it's fanservice iwth purpose. Lottie is here but her presence helps everyone else wether it's strengthing bonds, helping loosen some or just helping a guilty person feel less guilty.

Before we get to Minnie Grote though, we get to Esther's hangover as she's depressed and was at the night hospital all night with ed. So she goes to have a depression nap.. unaware Sarah is here and brought a special guest. No prize for guessing who. Lottie being Lottie dosen't take "she's got the sads" as an acceptable answer and goes to cheer her up. And this issue is where tumblr image limits really are a bitch as Lottie says so many fantastic lines in the span of one issue I can't possibly put them all in here individually and still have room for any other issue. Thankfully god invented montages and ms paint for a reason.

She is a Lottie.. and that is wonderful. A lot is going on so circling back, Lottie tromps upstairs to tell Esther to get out of bed. It's the law. I really COULDN'T pack everything in the montage alas.

The moment itself is geninely sweet.. while Lottie handles trying to figure out why Esther's sad with the force of a sledgehammer, emotoinal issues remain her blind spot at times to this very day, it's very clear Esther is happy to see her surrogate little sis again and is very gentle and patient with her. Esther can be kind but it's a kind of softness we've only seen with Daisy, a gentle big sister side. Instead of pushing her away she explains what happened: Ed fell off and she didn' tpush him off with a rake as Lottie figured but with alchol and emotoins and we get the scene from above, Lottie in her surrogate big sisters hoodie telling everyone all is well like a preist, god I love this child and the adult she's become. THeir both like children to me just at very diffrent stages.

Esther's being in a sad coma also upends Sarah's schedule: While she did come to see her bestie while she needed her, Sarah also needs some vitamin D, having broken things off with Eustace a while ago and met some guy on the train. While Susan is incredilous about the whole setup, the selfishness, the bringing an 11 year old along, the last part was their mum: Their aunt's having a funeral and figured she'd have more fun with Esther and her big sis than there. Given Lottie still has issues with her father's death well into adulthood probably a good idea to have her sit this one out and go see some college kids.

So while Susan questions Sarah's logic and ethics because Susan, she also gladly agrees to Babysit so Sarah can have sexytimes and Esther can have her angst coma. I do wish we'd seen more of Susan and Sarah they only interact twice but have this weird fun chemistry. I'd love to see Sarah more in general as JOhn using her spairingly, mostly for pop ins with her sister, last seen with their mum trying to bail Charlotte out of jail. Giant days, and max's art, give her a bit more of a pop.

So Susan decides to do the responsible thing and show her Death Note. Given how Lottie acts as a detective and has an L poster later it clearly left qutie the impression. McGraw understandably questions showing her this at ten but Susan is right you have to get them young and Death Note is just grisly enough to be a lot but not so gory it'd scar a kid for life.

It's so sweet to see Susan hang with Lottie as it really brings out that nurtruing side we've seen with Daisy from time to time. The good things we've seen her pick up from the one sister who wasn't a garbage fire. Her protective instinct that makes her want to set people on fire but directed to just showing an adorable moppet death note and having fun showing a kid the cool stuff and giving them snacks. This whole incident is why I have an AU where Susan and McGraw adopt the Collector from the Owl House. Yes this is a real thing i've put genuine thought into. It's my baby. I am not a well man.

Susan does have to take a break to sign leases stuff and after Lottie gets up to speed Daisy decideds to take her for a walk. Most of Lottie's suggestions for activities are a no go from makeovers to shooting tin cans in the woods to lots and lots of sugar. Daisy is also responsible and good with kids.... yet still decides to take Lottie to her new place.

This proves to be a misake. As seen in the montage Ingrid is her usual self and can't be plesant for five minutes around a fucking child. Even if Lottie wasn't an excellent judge of character Ingrid does everything short of kicking a puppy to telegraph she sucks from bad mouthing Esther for no reason to saying a child who was brought her ewas "killing her vibe". Her idiot friend then tries to give lottie cigs and a bong Daisy thankfully takes away.. though the when in rome line is perfect.

