Giant Days: Extra Credit

Giant Days (Single Issues)

by John Allison, Lissa Treiman (Cover Art), Caanan Grall (Artist)

College is a time of trials and tribulations, and not all of Esther, Susan, and Daisy’s made it into the main Giant Days series of college shenanigans. Head back to school with Esther, Susan, and Daisy in this collection of shorts and bonus material from the Eisner Award-nominated series Giant Days. Experience the “universally beloved” terror Desmond Fishman, the magic of London at Christmas, and that one unfortunately unforgettable experience of the girls’ first music festival. Features a special “what-if” story in which Susan, Esther, and Daisy never became friends!

Giant Days: 2016 Holiday Special
Giant Days: 2017 Holiday Special
"Fridge Raider" (BOOM! Box Mix Tape 2015 short story)
"Music Is Important" (BOOM! Box Mix Tape 2016 short story)

Genres: Graphic Novels, Comics, Young Adult, Fiction, Humor, Contemporary, Graphic Novels Comics

115 pages, Kindle Edition

First published June 26, 2018

About the author

John Allison is the author and artist of the British webcomics Scary Go Round and Bad Machinery.

Librarian Note: There is more than one author in the GoodReads database with this name. See other authors with similar names.

Reviews

[Sam Quixote · Rating 4 out of 5]

Giant Days: Extra Credit collects the two 2016 and 2017 Holiday Specials along with the shorts that appeared in Boom Box Mix Tapes 2015 and 2016 and a strip from John Allison’s Scary Go Round site. I picked this up to read the non-Holiday Specials stuff, as I’ve already read those (and I’s a Giant Days completionist), but I still found the Specials just as charming on re-read.

Allison parodies Marvel’s What If…? series as a Watcher-esque Day-Zee wonders What Would Have Happened If Esther, Daisy and Susan Hadn’t Become Friends (And It Was Christmas?). Everything’s a-topsy-turvy: Esther falls in with the mean girls, Daisy becomes a shut-in and Susan and Ed Gemmell are lovers whaaaat?! It’s such a fun story seeing the girls become friends in a different way and team-up to get revenge on the bitch posse. And it’s great to see original series artist Lissa Treiman return to draw again.

Giant Days parodies Love Actually in Love? Ack, Shelly! with the girls Megabus-ing it to London at Christmas time to visit one of John Allison’s recurring characters, Shelley Winters, who’s unlikely buds with Esther. I never saw the movie (I has a penus) so I can’t say I got any of the references but it’s a cute, amusing story and I loved Jenn St-Onge’s art – the backgrounds are bland but the characters’ expressions are delightful and she draws the cutest cat evarrr!

Allison can’t write bad Giant Days stories but the remaining four short stories show that he can write less than brilliant ones. How the Fishman Despoiled Christmas is about some weird fish person (part of the Scary Go Round-verse, I suspect?) what steals Esther’s family turkey. It’s kinda funny but kinda pointless? Which is also how I’d describe Fridge Raider, where the girls investigate some missing food from their student digs.

Music is Important is better as it’s funnier – the girls start an impromptu band to help out a mate, except none of them know how to play the instruments! The final story is Destroy History which reveals Shelley’s mysterious job at the wonderfully-named Ministry of History. She must travel back in time to 1941 to convince Hollywood movie star Hedy Lamarr to get involved in the war effort (Lamarr was a real person who also invented wifi – I know!). It’s not the best – none of his Shelley Winters comics are as good as anything Giant Days-related – but Allison’s art is particularly great in these two stories, nailing the characters’ looks and depicting time-travel really imaginatively.

Like every book in this amazing series, Giant Days: Extra Credit is a magic read! Ah, bring it in, Giant Days, come on. Daaaaaw! Yes, feel the love - never change!

[Agnė · Rating 2 out of 5]

2.5 out of 5

It's actually quite fun to see the same characters portrayed by different artists. For instance, I LOVE Jenn St-Onge’s artwork:



I also really enjoyed the what-if story in which Susan, Esther, and Daisy never became friends.

However, most of the other stories were kinda meh (“How the Fishman Despoiled Christmas” and “Destroy History,” I’m looking at you!)

[Wing Kee · Rating 3 out of 5]

Starts off real good but slowly gets to only okay.

World: Sarin is amazing. While the artists in this volume are solid they don't have that special special something that makes the characters in this series pop. It's good it's wonderful but it's not Sarin and I missed that. The world building is actually quite good. It's still enough got the story to play out but it's also based on "What ifs" and it's done really well and it really added some dimension to the past. Good stuff.

Story: The first story is amazing, it brings all the feels and the "What if" nature of the tale and how it ends is so beautiful it made me smile from the inside. The other stories are also good but they do slowly degrade in writing and the chemistry and charm of the main series is missing. It's that special magic that's lacking. They are good stories but it's that intangible thing. They are good though in the fact that they build the past and the relationship of the characters. Fans need to read this just for the first tale.

