[Graphic Novel Review] Giant Days, Vol. 1

Giant Days Vol 1 was a quick and fun read! If you enjoy the Lumberjanes series, this one will be right up your alley!

Let’s dive in!

My Thoughts on Giant Days, Vol. 1 (Giant Days #1-4)by John Allison, Lissa Treiman (Illustrator), Whitney Cogar (Colors)

Giant Days Volume One is about three best friends that are in their first year of college. Susan Ptolemy has short brown hair and she seems to be the “leader” of the group. Esther De Groot is pale with dark hair and she has been deemed a drama queen. Daisy Wooton has big hair and glasses and she is quite naïve. Together, the three deal with a ridiculous website run by three college boys, they battle a nasty flu, and get into a number of other situations.

Sure, some of this was pretty over the top. Like any comic in this vein, the reactions of the characters are all taken to an extreme and their behavior doesn’t make much sense sometimes. But I thought it had just the right amount of ridiculousness.

The tone was upbeat and humorous. Though I only actually laughed out loud a couple times. Once was when a character asked another character for a flashback. Another was when I saw the illustration of a mother taking her son out of a classroom, stuffed in her purse.

I liked the artwork. I loved the characters faces when they reacted to something. I also really enjoyed that the backgrounds added to the story in some of the panels. For example, when Esther and Daisy are pushing Susan for a flashback the background of that panel repeats the word “flashback” over and over again. Or when Esther finds out she’s on that website, her background turned into a very intense black and orange, followed by a paned with a bunch of “A’s” all over the background. In many situations, when a character was embarrassed or shocked, the color of the background matched the emotion.

I did have fun reading this, but I think I had hoped to enjoy it more than I actually did.

Beware, the negatives: 
My first complaint was the flow; it seemed like there wasn’t a very clear storyline or even a timeline. It just jumped from scene to scene very abruptly. More than once I had to flip back to examine the pages to make sure two hadn’t gotten stuck together because the scene change was so abrupt I thought I had missed something.

I also had a hard time with Susan’s character. Sometimes I liked her and thought she was a great friend, but other times I thought she was the absolute worst.

My Final Thoughts on Giant Days, Vol. 1

That being said, I gave this graphic novel three stars. I would still definitely recommend giving this a read. While I won’t be re-reading this first volume, I am looking forward to reading Volume 2!

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Thanks for reading!