Finally after just.. three minutes here Lottie asks the same question everyone else in Daisy's life has been asking

It's one of my favorite pages in the entire comic. I love the initial misunderstanding, Lottie's gentle pat.. and then her very harsh and accurate summation of how bad this is, concluding with her kicking underwear around.

Lottie was the perfect nail in the coffin for this toxic shitshow of a relationship: At this point Daisy is just trying to tune everyone else out: She knows it's bad, everyone else is telling her it's bad, but she's clinging desperately to how alive Ingrid makes her feel.

In contrast Lottie is an outsider: She showed up a few hours ago, has known daisy for that exact amount of time, and known ingrid for exactly five minutes and that's being generous. She's young enough to approach it from a very matter of fact level, sleeping on a dirty matrress with no space for anything or anywhere to clean clothes in a loud factory, yet still observant and skilled enough as an experinced detective to be absolutely right in her observations. Everyone else, understandably after the big blow up, has tried to tread carefully with how bad an idea this is and slowly talk her out of it, something that isn't working. Lottie is too young and too Lottie to take the side door, she kicks down the front and asks "why are you doing this to yourself?" and Daisy has no answer.

So instead she buys Lottie a sugary drink because her will is gone, batons her off to McGraw and Susan and goes to the mind hospital, aka her room to have a think.

Susan and McGraw taking care of her is just wholesome from Susan wisely chucking the sugar drink before Lottie's brain explodes to the two having 'LOST OUR CHILD" only for Susan to correctly deduce Lottie just wanted to be more grown up and went to get a makeover. Susan is just.. nothing but sweet in this one, showing she'd make a good mother.. if she wants to be. But not in a paternalist or "Oh women have to be way" just in a "she's very good with children and that's a genuine suprise" way. She was good with Daisy btu Daisy is a grown woman who simply was a rung or less immature. To see Susan not only bond so throughly with a child i'm convinced Lottie got her number at some point but take such good care of her is sweet.

As for Esther she gets some needed one on one time with Sarah once her misery rest is up with Sarah noticing that Esther hasn't been porkin it lately with Esther prefering growth.. even if today was , as she puts it, Crap Christmas it was better than it was a year ago. It's also telling that like Lottie, Esther tells Sarah the actual story. While part of it might be the veil of anomainity, for all she knows they'll never meet ed past today, it shows a trust that even her other ride or dies does she has with the Grotes, that their family as much as friends. Given Lottie is STILL calling Esther friend and talking her up as a grown woman, it says a lot. Distance may of formed, things may of been iffy with Esther and Sarah but some friendships just cannot break no matter how much you stress test them. We also get a moment that set my shipping bells a buzzing.. and made me laugh a lot

It's the way she asks.. it's half teasing half "If your not gonna can I". And in fairness he survived with his bones in tact, it was a good time for all. But I do like this kinda ed Sarah crack pairing even if their onlyc anon interaction is her being one of many people crowded around his bed while her sister stares at him like she's poor ed's sleep paralysis demon. They both could use it, Ed's more canon presuits go better together, more on that next time, and Ed does like women who push him out of his comfort zone. I just likes it.

So at the hosptial everyone else is shoved out and Ed dosen't quite remember what happened.. till he gets the drink card and found Esther scribbled a note about his confession. We will get back to this.

For now it's time for the Grotes to say goodbye. Esther and Sarah hug and Lottie has made friends and more sisters for life in Daisy and Susan.. and had quite the impact on her poofy haired new friend.

Given at this point Lottie's met the kinda sorta anti christ, that says a lot and is also accurate. It's also very sweet how both have instantly bonded with her.. and how Daisy takes her advice to heart. That even knowing how young Charlotte is Daisy dosen't think less of her and instantly gathers how smart this kid is... mostly because she's saying what Daisy has finally admitted to herself: this isn't working, and Ingrid needs to go. Naturally.. it won't be THAT easy.

Issue 36: Sunsetter

Told you. So winding back it's two weeks later as you'd imagine: It took a whole year for Daisy to realize this relationship was a mistake and they were never compatable: Daisy's inherently giving and open, Ingrid is inherently irony poisoned and selfish. It only worked based on pure carnal passion and denial. Both thought they could change the other and neither was right.

