GIANT DAYS Vol.1
JOHN ALLISON/LISSA TREIMAN
How old are you? Sorry, that's none of my business. But how old are you? No kidding? Wow, you look great. I only ask because I have a rhetorical point: I think September will always make us think of school. No matter how old you are. It just FEELS like back-to-school-time, in a bunch of different ways.
Authors and artists have tackled themes revolving around school and being a student since there was such a thing as "school." Some are cute, some are trite; some have wizards and many do not. And some creators have approached these stories with grace, wit, insight, and a sense of urgency and weight that speaks directly to the heart of what is an almost universally shared experience. John Allison and Lissa Treiman have made us one of those stories in Giant Days.
Susan, Esther, and Daisy are at their first year of university and they are figuring stuff out. From that simple premise we get three fully realized and engrossing characters that pretty much constantly defy what you are expecting from a book about college kids. You'll care more about these three girls in the first five pages of Giant Days than characters you've spent hundreds of pages and hours with in other books and comics.
So drink in the encroaching fall; stare at leaves that are a different color than leaves usually are, feel the increasingly bracing breeze, and, go ahead, spend some time thinking about what this time of the year used to mean to you. And if you're heading back to school yourself, Susan, Esther, and Daisy for sure have your back.
