I felt like even for an illustrated oral tale, it felt like more show than tell, but that's fine, because it DOES feel like a story told after the fact, although I didn't feel that right away.

It's gorgeous, it's a little weird, the main character doesn't want anyone to get close, even you, and that's fine.

Many thanks to NetGalley, Image Comics and the authors. I received a free ARC, and this review is voluntary

The plot centers around Lori, and how after waking up one day, it appears as though everyone has vanished. She's now in this dystopian realm. As time ticks by, she does encounter other survivors. Some friendly, but most are not. Having to navigate this new world they now live in, simply trying to survive. They encounter what the synopsis calls "They," and it's beyond their initial understanding. Are they helpers, or are they here to accelerate the entropy?

I found it to have a slow build up, but with an ending worth the wait. From the color, to the character development, it was written beautifully. Definitely worth the read.

Raise your hand if you like a stand alone story. Raise you other hand if you enjoy them from a team of creators you adore. Raise your third hand if you got it early and the rabid wolves inside you have been had their greed appeased.

"We Called them Giants" finds Lori in an awkward predicament. No one is around. She isn't the biggest fan of most folks so it isn't the worst for her. But the one person she encounters is...bubbly and maybe not the most cut out for the situation they find themselves in. But that upbeat attitude helps when they are scrounging for food and avoiding the worst kind of people in the fallout of the world. At least until Giants fall from the sky.

Team behind this:
-Kieron Gillen, Writer
-Stephanie Hans, Illustrator
-Clayton Cowles, Lettering

They have worked on some of my favorite stories, such as, DIE and The Wicked + the Divine. Hope y'all will give them your time when this comes out November 12, 2024.

We Called Them Giants was a well told and utterly beautiful end of the world story by Kieron Gillen and Stephanie Hans. It's a story that has been told many times, but the touching story and the magnificent art elevated it. I really think it could have been a little bit longer and there was certainly more to mine from the world they created. Perhaps they'll revisit it again in a sequel. I'll be there to read it if they do.

Special thanks to Image Comics and NetGalley for the digital ARC. This was given to me for an honest review.

We Called Them Giants, wonderfully written by Kieron Gillen with stunning artwork by Stephanie Hans, is a new captivating graphic novel that is a story of giant beings from another world in a post-apocalyptic survival setting.

Lori wakes up to find herself alone, that is until she meets Annette. As they struggle to survive in this harsh new reality, they must navigate empty streets and evade dangerous gangs. If this seems difficult, their world is turned even more upside down when giants arrive. These mysterious beings add another layer to the already challenging existence, sparking curiosity and fear in equal measure.

Kieron Gillen, Stephanie Hans and letterer Clayton Cowles, the creative team behind DIE, is back at it again with We Called Them Giants. This tale blends elements of science fiction and drama seamlessly. Not only does the story deal with a post-apocalyptic world, but the complexities of communication between beings of vastly different intelligences, offering a thought-provoking look at what it means to truly understand one another.

We Called Them Giants has amazing emotional depth. Despite the fantastical elements at play, the characters feel real and relatable, grappling with loss, hope, and connection. This story feels a bit smaller, even with the giants, and intimate opposed to their work on DIE.

While Gillen has crafted an excellent story, the graphic novel is brought together by the gritty yet elegant artwork from Stephanie Hans. She brings the emotional journey to life, capturing the beauty and brutality of the surroundings with unique style.

We were drawn into this graphic novel by the simple yet striking cover and were hooked after the first few pages. The imagery and story are super compelling. As we dove deeper into the graphic novel the story got more complex for an unforgettable reading experience. While we are big fans of single issue comics, this being an encompassing story was a perfect way to experience.

We Called Them Giants is a truly wonderful, emotional and elegantly beautiful story to escape that crazy world in which we live. The stellar writing by Kieron Gillen and stunning visuals from Stephanie Hans give us a profound story in which we see both humans and alien beings work together to survive.

We Called Them Giants was a beautiful exploration of trust and love as seen through our main character's cynical eyes. The artwork was beautiful and set the mood throughout the story.

It's a 3 star for me since it was enjoyable, but I thought it fell a bit short. It is a simple story, which isn't a bad thing. While the message in the story is deep, the characters felts a bit shallow. Their development was enough to get such a short story moving, but I couldn't really connect with them. It's a shame that it had to be so short. I know comics have limitations and can vary in length, and this one left me thinking I'd like a few more scenes.

What I think people will enjoy is the overall feeling you get of the world.

I picked this one up because Neil Gaiman gave it a great review and I have always enjoyed Gillen's other graphic novels. The artwork was stunning and the story was beautiful. The story is a mystery but the theme comes down to what it means to be connected and loved - sometimes the family we get is the family we create for ourselves. Having the main character be someone who went through the foster system and was untrusting played perfectly into the story that I think Gillen was trying to create.