I get Daisy's terrifying need to hang on though: Ingrid was her first, she worries she'll never get that again. What if the first time is the only time? I've only had two relationships and been alone in the decade plus since, I get the fear , it is very real. Her two best friends having been through it romantically probably dosen't help: esther nuked her first relationship on impulse and took a year to get over it and Susan nuked her relationship with McGraw out of sheer neglect then rekindled it in cheating. Both are fine now, even with the ed incident Esther is better than she was before as is Susan, but both had rocky fucking roads getting there. Ad on just how hard it can be to be gay and you understand why Daisy is consdiering the "wait till we graduate" nuclear option.. and why the others are quick to say NOOOOO they'll just keep putting it off, finding other excuses and end up 25 year laters heads of the unviersity and ready to murder each other and probably invite some unsuspecting couple to reinact whose afraid of virginia wolfe.

So instead Daisy does the mature thing and presses on. She has to do this, even if it hurts. She does run into Ed whose packing up for the summer to catch up on work at home. We've established Sheffield is 80 percent hill so it's not worth trying to finish his finals on crutches. I do like this check in on the two's friendhsip. He offers his condolence, she gives him a can of febreeze for his cast, which is much appreciated.

So the breakup comes.. and sadly if fittingly for this dumpster fire of a relationship, it is not private. Daisy WANTS it to be and almost backs out when she sees Ingrid is having an exibition for her work.. but presses forward. She has to rip this band aid off or regret it forever. And as you can tlel from the smashening Ingrid handles this with her characteristic maturity

Ingrid.. is within her rights to feel bad.. she's within her rights to not want to talk about it and not feel good and while Daisy is trying her best to soften the blow.. sometimes you just can't. Sometimes a person just hurts and you gotta let it hurt.

That said I used precious panel space for this because it does underline Ingrid's other greatest flaw: She lacks any self awareness. She makes it a big scene that it has to be about me that I MADE THIS PLACE IN MY LIFE FOR YOU, THAT IT CAN'T JUST BE THAT I'M BAD YOU HAD TO WANT SOMEONE ELSE, THAT YOU HURT ME. Ther'es no room for Ingrid to accept she's the asshole, that this is ending because Daisy tried to adjust for her.. but Ingrid never once tried to change. She didn't have to change her personality or her art or anything important, she just had to do one simple thing: Be nice. That's it. Just try and be nicer, actually treat Susan and Esther as people and not some gum on her shoe, to actually respect othe rpeople's needs. And she can't. She couldn't accept Daisy's friend needed a home or that Daisy just wasn't ready to come out and here she can't accept that it's her fault, that yeah Daisy was aware they were diffrent she just wasn't ready to admit that was a problem.

And Ingrid didn't make space for her: She shoved Daisy into a box into what SHE wanted, told her not to bring a friend who might make it livable , and then is suprised when Daisy simply took a while because she was afraid of how it'd go down.. and then smashes a bunch of sculptures and screams to make her feel bad. Their whole relationship was Ingrid trying to consume Daisy's life, edge her friends out, make Daisy into her.. instead of giving a single inch and letting them compromise. Ingrid is a perfect example of a toxic relationship in fiction, someone who just takes and takes without leaving anything left.

Proving my point, after Daisy spends a few weeks in a sad coma just in time to help pack up... INgrid pulls the ultimate dick move on her way out.

Everything about this page hurts from how much Granny is trying to help to how hurt she looks at the end. It's also way worse than I ever realized. It's bad enough outing Daisy to her grandmother.. but I never noticed the context of why till now Ingrid has apparently been calling Daisy for a month solid with Daisy understandably wanting some space. She initiated the breakup sure, but given how explosive it ended up being and how toxic the relationship was she needed a break.

