I KILL GIANTS GRAPHIC NOVEL REVIEW
I Kill Giants (2008), is a prodigious graphic novel ingeniously written by Joe Kelly and illustrated by JM
Ken Niimura, which follows the traumatising struggles of a fifth-grader Barbara Thorson, a
precocious Dungeons and Dragons player, who devotes her time to fighting giants. However, in
reality, Barbara is fleeing the truth about her mother’s life-threatening terminal illness. Kelly and
Niimura skillfully use a range of aspects to demonstrate the theme of the story through the
protagonist Barbara. In particular, the authors effectively use the unique characterisation of Barbara,
the immersive metaphors to illustrate Barbara’s inner life and the theme of resilience to
communicate the meaningful core.
The characterisation of the protagonist Barbara Thorson
is successfully delivered by Kelly and Niimura. In addition,
the authors have characterised Barbara as having
straightforward speech and imaginative thinking when in
the mix between reality and fantasy. The character of
Barbara has a strong positive impact on me, which she
interests me because she is a relatable character.
Barbara’s sarcastic comments are another element that I
relished, demonstrating that she is a high-quality
character. Furthermore, the authors brilliantly create
Barbara with a different and unusual appearance as she always wears bunny ears and carries a
pocketbook with Warhammer Coveleski fit with her unique personality. Kelly and Niimura well
constructed the characterisation of Barbara Thorson, which she has a variety of dimensions and she
is a vehicle for the exploration of many different ideas.
In addition, Kelly and Niimura utilised a range of peculiar
immersive techniques to skillfully exemplify Barbara's
troubled inner life. For instance, the authors convey
visual metaphors when Barbara wears amour and talks
to fairies. I am extremely interested in the innovative
techniques because the way the story is conveyed is
positively different from the other graphic novels.
Presenting Barbara sees the Harbingers and fights with
Titan demonstrates the story being more illuminative and intensive. Along with, Barbara’s inner life
is more engaging and profound as the authors adroitly made the fantastic beasts and magical
creatures appear when Barbara is between reality and fantasy. These high-quality techniques allow
the reader to deeply sophisticated insight into Barbara’s mind and thoughts. Kelly and Niimura
successfully apply the amazing techniques illustrating Barbara’s inner life as they are intricate and
challenging because the reader is immersively confused about Barbara’s confusing imaginary world.
Last but not least, Kelly and Niimura effectively
communicate the heartfelt theme of resilience through
the powerful mantra “You are stronger than you think”
and through the example of Mrs Molle as a persistent
mentor. For instance, the challenging obstacles allow
the reader to witness Barbara’s bouncebackability as
she is tossed into a mix of reality and imagination. Mrs
Molle has given the readers insight through her efforts,
which she never gives up on helping Barbara. The
resilience is superly delivered to the reader that accepts the help of those around you and always
stays positive in every situation. Apart from that, the repetition of the motivational mantra has
strongly impacted me as it emphatically repeated when Barbara fights the Titan. Also, the dramatic
fight with Titian helps her to realise facing the reality is that she couldn't run away. Kelly and
Niimura excellently conveyed the meaningful theme of resilience, causing readers to deeply ponder
bouncebackability is an important quality to possess in life.
To conclude, Joe Kelly and JM Ken Niimura have intelligently utilised 3 aspects in the fantastic and
empowering story I Kill Giant in terms of Barbara's characterisation, techniques to illustrate
Barbara's inner dialogue and communicate the theme of resilience. I highly recommend this amazing
graphic novel to those people who are into comics. This marvelous and heartfelt story is also very
relatable for most high school students with the same feelings as an outcast as the protagonist
Barbara Thorson. Besides, the unique art style in this book will definitely appeal to readers because
it is different from another. As I have reviewed above, this story has a lot of great elements, along
with the worth and meaningful mantra in the story that might tear-jerking you a little bit. I really
love this book so I will give 5/5 stars.
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