Giant Days #40 Review

I shared the preview of Giant Days #40 a few days ago. Afterwards, I was intrigued to give this comic a try.

Giant Days #40

Writer: John Allison
Artists: Max Sarin
Cover Artist: Max Sarin
Colorist: Whitney Cogar
Letterer: Jim Campbell
Price: $3.99
In Stores: July 4, 2018

Synopsis:

Ed Gemmel returns to Sheffield after a summer spent healing bones and also his heart. Esther does her best to welcome him back, but neither of them have forgotten his drunken confession.

Review:

I really liked this. The focus of my collecting is Legion of Super-Heroes, so I spend a lot of my time reading super-heroes.I spend so much of it that I sometimes forget how refreshing a slice-of-life comic can be. It can be especially refreshing when that comic is as good as this one is. If the bulk of your comic consumption is super-heroes, then you should probably give a book like Giant Days a try.

The story flows very natural and gives enough background that dropping in the middle of the characters’ lives isn’t confusing in the slightest. In this time of summary pages, writers forget that every comic can be someone’s first. This was my first issue of Giant Days, and I was instantly made to feel welcome. The story also felt very dense, but in a way that made me feel like I was getting four bucks’ worth of story. I instantly liked the characters, but disliked their flaws, all of which were absolutely human. It’s a sign of a good story that characters can be so flawed, but likable.

While this entire issue would have been banal if it had focused solely on the Ed/Esther awkwardness, it got tidied up a little. I doubt very seriously that this is over, but it’s nice to see it somewhat resolved. We even see progression in other directions. The world that the characters exist in seems very real, and even when rooms are redecorated, they feel the same, both in art and how the characters react to them.

Speaking of the art, it has that organic, flowing style that seems inspired by animation. This allows for a flow and never jars the reader with creative layouts, so common in mainstream comics. Max Sarin may just become one of my new favorite artists. Whitney Cogar’s colors are a good compliment to his art. The colors, while localized, are very complementary and the choices give a construction to the panels. Just look at that first panel on page two for an example of what I mean. 

Final Rating: 9.5 (out of 10)

I mentioned in a previous article that I was going to binge on the entire series, and that still holds true. It’s truer now after reading this issue.

Preview Pages: