Comicon Advent Calendar Day 6: A ‘Giant Days’ Ozzie Christmas In ‘Where Women Glow And Men Plunder’

Time to open another comic-shaped window in the annual festive feast that is the Comicon Advent Calendar, and today we see the delights of John Allison‘s Giant Days Holiday Special, Where Women Glow and Men Plunder…

We’re headed back to 2018 now, and the Giant Days holiday special, When Women Glow And Men Plunder, written and drawn by John Allison. It’s an absolutely glorious rom-com, perfectly done by Allison, the sort of thing that will leave you, and the world, all the better for reading it.

It is, as you could guess from the title (and yes, Men At Work were a great band), a profoundly down under sort of Christmas, that weird thing where it’s baking hot in the Southern Hemisphere and yet they still do all the old snowy Nothern Hemisphere Christmas things. And yes, it’s more New Year’s than it is Christmas, but hey, there’s snow and snowmen in England, there’s Christmas trees in Oz, so yes, it’s a Christmas/Holidays tale.

Here, we have the not-so-manly man, the timid and nervous Ed Gemmel, formerly fixated on Esther de Groot, who finally has a girlfriend, Nina, an Australian girlfriend at that, and he’s headed down to the land of manly men to meet her family and spend their first Christmas in Australia together. Yes, it’s as terrifying as you’d expect.

He’s been warned though – as Mum says…

‘Australia is no place for a Gemmell, remember to tap your slippers first thing in the morning!’

Although Dad’s more interested in this new girl…

‘Has she got nice pins? Your mother had cracking pins when I met her.’
‘No, I didn’t, You’re thinking of Janice who worked at the Gas Board.’

As you’ll find all the way through anything Allison writes, the dialogue, the interplay between these perfectly realised characters just shines through. It’s like eavesdropping on the funniest conversation you could ever hope to hear.

But no, Ed’s determined, love is calling, and he’s off to the airport, with Dad providing words of wisdom at he sees him off…

‘Now son, the thing about women is…’
‘Please stop.’
‘They’re delicate, son. Fragile.’
‘Nana can literally spin me around like a helicopter rotor.’
‘Ah, well, it’s only a lifetime of wisdom, son.’

Oh yes, there you have a perfect bit of Allison. It’s so damn funny, of course it is, but it’s also got so much heart. A beautiful little English father-son moment, where neither of them can get past being so buttoned up and damnedly English that they have to go through the awkward motions. It’s so perfectly observed.

Anyway, it’s off to Australia, and a loving welcome from Nina….

Again, so much to love. I mean, the ‘PASH!’ is just a glorious thing, but then there’s the perfect moment contrasting Ed and Nina…

‘Did you have to do that right in front of your dad?’
‘Oh, he’s seen a lot worse. Don’t worry, this week won’t be a rollercoaster of humiliation.’
‘Do you promise?’
‘Well, I can’t promise.’

Just look at Ed’s face all the way through this – oh, Allison is a master of the facial expression to convey all he needs.

From there, it’s just a rollercoaster of humiliation, where every bloke in Nina’s life, family, friends, the local bogans, all of them more manly men, built like the veritable brick shithouse. Oh, and emus. Emus are scary.

It’s a glorious rom-com comic, with the little local mystery to solve thrown in just to drive the rom-com along. But make no mistake, this one’s just that classic tale, the sort we don’t get enough of in comics, where the awkward boy meets the oh-so-confident girl, falls in love, heads halfway across the world for a Christmas and New Year of trouble, a story of a boy out of his depth, out of his comfort zone, but still doing all he can to get the love of his life.

As with everything else Allison does, this Giant Days Holiday Special is, well, special. Even moreso, as it’s the first Giant Days issue that was written and drawn by Allison. And, just like every other issue of Giant Days, it’s just perfect genuine mainstream comics, the highest of hi-jinks, the most splendid of shenanigans.

Now, if you’ve never had the pleasure of a John Allison comic, you really are missing out on one of the finer things in life. He’s been making comics for the longest time, a genuine pioneer of putting comics online before it was ever fashionable, with the added advantage being that Allison was so much more talented than pretty much most people doing online comics back then. Since those heady dial-up days of the late nineties, he’s found a home for his Scary Go Round and Bad Machinery comics at Oni Press – and they’re absolutely a must-read, a masterpiece of comedy drama in an everyday world with added weird thrown in.

But more recently, he’s found fame and fortune (I jest, this is comics after all) at Boom! Studios with the wonderful Giant Days, another comedy drama of the strange world of university life of three absolutely fabulous women. Allison writes women so very, very well, did I mention that? Plus, more recent works, such as Steeple, The Great British Bump Off, By Night, Wicked Things, Solver, and Destroy History are published through both Dark Horse Comics and Boom! Studios.

Expect brilliance, a shared universe of sorts, but more than that, a shared DNA of what he does, where all of his works feature this veritable cornucopia of believable and real characters with a gloriously naturalistic voice. A completely different style but much the same as the Hernandez Brothers do, that same heart and soul that fills their pages and their characters – albeit that Allison is a damn sight funnier, with his character coming out with lines that a stand-up would envy – the comedic timing is, always, absolutely spot-on.

You can find all of John Allison’s webcomics, including Bad Machinery at his website, along with print editions and some rather cool merchandise. His various other comics are available everywhere good comics and books are sold.

GIANT DAYS: WHERE WOMEN GLOW AND MEN PLUNDER

BY JOHN ALLISON, COLOURS BY WHITNEY COGAR, LETTERS BY JIM CAMPBELL, PUBLISHED BY BOOM! BOX IN 2018