Tradio # 8 - I Kill Giants

This week's Tradio is a trade for a series called I Kill Giants...you've probably never heard of it.  But you SHOULD!  Seriously...

I Kill Giants is the collected version of the of the seven issue series by the same name written by Joe Kelly with art by J.M. Ken Niimura.  If the name Joe Kelly sounds familiar, you may know him from his various Marvel and DC projects including runs on Action Comics, X-Men, JLA, Amazing Spiderman, and Deadpool, as well as his excellent series Four Eyes with Max Fiamura and Steampunk with Chris Bachalo.  If you have heard of J.M. Ken Niimura, well then you have a leg up on me, because I had never heard of him before reading the trade.  He hasn't done a lot of stateside work, but is of Japanese and Spanish decent and his style looks to me to be a very manga infused European style.  Not typically what I would go for, but it works so well in this title that I can't imagine it any other way. 

I Kill Giants tells the story of Barbara.  She is in the 5th grade and loves Dungeons and Dragons and is more than a little bit of a social misfit.  She tends to favor living in her fantasy world and throughout the story the lines between fantasy and reality blur as we see how she deals with her day-to-day life and her destiny to kill giants.  Are the giants real or are they metaphorical?  Are her struggles real or all in her head?  Through the course of the story you will have to come to some of these answers yourself as you get to know Barbara and her family and what passes as friends.  It is high fantasy that is closer to reality than you may think.  Oh and she has bunny ears...at least for a little while...

I loved this trade.  Seriously, you need to go find a copy and read it.  I must warn you though, it will be close to impossible to put down once you get started.  I would by lying if I said that I didn't tear up as I read the end of the story.  If it doesn't touch you in some way, than you weren't paying attention and/or have no soul.  The art compliments the story so well and the manga stylings give the whole piece a fanciful tone that helps blur the lines of what is real and what isn't.  Go find it...seriously.  If you haven't or won't read anything else I ever recommended...read this.  You will not regret it.