So instead of accepting Daisy is done she calls her grandmother she KNOWS she isn't out to and just coldly outs her. I used to think the reason was just petty revenge: "You left me so i'm going to hurt you". Now i've realized it's somehow even worse: She's hurting Daisy.. so she'll talk to her. That is just a level of petty and pathetic I didn't know existed simultaneously in fiction and is just... pathetic. I'd pity ingrid if her actions didn't seroiusly hurt Daisy and her Granny and nearly total their relatoinship. It's the perfect summation of just how much of a selfish, egotistical , manipulative shitty black hole of a person Ingrid is. She's one of John Allison's best antagonists because she's not evil.. she just sucks a bunch in a very painfully realistic way. She's an abuser who simply can't let her victim get away or have the self awareness to realize she was abusing Daisy in the first place and people get hurt. This isn't her last apperance and i'm suprisingly thankful for that. While yes she gets to try an dmanipulate daisy one more time next time... we also get the catharsis from their split that was absent here. Daisy hurt, Ingrid hurt and then Ingrid hurt her bad and now we have to deal with the fallout.

Issue 37: Oh Lord

Yeah... as you can see this didn't end well. Granny gets downright cruel freezing Daisy out for two weeks before Daisy has to force the confrontation out of her then just getting downright cruel. As someone whose had his share of family arguments that make up your mind bit wreaks of the kind of thing you say in the heat of the moment ot hurt someone then regret forever. It's perfectly painful writing. It'd be easy to just make Granny completely cross the moral event horizon but you do understand her pain just enough to not hate her: To her it felt like Daisy was scared she'd be homophobic and that hurts.

Yet we still take Daisy's side both because we have more context, we've seen her reasons for not coming out.. and because ultimately coming out.. is a persons choice. As i've said before it can take a while and is daunting even when you KNOW deep down the person will probably accept you. Coming out as bi was hard for me and exploring being bi is still a struggle for me. Being queer takes time, patience and everyone moves at their own pace. Daisy wanting to is resonable and Granny, having been so open with her for so long, simply can't understand Daisy hiding ANYTHING from her so she overreacted. She went too hard and too bitter. It's not okay, Daisy shouldn't feel like shit because someone forcibly outed her.

And Daisy after a talk with Esther, whose bitty at a shitty summer downton abbey job not much to talk about there, it's funny enough, decides to fucking peace out, leaving a letter for Granny because she's a class act. As she tells susan, whose living in the remondeled dorms over the summer (Her dad and MCgraw moved her in last years, she's doing what susan would've advised her too: Fix what she can.

So Daisy goes apartment shopping and it's geninely funny from a dingy closet she'd have to hide in, to actually being in chesterfield to the best bit

Daisy's manic grin as she runs off lives rent free in my head. As does her easily clocking this is a cult. As things grow dim esther accidnetly dismisses her (She's trying to hide from the horrid boss at her place).

Daisy isn't doing well and Susan's snoring isn't helping.. we get a vunerable and painful moment as she just wants her granny and her bed and to go back ot when things ar esimplier. This gets her the idea to apply for a bed at Caddrick.

It's here the nice lady running the hall informs her that the beds are earmarked fo rnew students. Daisy figured but it was worth a try. The Dorm Lady does however see what a jackpot she has in Daisy, a kind responsible person who needs a room and offers her a spot as an RA, saying daisy applied already and it taking Daisy a minute to see this is just a clever trick to get Daisy in the program. Their short on RA"s, Daisy is a good fit and she knows like dr ben spider man syas with great power comes great responsiblty and her experince both as a brownie and with the freshman tour makes her a shoe in. Next Year Daisy will be an RA a job she absolutely loves the idea of. I also get the sense John MIGHT of been hinting at shipping daisy with this lady but then changed his mind as the age gap might've been ab it. The way she winks at daisy is fairly suggestive but I also have shipping goggles surgically welded to my face so i'm biased.

And just as her student life settles again, her personal life heals too. Granny has arrived and as she puts it "I've been an old fool"

It's one of the sweetest moments in the entire comic and Max really nails the art... you can feel just how sad Granny is.. and just easy. It also gives another reason why Daisy didn't want to come out. .it was rough and she needed some time.

With that Daisy can go home, everything solved and Susan is confused, worried.. and pissed Daisy cleaned her room.

