Comic book writer and artist John Allison joined the Capes and Tights Podcast for Episode 111 on June 7, 2023. To prepare for the conversation, we have compiled five comics by Allison you should read now.
John Allison is an Eisner Award winning comic artist and writer with work published at BOOM! Studios, Oni Press, Dark Horse, and many other webcomics.
Allison has had a long and great career in comics and this is just a taste of what you can expect from the creator.
Giant Days (BOOM! Studios)
What’s to Love: John Allison’s daily webcomics Bad Machinery and Scary Go Round are hilarious, the kind of strips where every panel makes you laugh out loud. As a result, John has earned a large, loyal following of readers that have followed his work daily for the past 12 years.
Giant Days is an entertaining, slice-of-life look at three friends away at university, and is a series fans of things like Scott Pilgrim will not want to miss! What It Is: Susan, Esther, and Daisy started at university three weeks ago and became fast friends. Now, away from home for the first time, all three want to reinvent themselves. But in the face of handwringing boys, “personal experimentation,” influenza, mystery mold, nuchauvinism, and the willful, unwanted intrusion of “academia,” they may be lucky just to make it to spring alive.
The many volumes of Giant Days are available digitally or in trade paperback form.
Wicked Things (BOOM! Studios)
Return to the world of Giant Days, where Charlotte Grote has her whole life ahead of her; straight to Oxford and a future as a real detective – until she’s framed for murder! Facing going to jail forever or joining the police, Lottie decides to hit the beat, all while trying to find the real murderer. Could the future of law enforcement be 5’2″ with a strong bangs game? Yes. Very yes.
Wicked Things can be found digitally via ComiXology or in trade paperback.
Steeple (Dark Horse)
A supernatural tale of friendship, the devil, and moral gray areas.
Two women with wildly different worldviews become unlikely friends as they navigate the supernatural happenings in a sleepy coastal parish-and soon find themselves forced to choose sides in the war between good and evil, facing demons, curses, and a miniature Rapture! Collects issues #1-#5 of the series Steeple. “Steeple has all the charm of John Allison’s previous work with a nice supernatural bend.” Horror DNA
Find Steeple in trade paperback or digitally.
Bad Machinery (Oni Press)
The Case of the Team Spirit introduces readers to Jack, Linton, Sonny, Shauna, Charlotte, and Mildred: six kids navigating the treacherous waters of school and adolescence while also exploring the strange mysteries that abound in their peculiar English town of Tackleford. Jack, Linton, and Sonny look for cures to their football club’s unexplainable woes, while Shauna, Charlotte, and Mildred try to find a way for compassion and justice to triumph in the face of die-hard sports fanaticism. But all of them should probably be more concerned with keeping on the good side of their history teacher, Mr. Bough. That is, if he has a good side…
Find Bad Machinery on ComiXology and trade paperback.
The Great British Bump-Off (Dark Horse)
When she enters her country’s most beloved baking competition, Shauna Wickle’s goal is to delight the judges, charm the nation, and make a few friends along the way. But when a fellow contestant is poisoned, it falls to her to apprehend the culprit while avoiding premature elimination from the UK Bakery Tent… and being the poisoner’s next victim!
The Great British Bump-Off wraps up the four-issue miniseries on July 12 with a trade paperback coming towards the end of 2023.