Characters: Some tales are just as magical as the main series, some less so and are just cute situations. I love love love the character work on the first tale as it is based on character and makes so much sense if you're a fan of the series. The new character is fun and I want to see her again.

I liked it, one amazing story with some okay but fans should still read this.

Onward to the next book!

[Lara · Rating 3 out of 5]

5 stars for the first story!!! This one was so very perfect and it made me super happy. I love these girls so so much. I know, I always say that.

Buuuut, then everything else happens and...ok, so, who the heck is this Shelley Winters person and why should I care about her again? And the Fishman thing? Whaaaat? I don’t get it! Someone please explain! Also, I kind of only like the Lissa Treiman art. Sorry, I’m probably just a total latecomer and only like the “recent” Giant Days stuff and have no appreciation for classic Giant Days, or whatever it is that’s going on here, but there you go.

If you’re like me in that though, read the first story in this collection, love the heck out of it, and then just move on.

[Rod Brown · Rating 3 out of 5]

Probably more like 2.5 stars. Not as fun as the mother series.

I liked the lead story, a What If? spoof that looks at what would have happened if Esther, Susan and Daisy hadn't met and become friends on the first day of college. The rest of the book just a hodgepodge collection of odds and ends that is okay but features way too much of an uninteresting side character named Shelley. First the lead characters get deep into Shelley's love life, and then we follow her through a solo time travel (?!) adventure featuring Hedy Lamarr.

[Sylwia · Rating 1 out of 5]

I only liked the first story. Everything else didn't work for me. I won't be continuing on the with "extra" volumes unless someone tells me I'm truly missing out on something.

[Cyndi · Rating 3 out of 5]

Ok. I am a fan of this series. Although this one had some excellent art and some engaging stories, some were a tiny bit flat. Still worth the read by some truly talented artists. 😊

[destiny ♡ howling libraries · Rating 4 out of 5]

This wasn't my favorite Giant Days title — which doesn't surprise me, since it isn't part of the main series, but is an alternate timeline sort of spin-off — but I still loved spending time with these babes and the humor was, as always, on point. I could've probably done without the last little story segment, but others may enjoy it more. 🤷‍♀️

[Robin Stevens · Rating 5 out of 5]

So charming, such fun (14+)

*Please note: this review is meant as a recommendation only. If you use it in any marketing material, online or anywhere on a published book without asking permission from me first, I will ask you to remove that use immediately. Thank you!*

[Kristin Boldon · Rating 2 out of 5]

Giant Days is perhaps my favorite ongoing comic, but this collection of holiday issues (which I already had and disnt love) and a few old strips (which weren't that good) made me feel duped for buying what I thought was new material. For completists only. Go read the ongoing series; it's great.

[Greyson | Use Your Words · Rating 5 out of 5]

Giant Days Series Ratings:
Giant Days: Early Registration: TBR
Giant Days, Vol. 1: ★★★★
Giant Days, Vol. 2: ★★★★★
Giant Days, Vol. 3: TBR
Giant Days, Vol. 4: TBR
Giant Days, Vol. 5: TBR
Giant Days, Vol. 6: TBR
Giant Days: Extra Credit: TBR
Giant Days, Vol. 7: TBR
Giant Days Vol. 8: TBR
Giant Days, Vol. 9: TBR
—
I read this book as part of my 2018 Library Love binge, where I read as many library books as possible to take advantage of my great local library network before I move interstate!
___
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[Amy · Rating 3 out of 5]

Sort of an odds and ends edition (Christmas episode, a what-if-we-never-met? episode etc). That was fun if only because I’ve been waiting so long for this edition but ultimately didn’t further any stories or deliver any fun quotes.

[Sarah Sammis · Rating 4 out of 5]

I don't know if more Extra Credit collections are planned, but I will read them if they are.

http://pussreboots.com/blog/2018/comm...

[Emily · Rating 4 out of 5]

3.5 stars.

I can’t give my girls a lower score than that. This series of short stories was a mixed bag, some with the expected hilarity and one or two that were just kind of weird. It was interesting to see all the different artists’ depictions of the comic, but it also threw me off to keep switching gears visually.
As a big fan of Allison’s, I enjoyed it and would recommend to other fans. I’d pick a different book for newbies.

[Penelope (Penelope’s Picks) · Rating 3 out of 5]

3/5

Least fave out of the series so far. Disappointing, but I suppose it had to happen sooner or later!

[deborah · Rating 3 out of 5]

I really liked the two longer stories in here: the first AU where the girls never became friends, and the one in London with Shelley. They both had a very cozy, holiday feel to them, and the shenanigans the girls always get into are a riot.
The shorter stories weren't especially my favorite. I thought the one with Fishman was too out of place for this series and just seemed so disconnected from literally everything else in the "Giant Days" world. And then the two with the missing food and the band were alright, just not nearly as good as the main GD comics always are! They got a chuckle out of me but they just lack substance.
This still remains my favorite contemporary comic series and I love it dearly; this collection was a nice little treat to read but I definitely prefer the main stories. :)

[Meg]

I love this series and I will never not read it.