And with that Year Two has formally ended.. and is far better than I remembered from my first two reads. It's still a bit slow to start, the pacing could be picked up a notch, but the first half still has some excellent issues: The Robbery and storage space ones are all timers, and the second half is almost back to back to back bangers. It's nicely done setup for one hell of a payoff and some of the best comics i've ever read. By the end of it the series is at it's peak, has mostly set itself up well for the end and had some of it's highest highs. I still like Season 1 a bit more: It's more even and it has a lot of the moments that made the series fo rme early on.. but year two is still a worthy succesor that manages to make it past it's growing pains and deliver one hell of an end to a season. This is comics at their best: rich in character, rich in art, rich in story and rich in heart and it was blast to go through them again and to share them all with you.

So with that we've entered year 3: it's the final chapters... so let's see how they open

Issue 38: Mystical Madrigal

So here we are: The final year of giant days. It's a lot to process having made it this far: given how many of my retrospectives have burnt out due to lack of funds or time, it's a miracle I got this far and i'd like to once again thank my good friend emma for letting me do this. Your simply the best. Better than all the rest. better than anyone i've ever met. Thanks pal.

It's a bittersweet feeling: This may not be my most popular project, but it's one of the ones i'm most proud of and i'm sad to see it go. I've worked long and hard on this thing, gotte na friend into the thing I like, actually made friends who are as obsessive about johns work as I am.. it's been a helluva ride. It's not over and I know it's weird to keep getting this wistful but it's hard not to. This retrospective will hopefully end in April and like our main cast i'm just not quite ready for that. I have one foot in the future, planning for various muppet shenanigans and what not, and one in the now hoping it isn't as close to over as it is.

Cutting the sentiment down just a tad the first issue of Year 3 is the weakest of the four season openers and yes i'm including the pilot. The Self Published issue 1 perfectly introduces the cast and serves as a nice bridge between Scary Go Round , which he was closer to at the time, and his later more mellow slice of life stuff he settled into with time. Boom #1 likewise is a great introduction, catching you up to speed fast, having some fantastic moments and giving us McGraw.

Season 2 opens with the Festival an all time great and if you want to count the first actual day of school, the Ikea issue is also fantastic from it's cover to "I'm impossibly drunk" to Dean decending on McGraw and ed's home like a plauge of locusts in a very sweaty suit.

By contrast this opener is stretched thin: It tries to get into everyone's new living situations all at once and only one of them is really that interesting. The other two are a decent setup that just isn't really packed with jokes outside the opening and a massive dead end for the season John quickly and rightly abandoned.

Okay so getting the bad one out of the way first; Esther's moved in and Dean has apparently been telling everyone how much she sucks to try and poison the well because he's Dean and can't take loosing a bedroom or a fiance well. That last part was mean but he's had a summer to calm the hell down and instead spent it plotting revenge. So Esther plots a charm offensive.. which it turns out was the plan: Make them all love her and miserable.. the same scenario daisy had been testing with the kobi, ashi and maru in her RA training. Which of course Dean takes as her being a fake geek girl before sulking off.

And this whole evil scheme.. goes nowhere. Esther is just on good terms with her roomates. Their background extras at best as anything they could do as characters is mostly covered by Esther, Ed and Saruman of Many Colors. They do get a memorable scene in the next batch and are good for hangout scenes, but they aren't really necessary and John already has another character to flesh out AND another gaggle of extra characters to juggle he can use more often in Daisy's dorm. There just wasn't room for a storyline that frankly didn't really have a satisfying way to end it: DId Esther date one of these guys? is their strife? Does dean cackle in a chare with his corgi? There's not a lot here. Esther suffers is a common theme of the comic and one we're going to get a lot of already this year. Adding to her pain in a way that just distracted from everything else was a non starter so John quickly stopped it. It makes this plot the weakest by default as it goes nowhere and outside of the fun spread of Dean being pissy and his creepy chin at one point, there's not much here to care about. The only important note is that Ed hasn't arrived yet and that could've been thrown out anywhere.

