Comic Review: I Kill Giants (TPB)

By brownkidd on May 14th, 2009 in Comics, Featured, Reviews

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Barbara Thorson is the weirdest little 5th grader you’re likely to ever come across. All the kids at school think she’s crazy, even her family thinks she’s crazy, but her guidance counselor is trying her best to help her out. She even suffers a punch to the face and an assault with dead animals in the process! Barbara’s the type of chick that wears bunny ears, talks to fairies, carries a heart-shaped purse with a hammer in it, and plays Dungeons & Dragons. Oh yeah, she also finds, hunts, and kills giants.

Originally a seven-issue miniseries written by Joe Kelly with art by JM Ken Niimura, Image Comics has just released a collected trade paperback of this critically acclaimed story I Kill Giants. IKG manages to capture an aspect of childhood that hasn’t been shown this vividly since Calvin & Hobbes: imagination. Just as you might wonder if Hobbes really comes to life when no one’s looking, or if maybe Calvin needs some professional help, you’ll be wondering if Barbara Thorson should be tied up in a white jacket and thrown into a padded room.

Barbara’s obviously the most (and possibly only) really fleshed out character in the story, but it’s okay because this is her story. She’s depicted as headstrong introvert with a big set of balls and a mouth to match. She’s the type of deep and complex girl that could care less about stupid conversations on the bus about the VMA’s and belly shirts, but deep down, she wants to be part of these conversations anyway. She dodges reality by reading up on the mythology of giants and titans, and she’s also a badass dungeon master.

Joe Kelly wrote this in such a way that it demands at least a second reading just so that you can truly appreciate all the subtle moments that this book has to offer. Although I wasn’t blown away by JM Ken Niimura’s artwork until the last chapter or two, his character designs are imaginative and the pacing of the page layout was executed perfectly. Overall, his style definitely lends itself well to the story.

Ultimately, this is a story about a child coping with an unbearable loss and facing it head on. This is easily something that I could recommend to hardcore comic readers and non-comic readers alike. With a story worth reading more than once and plenty of concept art and commentary by the creators, I Kill Giants is definitely a book that deserves some attention. If you missed it the first time around, this trade is your chance to check out one of the best indie comics to be released in the past few years.