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Review – I KILL GIANTS by Joe Kelly and J. M. Ken Nimura

By | January 14th, 2010
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You DO NOT want to buy I KILL GIANTS. You don’t. I swear.

This is a terrible way to start a review. Normally, you want to start with sentences like “This was amazing. This book touched me deeply.” Well, you know what? I KILL GIANTS did that. I KILL GIANTS did all that and more. I KILL GIANTS is the best thing that I did not buy in single issue and I really should have. I KILL GIANTS is one of the best things I’ve collected in trades. I KILL GIANTS is one of the greatest things I did not take the opportunity to read last year.

But I KILL GIANTS is gut wrenching. I KILL GIANTS will take your heart strings and pluck them like a harpsichord. It will make you want to cry in public, and you’ll have a tough time putting it down. So be careful.

If my warning has not swayed you, however, read forth.

IKG is, without a doubt, one of the best examples of comic books as a literary art form. This is high praise off the bat considering I told you not to buy the book just two seconds again, but you have to understand my reading. IKG is an absolutely beautiful story that will treat your emotions like a trash heap, and I mean that in the best way possible.

Let me try again: when I started reading IKG, I had no idea what to expect. I had heard a lot of great things about it, and often times the reviews of it consisted with just one word: “Wow.” So when I started reading it, my expectations were high, and the book just wasn’t cutting it for me. I wasn’t “getting it.” But as I got farther into the book, and I began to see what it was really about, what was really going on, I could feel myself on the verge of tears. Did you see the Pan’s Labyrinth? In a way, I’d akin it to that, except much sadder (and I actually like IKG).

The only thing I really knew Joe Kelly from was Spider-Man, and this is a complete departure from his sass in that book. While there is still a fair amount of humor in the book, it’s much more than that. The book is an incredibly powerful look at growing up and what certain things can do to the mind of the child. I’d be lying to you if this movie didn’t bring me to the verge of tears on numerous occasions, especially the fight scene with the giant at the end of the book (pictured). These are the things you need to be prepared for when you go to your local store after reading this review to purchase the book. It’s powerful stuff. A while ago on this site, David recommended a book called Laika, about the dog that the Russians sent into orbit with Sputnik II. I knew the dog would die at the end of that book and was sad going into it, and this book is even more sad than that. It takes a hell of a writer to pull of that kind of emotion, especially when the average person is more likely to side with a cute innocent dog than an angry DnD playing girl with bunny ears on her head.

Of course, you can’t have the book be half as powerful without a terrific artist throughout the pages, and JM Ken Nimura fulfills that role 100%. I’ve never seen Nimura’s work before, and according to the back flap this is his first major comic work. After this I can tell you that his artwork is welcome in my library anytime. Nimura does an excellent form of Western influenced Japanese artwork, and it matches the tonality of the book perfectly. It also proves perfect for the lifestyle that the characters inside adhere to, in this heavily nerd influenced title. Of course, I can’t help but ADORE his giant images, all of which are very reminiscent of Shadow of the Colossus (one of the best games of all time).

So needless to say, if you want to read a great comic, you need to go and pick up I KILL GIANTS. If you’ve never read a comic book and want to know why people love them, you need to read I KILL GIANTS. If you read comics all the time and you’re just looking for something to change future expectations, I KILL GIANTS is for you. I can’t begin to recommend it enough, even if I started this review by saying don’t buy it. That still remains true though. The book touches you. It’s a very emotional roller coaster, and I can only imagine how tough it was for people who collected it in issue format. I remember seeing it as it came out and trying to find the back issues so I could read it. In a way, I’m glad I didn’t. As a whole book the story allows you to read it all at once, and don’t pretend you won’t because the book won’t let you put it down.

So consider this your warning.


Matthew Meylikhov

Once upon a time, Matthew Meylikhov became the Founder and Editor-in-Chief of Multiversity Comics, where he was known for his beard and fondness for cats. Then he became only one of those things. Now, if you listen really carefully at night, you may still hear from whispers on the wind a faint voice saying, "X-Men Origins: Wolverine is not as bad as everyone says it issss."

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