Joe Kelly and J.M. Ken Niimura’s I Kill Giants is a graphic novel that tells the tale of a young girl with a chip on her shoulder named Barbara Thorson, who just so happens to be an accomplished killer of giants. Or so she claims. The eccentric loner of her town, Barbara does all that she can to keep giants at bay, reputation be damned.
Barbara is a complicated character (as most humans are.) She’s got her points that will have you rooting for her, but she also has qualities and views that make her come across like an angsty little jerk-face at times. Given everything she has going on (real and/or imagined) she may just have her reasons, though. The more you read of her story the more it will come to make sense. Barbara makes mistakes and things get messy, which just makes her feel like a real human. She’s angry and jaded, but has her soft moments, too, where you just want to scoop her up like a little chipmunk (a chipmunk that will promptly bite the shit out of you the moment you let your guard down.)
This is a coming-of-age story, complete with its emotionally heavy moments, but it also has a lot of silliness and fun to it as well. There’s more to this one than meets the eye, but I’m not gonna get all spoiler-y on you. 🙂
As is often the case with graphic novels, this one makes for a quick read, but it packs an emotional punch within its pages. After reading this, it definitely made me want to check out the film adaptation that came out earlier this year. I could see this translating wonderfully on film if in the right hands.
She kind of sounds like a brat but that is solely based off your descriptions and two images lol.
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Yeahhh, she is definitely one of those characters I like, but am not afraid to admit that I don’t like how she acts at times. She isn’t so much bratty in a “spoiled” sense, it’s more of a “I’m hurt, so I’m lashing out, even if you try to help me” kind of way. Like a wild animal. lol
I’d be interested to see how her character is handled in the movie version of this story. 🙂
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My brother keeps telling me about the movie. I didn’t know that it was a graphic novel as well. Great review!
-Luna 🙂
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Thanks! ❤ Yeah, I really want to check out the movie. The trailer for it looks really promising. I picked this one up because I wanted to see the movie and I like comparing the two forms of media and spotting the differences. 🙂
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That art looks lovely!
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I enjoyed the art, too. 🙂 Especially the giants! 😀
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Haha, she’s cute 😂. It’s hard to resist being mean to dummies…
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Haha That it can be! 😛
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