''I Kill Giants'' is an

American comic book An American comic book is a thin periodical literature originating in the United States, commonly between 24 and 64 pages, containing comics. While the form originated in 1933, American comic books first gained popularity after the 1938 publ ...

limited series In the field of comic books, and particularly in the United States, a limited series is a comics series with a predetermined number of issues. A limited series differs from an ongoing series in that the number of issues is finite and determined ...

published by

Image Comics Image Comics is an independent American American comic book, comic book publisher and is the third largest direct market comic book and graphic novel publisher in the industry by market share. Its best-known publications include ''Spawn (comics) ...

beginning in

2008 2008 was designated as: *International Year of Languages *International Year of Planet Earth *International Year of the Potato *International Year of Sanitation The Great Recession, a worldwide recession which began in 2007, continued throu ...

. The comic was created by writer Joe Kelly and artist J. M. Ken Niimura and features Barbara Thorson, a girl struggling with life by escaping into a fantasy life of magic and monsters.

Synopsis

According to Kelly: "It's a story about a girl who's a bit of an outsider – she's funny, but totally in our geekland: she's obsessed with ''

Dungeons & Dragons ''Dungeons & Dragons'' (commonly abbreviated as ''D&D'' or ''DnD'') is a fantasy tabletop role-playing game (TTRPG) originally created and designed by Gary Gygax and Dave Arneson. The game was first published in 1974 by TSR (company)#Tactical ...

'', she doesn't have a lot of friends, she's a bit of a social misfit. She's taken her fantasy life a little far, and really only talks about giants to people. She's convinced that giants are real and giants are coming, and it's her responsibility to stop them when they show up. This weird little fantasy life that she's going has started seeping into her real life, and as we see things from her point of view, we see that she sees pixies and she sees signs in the clouds and other things that might be telling her that bad things might be coming".

Collected editions

The series has been collected into an individual volume: * ''I Kill Giants'' (softcover, Image Comics, 184 pages, May 2009, , hardcover, 300 pages, November 2009, Image Comics, ,

Titan Books Titan Publishing Group is the publishing division of the British entertainment company Titan Entertainment, which was established as Titan Books in 1981. The books division has two main areas of publishing: film and television tie-ins and cine ...

, )

Awards

''I Kill Giants'' won the "Best Indie Book of 2008" by

IGN ''IGN'' is an American video gaming and entertainment media website operated by IGN Entertainment Inc., a subsidiary of Ziff Davis, Inc. The company's headquarters is located in San Francisco's SoMa district and is headed by its former e ...

, as well as making it onto the list of the ten best comics of 2009 compiled by ''

New York New York most commonly refers to: * New York (state), a state in the northeastern United States * New York City, the most populous city in the United States, located in the state of New York New York may also refer to: Places United Kingdom * ...

'' magazine's Dan Kois. It was also a 2010 top ten great graphic novels for teens by the

Young Adult Library Services Association The Young Adult Library Services Association (YALSA), established in 1957, is a division of the American Library Association. YALSA is a national association of librarians, library workers and advocates whose mission is to expand the capacity of l ...

. It won the Gold Award at the 5th

International Manga Award file:Taro Aso in World Economic Forum Annual Meeting in Davos (cropped).jpg, Tarō Asō, the 92nd Prime Minister of Japan is an annual award established to encourage non-Japanese Mangaka, manga artists in 2007. This award was created by Ministe ...

in 2012. It was voted the second best foreign comic book published in Japan in the

Gaiman Award The is a Japanese award given since 2011 to comic books created outside Japan and translated to Japanese. The word "gaiman" is a shortening of ''gaikoku no manga'' (foreign manga), encompassing styles like American comics, French bande dessinée a ...

Film adaptation

A film adaptation of the novel, directed by Anders Walter and based on a screenplay by author Joe Kelly, was released in 2017. The film stars

Madison Wolfe Madison Wolfe is an American actress. She made her film debut in the adventure drama ''On the Road'' (2012) and her television debut in the HBO series ''True Detective'' (2014). She starred in the horror film ''The Conjuring 2'' (2016), and as B ...

Imogen Poots Imogen Gay Poots (born 3 June 1989) is an English actress. She played Tammy in the post-apocalyptic horror film ''28 Weeks Later'' (2007), Linda Keith in the Jimi Hendrix biopic ''Jimi: All Is by My Side'' (2013), Debbie Raymond in the Paul Ray ...

Zoe Saldaña Zoë Yadira Saldaña-Perego ( , ; ; born June 19, 1978) is an American actress. Known primarily for her work in science fiction film franchises, she has starred in four of the seven List of highest-grossing films, highest-grossing films of al ...

and

Noel Clarke Noel Anthony Clarke (born 6 December 1975) is an English actor, writer, director and producer. Rising to prominence for playing Mickey Smith in ''Doctor Who'' (2005–2006, 2008, 2010), he received critical acclaim for writing, directing, and ...

In popular culture

New Zealand band

The Naked And Famous The Naked and Famous are a New Zealand indie electronic band from Auckland, formed in 2007. The band currently consists of Alisa Xayalith (vocals, keyboards) and Thom Powers (vocals, guitars). The band has released four studio albums: ''Passiv ...

included a song " I Kill Giants" on their album ''

In Rolling Waves ''In Rolling Waves'' is the second studio album by New Zealand indie electronic band The Naked and Famous. It was released on 13 September 2013 by Somewhat Damaged, Fiction Records and Island Records. On 23 July 2013, the album's lead single, " ...

''. Boston band I Kill Giants' name is based on the graphic novel.

Notes

References

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External links

Reviews

{{More footnotes, section, date=May 2010
BooklistOnline

GraphicNovelReporter.com

ComicBookResources.com

MinnesotaReads.com

1FOE.com
Comics by Joe Kelly (comics writer) International Manga Award winners Comics about children