Advance Review: Extreme Emotional Tension Awaits In Giant Days #42

Esther is struggling with her feelings for Ed. This started a few issues back during a drunken night when Ed professed his love for her…before falling off a wall and breaking both his ankles. While Ed’s bones healed, his statement grew to real love from Esther, although she hasn’t told him any of this yet. Now she’s ready to tell him how she feels, but it might be too late.

Giant Days already excels at incredible character drama, but this issue may just top them all. In perfect sitcom fashion, we see how Esther inches closer and closer to revealing her feelings for Ed as the oblivious boy moves just out of reach. While I want nothing more than for these two kids to get together, I can’t be mad at Ed for how he acts in this chapter.
See, Ed has pined over Esther for awhile now and up until recently, she made it pretty clear that she didn’t see him as anything more than a friend. Granted, he never really made a move, but he admired her from afar. He’s finally getting over that crush, but it comes at the worst possible time. Ed has another admirer.

This is what I mean about awesome character drama. Writer John Allison creates these amazing sequences throughout Giant Days #42. One moment your heart is breaking and the next its pounding a mile a minute. The comic is paced beautifully.
Max Sarin’s artwork is the perfect complement to this riveting story. Every character is so full of emotion. You get an instant sense as to what they’re feeling by how they look at one another. This also provides for some great moments of reflection as they wrestle with what to do next. This is especially true for Esther in this issue, but it’s also the case for just about everyone else.

That’s another impressive quality with this series. Every character gets some time to shine. There’s definitely an A story with Esther and Ed, but Daisy, Susan, and McGraw all have some scenes where their own stories are advanced. These come in when you’re about ready to burst from anticipation from the main story. Plus, the plotting is made so that the seeds dropped in this chapter will bear fruit in subsequent issues. It’s just dynamite storytelling.
Sarin strikes this solid balance between the emotional and the cartoony that works hand-in-hand with Allison’s story. It’s dramatic when the scene calls for it and then it can bounce back and be laugh-out-loud hilarious. Sometimes this switch happens in the middle of a sequence as the characters bounce back and forth.

This also comes through in Jim Campbell’s letters. Words are bolded to show some extra intensity which adds to both the funny and emotional moments. Sometimes there’s a single word that can just hit you right in the gut.
This issue takes place in December and has the feel of the wintery month. There’s a chill in the air with Whitney Cogar’s colors. It’s a little tough to explain. Everything is a little lighter with a clear blue sky, but not in the bright, sunny way you’d get in Spring or Summer.

If you’ve ever enjoyed a sitcom on TV, you owe it to yourself to read Giant Days. It is consistently funny and incredibly well done. Everything works together to create one of the absolute best comics, not only of the year, but for the decade. I hope this series never ends, but I recognize that it will have to eventually. For now, I can revel in the pages we get each month.
You can pick up Giant Days #42 from Boom! Studios this Wednesday, September 5^th at your local comic shop or digitally through ComiXology and Amazon Kindle.