Daisy's plot is more interesting it's just not really funny or insightful into her character: She works as an RA, stops someone from smoking the drug pipe, ahs a few fun pop ins doing her job and stops a rager with florescent lights. It's a few light gags, nicely sets up her status quo that's about it. The only really good part is the opening where whe's givent eh Kobi, Ashi and Maru test and you can just tell whoever made that knew exactly what they were doing. It's not bad, but it dosen't really expand on daisy or use her in funny ways. We know she's responsible, she's been the sensible one in the group most of the time. The one character moment we get is this feeling refreshing after a year of not feeling like herself in girlfriend hell. It's small but appreciated

In sharp contrast Susan and McGraw's plot is truly excellent and one of the best of the year, a nice quick settle in. Susan was busy with med school stuff over the summer, it's why she and Daisy rooomed together in Cadrick as the start and end of it, so she let McGraw pick their home. He chooses one in the Crookes, even the building Susan hates most. She has said this many times. I do love how Susan it is to just.. hat ea building, which apparently has a bunch of children and a loud neighbor. Instead of listening to the good parts or trying to be resonable, Susan is susan and demands and apology.

By the time Esther and Daisy pop by for dinner, the two have set up, as esther puts it competiing pop up restraunts. In a nice show of how close they all are.. Esther and Daisy simply take Susan and McGraw respectively aside to talk it out with Esther pointing out a key detail Susan missed: McGraw made EVERY PIECE OF FURNITURE himself. As stated above HE FILLLED IT WITH LOVEEEEEEE. It's one of the sweetest moments in the entire comic and such a McGraw thing to do.

So with that things are at least settled and we can talk about the art. For this issue and the next artist Julia Madrigal filled in. Cards on the table: I used to hate the art for these two issues mostly because we get a lot of off model joey wheeler grade creepy chins

On reread it's just a few off model expressions here and there and I get why; Madrigal was trying to match Max's style, mesh it with hers.. but it just didn't come together. Her arts better when she just lets it be hers and her art on instagram and other places is excellent.

That is fucking gorgeous. She was just trying a bit too hard to truly fill in for max. I suspect, though I can't confirm for now, that Max having to take a few issues off was a sudden thing and the scripts were likely written for his style where as other issues with diffrent artists like the christmas speccial or johns own two issues were scripted with them in mind. When Max first entered in issue 9, it was with the knoweldge he would be taking over and even that, while still beauitful from the jump, took a little adjusting to fully settle in. It's a lot to expect someone to perfectly settle into a longrunning series with two already distinct art styles in it this close tot the end. GIven the sheer weight of that kind of assigment, she did a great job. A few weird expressions just happen and the fact she still nailed the characters is impressive. And by the next issue the wonkiness is completely gone and sh'es nailed it. Pulling that off in just two issues is impressive and I need to give it it's flowers. Nailing someone elses style well enough to cover while still making it your own is impressive.

Issue 39: Starring at the Future

Issue 39 picks things up a bit, setting up Esther's main arc for the rest of the comic: Figuring out what the hell she wants to do with her life. While Giant Days rarely goes into the actual lecture halls, it's still been clear and true with the characters degrees: Esther is English, Daisy is Archeology, Susan is Medicine and McGraw is presumibly archtecture. Ed is the odd one out with his student id a friend in the server, Heyhey haydn, found for me saying English

He's kept purposfully vauge I suspect to go with being an every man. If it has come up I missed it and if it does come up in the final chapters, i'll be sure to note it but I could not figure it out.

It's similar for Dean Thompson whose very into computers, yet was never really fleshed out. Neither was dean. It MIGHT be education as he's a teacher by Solver, but we geninley don't know. He could've switched Majors as he isn't seen graduating with the rest or simply took longer to get his masters before seeking a job. I'm going with the major switch for now.

My point in all this ephermira is that while the three leads had very clear career tracts only two of them had a solid plan out of those: Susan really wanted to become a doctor and it's a clear part of her. She may be a shade off on the hypocratic oath, i'm loving it, but she does want this job. Daisy geninely loves archelogy and her dig was only a nightmare because of that asshole what ran it that she yelled into dust.

