Giant Days: Where Women Glow and Men Plunder #1

Giant Days (Single Issues)

by John Allison, Marguerite Sauvage (Cover Art), Whitney Cogar (Colorist)

Stop the presses! Ed Gemmel has a girlfriend. With Christmas looming, it’s time to meet her family—in Australia. Which is fine. Who cares that they’re all Manly Men! Ed once… did something manly. That one time. It happened. It’s going to be fine.

Genres: Comics, Graphic Novels, Young Adult, Graphic Novels Comics, Humor, Romance, Ebooks

40 pages, Kindle Edition

First published December 5, 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 5 out of 5]

‘Tis the season once more for another Giant Days Holiday Special, this time starring the wonderful Ed Gemmell in Where Women Glow and Men Plunder. Ed visits his lovely girlfriend Nina and her family in their hometown of Canberra, Australia. Neen’s pa, Alf, is the incumbent mayor and it’s election time. Alf’s long-time rival, Digger Devlin, and his Creek Boys are determined to unseat him. Absurdly long sausages called “snags”! Emus! Nana Joan! It’s all kicking off in Oz!

It’s Giant Days – OF COURSE it’s brilliant! This title is synonymous now with the highest quality in comics. “Is that book any good?” “It’s proper Giant Days” etc.

John Allison writes and draws this bumper issue and I was delighted to see that it featured Ed Gemmell and Ed Gemmell only (bar an amusing cameo from McGraw and Susan) – I love this character, Ed is tops, ‘bout durn time he got the spotlight! Nina’s no slouch either and I was totally charmed by her – she’s so funny and is a great new member of the cast. I liked her Nana Joan too – really, the whole Archer clan was ripper.

Allison’s writing is as sharp as ever and all the jokes landed perfectly. The characters are awesome, the story’s really entertaining and the art is strong – it’s a heartwarming must-read for all fans. If anything, this special shows an Ed/Nina Giant Days spin-off series would have some serious pins.

Emus!

[Paul · Rating 5 out of 5]

Third book of 2019! (Still going... for now...)

Here we have the latest giant-sized Giant Days special, featuring Ed Gemmel as he girds his loins to brave the dangers of Australia all for the love of a woman. This book is frickin' hilarious, and it was great to see John Allison illustrating an entire Giant Days book in his quirky style that is just rammed full of personality ('Ere, you go careful, son, or I'll ram you full of my personality, eh?)

Also featuring the world's longest sausage. Mercifully, that's not a euphemism.

[Artemy · Rating 5 out of 5]

Aww! Ed Gemmel going to Australia for holidays was something I didn't know I wanted to see from Giant Days, but I'm so glad I did. This was a wonderful one-shot, but that's just Giant Days for you — this series can do no wrong.

[Dannii Elle · Rating 4 out of 5]

Ed Gemmell journeying to Australia in the name of love is exactly the story-line I want to be reading at 5am on a Saturday morning! I enjoyed all of the sweetness and hilarity that featured throughout, but I especially enjoyed the conclusion. Ed had little in common with his new girlfriend's family and wasn't anything like the super sports star she was, either. He had his own chance to shine pages before the end, though.

[francis · Rating 5 out of 5]

A perfect Giant Days holiday special focusing on one of my favorite characters that hasn't gotten a lot of attention lately. Ed is fantastic, and throwing him completely out of his depth into Australia with a family of buff manly men was extremely entertaining. The random sausage stealing plot was fairly random, but at least made me feel... festive? Maybe? I don't know. I enjoyed this issue, I enjoyed the Susan/McGraw cameo, and I really loved seeing John Allison's artwork again. Until next holiday season, over-sized and totally tubular Giant Days.

[Diana]

I just couldn't finish this one, even thoguht there were only very few pages left... i couldn't care less about Ed's travel to Australia and all that arises there...

[Elizabeth (Miss Eliza) · Rating 2 out of 5]

Ed goes Down Under for Christmas and does basically nothing of interest. Still, it's probably one of the stronger of the Holiday releases, because thankfully there is no whiff of Love, Actually but in the end it just didn't feel very much a Holiday read...

[Jenna · Rating 4 out of 5]

A fun holiday special and I actually liked that we stepped away from our main trio and the town and went abroad for some fun. Great humor and it’s nice to see John Allison’s artwork, especially with Bad Machinery being completed, well, I’ve been missing it!

[Morgan · Rating 5 out of 5]

Sooo cute! I always love the holiday specials and it was nice that this one focused on Ed for a change!

(But I will say that the McGraw and Susan cameo was EVERYTHING!)

[Brujaxa · Rating 4 out of 5]

Ha estado bastante bien ¡y eso que era una historia aparte!

[Bunny · Rating 3 out of 5]

I kind of meh'd off about reading this after finishing the published volumes of Giant Days. I love these girls, and Ed Gemmel is a lot of fun as a background character. I don't read the comics for Ed, and this is all Ed, with one cameo. But I promised myself to read more comics this year, and finishing Giant Days counts towards that.

And this was a lot of fun. Poor sweet Ed Gemmel travels to Australia to see his beloved girlfriend, and meets her very rugged and intimidating family.

There's hardly any substance here, but there doesn't need to be. It's just a fun side read until the next Giant Days volume comes out.

[Joansie · Rating 4 out of 5]

Half the reason why I read so many christmas specials is because home seems to lack the christmas spirit in comparison to the rest of the world so seeing the special set in my own bland country was majorly disappointing. I remember reading this month's ago and not really thinking much off. Having re-read it this month without all the excitement for christmas cheer, I seemed to enjoy it much more. It was overall a little silly but still charming - and if that doesn't scream Australia, I don't know what does. This gets mine - and I'm sure even my own Nana Joan's - 4 stars of approval.

[Vicente L Ruiz · Rating 5 out of 5]

Much as I like the artists in the main Giant Days series, it's John Allison's art that drew me in to his comics first. Then I stayed for the humour and witty plots, of course. And this book is all we've come to love from him.

[solène · Rating 3 out of 5]

"Now, son, the thing about women is-" "Please stop." "They're delicate, son. Fragile." "Nina can literally spin me around her head like a helicopter rotor."

I'm so happy we got to see more of Nina and Ed, two characters I love a lot and that we haven't seen that much in Giant Days lately.

[Tom · Rating 4 out of 5]

It says something about a series when it can throw the spotlight on one of its minor characters, and give them a tale without connection to the major players. John Allison on art as well as words this time around, but I have to say, I've gotten used to and love Max Sarin's art more.

[Ivan Loginov · Rating 3 out of 5]

Cute and sweet but kind of empty and boring.

[Jo ♡ˎ´✨ ☕︎ · Rating 5 out of 5]

Awwwwww.

I (hate/have) to say this, but..... I think Esther and Ed are cute, but after this issue AWWWWW, Ed and Nina are so so soooo cute together! ♥

[laura (bookies & cookies) · Rating 3 out of 5]

3.5

Ahh yes, funnel spiders and emu (emus?), so Australian.

[Chad Jordahl · Rating 3 out of 5]

I like the Ed Gemmell character a lot but this book never captured my interest and elicited only a few chuckles.

[Doris · Rating 3 out of 5]

Read for fun. Not as good without the main trio but go Ed Gemmell!

[tina · Rating 4 out of 5]

Short and sweet, love this series!

[Claire (find me on Storygraph) · Rating 3 out of 5]

Sweet and enjoyable. 3.5 stars.

[Meg · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is still my all-time favorite comic series. I just love looking forward to the new issues every month.