[Eric · Rating 5 out of 5]

Very funny pendant to the main series, including a parody of Marvel’s What If? comics with Shelley as The Watcher…

[Katja · Rating 3 out of 5]

My first ever three star rating for a Giant Days book, but: The one minus star is for the publisher, since I already knew some of the stories from the Christmas extra and felt a bit cheated as a result.

[Chris Lemmerman · Rating 5 out of 5]

Giant Days really can do no wrong. These supplementary stories taken from some Boom! holiday specials and mix-tape issues are just as much fun as the main series, which is already immensely fun.

The Christmas special that opens the volume is told in the form of a What If?, in which Daisy, Esther, and Susan were never friends. But of course, these three can't be kept separate for too long and hijinx ensue. This has art by Lissa Tremain from the main series, so there's some nice consistency here, and the final page reveal that wraps this back to the main book is great.

The Desmond Fishman story is just completely bonkers and I loved it, that's all I'm saying on that one. It kind of has to be read to be believed.

"Love? Ack, Shelly!" is a superb title for anything, and this story about the three girls playing matchmaker for one of Esther's friends is hilarious and beautifully illustrated by Jenn St-Onge, who manages to capture the cartoonishness of the main book with her own expressive flair.

Rounding out the volume are some stories from John Allison's webcomic that show us some previously unseen mysteries, as well as what Shelly's actual job is - spoilers: it's totally awesome and I want it.

Giant Days definitely deserves the extra credit these stories are aiming for. They're fun, seasonal, and adorable all at once. A+, girls.

[Sarah · Rating 3 out of 5]

Definitely a fun volume, but it wasn't quite up to snuff with the continued arc of the series. If you enjoy the main series these little side stories are definitely worth reading I think.

[Liberty · Rating 4 out of 5]

Actual rating: 3.5 stars.

This is an extra comic following the Giant Days comic series so I want to keep this review short and sweet. The Giant Days comics follow unlikely friends Daisy, Esther, and Susan as they go through University together. I love these ladies and their friendship and hate that I finished the series. So, of course, I picked up the Extra Credit for the bonus scenes. They were just okay. They lacked some of the flare the rest of the volumes had. As well, I didn’t love the art style this one was done in. I don’t know why sometimes comics just change art styles. I assume it has something to do with the person doing the drawings, but I really wish it could have stuck with the original. I also don’t love the weird magical element that was in the last chapter. It was weird and felt a bit unnecessary. But maybe it was just what the girls assume Esther’s friend does for the Ministry of History. I think there’s one more volume of extras to read before I fully run out of Giant Days content.

[Dev · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is an okay volume although I don't think there' s really anything outstanding here. The 'what if they didn't meet' story predictably ends with them ...meeting anyway, just later in the year. Then there's a couple of other stories - mostly Christmas centered if I remember correctly - that were okay but also I've already halfway forgotten them it. It is nice to see the characters in different art styles though.

Also this is literally the most relatable thing I've seen all week



We don't talk about teenage email addresses lol

[Adan · Rating 4 out of 5]

A fun bunch of short stories featuring Susan, Esther, and Daisy, and occasionally Ed and McGraw. My favorite was the opening story, about what might have happened if the three girls hadn’t become friends. Also, the introduction of Esther’s London friend Shelley is a great addition to the cast and I hope we see more of her in the regular series.

[Dubzor · Rating 3 out of 5]

Meh, not really something I'd go out of my way to read. Giant Days devotees aren't really going to miss much out of this except for a pretty fun "What if?" one-shot. The rest is just kinda bland.

Then there's the follow up webcomic strips...

I don't know what it is with me and John Allison. I love his work on Giant Days, but any of his webcomic strips I read do absolutely nothing for me.

[Nate]

Extra Credit collects several short stories and specials, most of them centering around Christmas. None of the stories are awful but I only really loved one of them, incidentally the longest. The others are too short to leave a big impression. In fact, I’d say they’re average at best. Giant Days fans should probably read this, just don’t expect everything to be as good as the main series.

[Marisa · Rating 4 out of 5]

Always clamoring for more Giant Days stories. Inter eating new art and character takes. Christmas holiday story was fairly fleshed out. Some of the later issues in this volume are brief and seem to want more than a couple pages to get into it.

[Maggie Gordon · Rating 3 out of 5]

I never complain about more Giant Days, though this isn't the strongest collection in the series. Good for completionists who don't read the singles and haven't had a change to read the one-offs yet!

[Stephanie Marie · Rating 3 out of 5]

I really enjoyed the first story (what if the girls didn't become friends?) but the rest was just ok! There was some different art styles in this as well which was interesting but I'm picky about that and didn't love all of them.

[Meredith · Rating 4 out of 5]

Love the characters!