In contrast while Esther loves the astetics of being a literati and loves reading and is geninely good at papers, she's usually cramming them in last minute as I did in those days, she has no clear path for her degree. I sympathize: I ended up getting a general degree just to get out of there after my 8th or 9th panic attack. She never plans ahead and has never really thought about what comes after. She jut assumes, as always it works out and honestly.. it usually has. Yet every time she's hit a major speed bump, you can see her shatter: Her cheating on eustace and explodign their relationship wrecked her for a while, her grades slipping lead to her nearly quitting, her housing situation left her in tears and broken down till ed saved her. Esther can wether a decent amount, but tends to fall apart when reality hits her with a shovel to the face.

And this time she can see the shovel coming: She knows she has no real options and her usual routine is'nt working.. this time she's just far more aware it isn't working. She does her usual manic pixie dream goth schtick and dosen't take the career fair she and daisy go to seriously, but by the end when talking with McGraw it's clear why

It's the issue. Esther has a career she could actually do well... she just.. dosen't want that. She dosen't want to be her mother, giving up who she was for a comfortable subruban life. She wants more.. but has no idea what more is. I again sympathize.... I was umoored for most of my 20's, having no idea what the fuck I was doing with my life, going from one food service job to another. No shade on those who work them, but for someone with anxiety it was hell and the best I could do was janitorial. No disrespect to janitors either. I only got ons olid ground thanks to comissions and social security and it took a while to just take the leap and find a niche to write like this. McGraw is perfectly right, your first step dosen't have to be perfect and to add to it.. you just have to take it. esther's scared because she knows she has a tendency to just let shit pass by. The struggle against this and the hazy future isn't so easily answered. She got an invitation from a mysterious orginzation but it could be spywork or some sort of ponzi scheme.

Daisy does much better: She's such a good interviewee and so easy to slide into the system she's overwhelmed with offers and makes the mistake of letting susan be her agent, with Susan netting her a sweet deal being the face of drone warfare. Daisy prefers to just work with the school instead> it may not be the sexy indiana jones meets tomb raider adventures Esther theroises up top, but it's what she wants.

As for McGraw we get an intresting pull at him: Susan will still be studying at least a year for her med degree, she's not done yet. McGraw plans to just do odd jobs which Susan finds unfesable but is entirely fesable... it's just not going to be enough and she knows it, pushing him to go. He geninley tries gets plenty of offers, he's a top building man after all, but ultimately opts to get his masters instead. When Susan pries about giving the system more money he explains the tax is worth it to spend one more year with her. Awwwww.

All in all it's a solid issue that helps set up one of the years main arcs and has a lot more great jokes. Susan almost making Daisy the face of drone warfare is such a perfect nonsequinter. But alas reality once again has to intervene as we cut to ed whose not only returning soon.. but hasn't been returning esther's calls. oh no

Issue 40: So About that Leg Breaking Incident...

Ed is back and his response to esther trying to talk.. is to shut her out. Even he thinks it's a dick move, he's just embarassed... what hurt most was her look at him, like he was in an ad for a donkey sanctuary. Just nothing but pity and feeling sorry for him which was well meant.. but felt worse. It was worse than just shock or suprise it was conformation she wasn't attracted to him and something his pride we've seen flair up on several douchey occasion isn't taking well.

So he goes to McGraw who tries to be helpful but also tries to use a fish in the sea metaphor "Are you telling me to make love to a mermaid? Because I bloody will" It sums up both the issues in McGraws technique and Ed's romantic philosphy in one go.

See I do think McGraw is absolutely right that they don't quite fit. I used to ship them but shipping them both with other people for a while helped me realize they dont' qutie fit. As i've realized she's righ tfor him: He likes women who are exciting, push him out of his comfort zone but generally like him for him. That is healthy and he is there when it counts enough. He's just not right for her.

It hurts to say this, this ship has been my north star for a while, I loved it.. but ultimately they really are better as friends. He supports her, she supports him, but when it comes to a partner you need someone who ballances you: someone who will challenge you once in a while, support you when you need it most. They will support each other, but Ed really can't push Esther anywhere and vice versa. Esther was so checked out of his life and intrestes she hadn't realized he'd already told her where he's from and hadn't told her anything about school. Esther is self centered at times she needs someone with enough force of personality to push back.

