Chronic Review: I Kill Giants

I Kill Giants - Image Comics

Collects: I Kill Giants # 1-7
Scripts: Joe Kelly
Pencils: JM Ken Niimura


I haven't written in a while, but this book fairly demanded a response of some kind, and it will damn well get it.

I don't want to say much in the way of plot. Partly because this isn't a plot-centric book, and so it's slightly irrelevant. Partly because I think the magic works better if you go in with no preconceptions and just let it rip. So you'll have something to hang your brain on, the story revolves around a troubled young girl named Barbara Thorson. She kills giants. There you go.

There are a few things I guess I can safely expound about I Kill Giants. I picked up issue # 1 when it first hit the stands eons ago, and couldn't explain to myself rationally why I did that. Certain things carry a scent of relevance to them, and this was just one of those things I felt from across the room. So I bought it on a lark.

We talked about Giants # 1 on the show, and both of us reviewed the book tentatively and positively. It's hard to be sure what you're reading after the first installment, which in retrospect is part of the story's charm. Neither Quincy nor I bought any more floppies, but I earmarked it in my brain, knowing that I would order the trade when available.

It was the scent of relevance. What I mean by that is...some things are strange and unwieldy and leave the impression that the author is desperate for you to see the full extent of their genius. That sucks.

Other things are strange and unwieldy, but they give no hint of pretense. The entire thing smells as though the creator is almost in the possession of some force that desperately matters to them. I Kill Giants is one of those things.

Like I said earlier, I don't even want to talk about themes and over-arching concerns, because I think the story works best with a really clean palate. Let me tell you this, though - Ryan the Robot was near tears not once but twice during his reading. And I'm the guy who watched George Kirk plot a suicide course while listening to his wife give birth to his new baby boy without so much as a blip during the new Star Trek movie.

I Kill Giants matters a great deal to Joe Kelly, and if you have a pulse it will matter to you as well. Go get it.

- Ryan