Review by Frank Plowright
Must all good things come to an end? After a sparking start, numerous Eisner Award nominations, an eventual win and thirteen earlier volumes of sitcom delight this is the end of the road for Giant Days. Is it glorious?
John Allison prepared us for the end of the academic year in Volume Thirteen, and here opens with four days remaining and Daisy in a complete state because someone is constantly pranking her. Who could be responsible? Well, that’s no secret to readers, but the tightly buttoned and orderly Daisy is severely rattled. However, can she apply the characteristics that have seen her through life so far to definitively isolate the culprit everyone else has marked as obvious?
After that it’s a sentimental farewell as we reach the final days of term, the long summer and the graduation that officially draws a line under university life for most. Closing off a series in any form is far more difficult than opening it. A series requiring closed off is by definition successful and much loved, and therefore the finale can be a potential iceberg. Don’t give those who’ve come to love the cast what they want and they’ll be disappointed, but give them what they want and eventually they’ll consider it lacking and unoriginal. So is this The Sopranos or Sex in the City?
Well, Allison’s such a smooth writer that his finale seems effortless. It’s more of the same, but the same has been so good there’ll be no complaints, and there are enough surprises and jokes to ensure quality is maintained.
That’s also the case for Max Sarin, who’s been so consistently good over thirteen volumes that you may well have forgotten she wasn’t the original series artist. However, her version of the cast is now definitive, not least because many are her designs. She brings a world to joyous life with poise and elegance.
But wait… There’s an epilogue.
Can we go home again? Yes we can! You don’t really need to know anything more than time has moved on a year and happiness appears at a premium. Allison nails the UK capital’s attitude to anywhere north not served by London Underground, and how hollow it is, and his method of building a plot around the emotional drama is as strong as ever. If this weren’t a story drawn in Sarin’s friendly style, in places it could be dark snatches from Fleabag. Yet in other places there’s the surreal quality of The Mighty Boosh, so possibly a little more experimental than the usual sitcom. The whole, though, is very satisfying and Giant Days holds its head up to the end.