Contrast susan and mcgraw where their both two pretty big personaliteis but as discussed last time, both ballance each other well: McGraw helps susan be less vicious and mean to the world on instinct and Susan keeps McGraw form retretaing inwad. in a reality where they never remet for half a year, their both essentially hermits , Susan dating ed out of convience, the darkest timeline and Mcgraw building stuf fin private. They bring each other out into the world and the best out in each other. McGraw helps her see a dingy apartment in a part of town she hates can be great with the right mindset, she helps him see he dosen't HAVE to sacrifice for her. He instead found a compromise, as as a masters IS a great thing to have and it still keeps him in town without being aimless. It's a ballance Esther and Ed don't qutie have. As Esther says, he's like the boy she left behind. Ed is a bit better off than Eustace as while Ed tried to move on, if in an unhleathy way, Eusatce will spend years wallowing in what could've been till the devil herself bonks him on the head and reminds him he has other options. Ed is better eustace.. but he's ultiamtely still eustace: well meaning, nerdy and just not quite Esther's type.

My problem is McGraw never til lthis metaphor really points out the right reasons; He poitns out she's high maintence, that she's too much that she's "above" ed. He's essentally saying settle without saying it out loud and it's a bad message. Ther'es a line between entertaining impossibly high standards and just.. wanting someone who challenges you. McGraw didn't settle. He got who he wanted every time. He dated a mensa member who also did sportsball, a talented guitarst and is currently with an up and coming surgeon with wit as sharp as a buzzsaw. McGraw shoots for the moon too. there's a line bewtween" Don't pine for this one girl forever" and "the lesson is never try" I fear mcgraw wobbles on a lot.

The one silver lining to Ed's injury misadventure is that he does reconnect with an old friend: Nina's back baby as the two are both going through phiso, meeting at therapy. Nina broke her leg at her rowing club's end of year ball... not by rowing she just drank way too much, got stupid and her leg reversed all the way. She's impressed by ed's story and offers to be phiso buddies.. even if her calilng him a spunk again in her head makes it clear she has other ideas of physical exertion in store. Still it's a geninley sweet reunion and a glimmer of light for ed.

Thankfulyl he gets more. Feeling guilty Esther decides the best she can do is turn Ed's prison into an actual room: A fake window made of laptop screens, a tribut ecorner to stella mogzwa of the band warpaint, a band I hadn't heard of but at least tells us Ed's musical tastes, and a creepy clown duvet because Esther just has to buy her friends clown shit. Also an organge bit of paint o the walls.

Ed is geninely impressed and happy.. and the two finally talk. Esther admits she told no one else and Ed admits he gave up a long time ago and just felt bad he ruined the friendship. He did'nt and their good having a nice hug.

I do like this whole story. Even the reveal esther knew works. At the time I was a bit thrown off as one of myf aviorite moments was that dance scene and it was very clear Esther didn't know from that. Now i've had time with it and know John's writing style better i.e. "having some plans but mostly winging it" like yours truly, I can appreciate it more. Of course she knew, Ed was not subtle and of course she treid to hold it off: Tying it back to Eustace made sense: he was a susbtitue for a guy who made her feel safe and loved and was too scared to pull the trigger and make it awkward. She needed him and it's shown she does pull back most of the time when he goes too far, the moving in mess at the top of this batch being the exception and she apologizes for it here. It's what makes her pity make sense; While ed saw it as just seeing him as pathetic.. it was her realizing she fucked up really bad making him carry this for her own comfort and to perserve the friendship instead of being honest, pressure testing it and hoping it survived. It's another reason why i've backed off: They just work as friends; their honest with each other, supportive and he provides an easier shoulder at times than Daisy and Susan because he dosen't push her for solutions. He's a good friend for the same reason he's not a perfect match as a partner: he's endlessly supportive yet blunt when he needs to be.

So we end with Esther hinting she might've flipped in regards to how she sees him.. and everyone shooing daisy away from an event because Ingrids making out with a guy. Told you we're not done with her yet

Next Time: INgrid's final apperance! Lions! Sexy Plauge Doctors! and Cultural Aproriation OH my! Ed finds love eh?, Esther finds heartbreak. Daisy makes a move and Ed goes to a land down under where women glow and men plunder, all cumilating in possibly the best single issue in the entire series.

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