As often, the art is what drew me in. The promises made by the gorgeous cover were kept until the last page and I was stunned by the beauty of the scenes. I enjoyed following the main character on her journey and seeing the friends she made along the way. Even though I was not overly attached to the characters, I was rooting for them and was heartbroken at the way the story ended.
The only thing I was disappointed in was the fact that this was a standalone and that there wasn’t more to this story, especially because the pacing made me think that this was more of an introduction. This graphic novel turned out to almost be a slice of life in a post-apocalyptic world that I found myself wanting to explore more of.

4.5 rounded up

Absolutely brilliant post-apocalyptic novel (stand-alone) about a young girl Lori who wakes up to find everyone around her has disappeared. Few survivors remain in the land, and she teams up with a classmate who is very different to her in many ways. This has elements of science fiction and post-apocalypse, it has aliens, it has a genuinely interesting art style and I enjoyed reading it a lot - I will definitely be picking up further stories by the writer, such an interesting storyline. Its a bit bloody, a bit dark but has an overall very positive message.

<i>I received a complementary copy of this graphic novel by Image Comics via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review, which I leave voluntarily</i>.

Thank you netgalley for a copy of this graphic novel to read.

Firstly I loved the art style and the use of colour in this book, but at times I got a little confused reading this, but in the end I found it engaging and fun but unfortunately I didn't connect with the charactersso that stunted my enjoyment a little

The team behind Die return with a self-contained story that opens simply enough: a prickly foster child, who has long since internalised the lesson that everyone leaves, wakes one day to find that everyone really has. Or almost everyone; she meets one kid she knows, and soon there's a gang holed up in the mall, but the vast mass of humanity has vanished. And then, as the title and cover suggest, something else appears.

It's a hard one to talk about without giving too much away, but how's about this: on one level it's surprisingly long considered as a single unit from Gillen, a debut original graphic novel from someone who's already had a substantial career in single issues. And if you squint you can see where the chapter breaks might have come, but the mood definitely benefits from not being obliged to contort around them. At the same time, it's also quite short - this would have been, what, four issues, when even his miniseries usually run to five. Meaning the characters are of necessity done in broader strokes, though never to the extent of feeling sketched; they're real people, it just feels a little odd not knowing what their favourite bands are, y'know? Considered in plot terms, this could easily have been a Future Shock, but I don't mean that in the damning way I often do for Image SF books. Apart from anything else, that would have meant fewer pages of Stephanie Hans art, and especially in this quieter, emptied-out world she's doing a lot of the lifting. Just past a hundred pages is the perfect balance; short enough to be a one-sitting read, long enough to get sufficiently invested that the ending hits as hard as it needs to, and the experience can burrow its way in, the better to subsequently haunt.

SPOILERS from here on, though I'll try to keep them as pointers rather than full reveals: possibly it's the precise mulch of creative input I've had over the years, a particular strand of misanthropic sixties and seventies SF combined with a specific strain of apparently wholesome posts on Tumblr &c about animals, but I was way ahead of the narrator on what the giant wanted from the humans, and the deeply frustrating attempts at communication between the two species (some excellent work from letterer Clayton Cowles here). And I like that she never turned to camera and did the encapsulation of what was going on. But I honestly don't know whether it was meant to come as a surprise at any point, though the journey was beautiful enough and the pace judged sufficiently well that I didn't mind either way.

(Netgalley ARC - and if anyone knows why Image is currently putting some stuff on there half a year in advance, and others on Edelweiss in the month of release, I'd love to be filled in on the thinking, though in the meantime I'm certainly not going to look gift review copies in the mouth, and I don't just mean because ebooks don't have mouths)

The illustrations here are breathtaking. I just wish the actual story had held up. The premise is right up my alley, so I’m disappointed I didn’t like it more. The main character is hard to root for, although she certainly has the right to be cynical. The story just didn’t do it for me, and the ending just made me angry. I would have liked to learn more about the giants, but alas…

3.5, bumped up to 4 because the artwork is so beautiful.

Thank you to NetGalley and Image Comics for an advance copy. I am leaving this review voluntarily.

a pretty and mystical apocalyptic story

the character design was pretty amazing. they all felt dynamic and interesting. the main character slightly felt like a mary-sue but it's forgivable because of the art. the art was very lovely and i wonder how they did it. some panels (especially at the end) were colored beautifully. the art style is a major selling point for me.

i wish that the artist didn't have grey undertones for every human character's skin. i understand why they chose to use grey (color theory + emotions) but it's not always tastefully done, especially in some scenes.

* Thanks to the publisher Image Comics via Netgalley for the ebook!

As expected, from the duo that gave us DIE and Wicked + The Divine: Astonishing art style, a unique world and a strong main character. This quick read doesn’t hold your hand and throws you in the deep end right away. While this worked well as a one-and-done, I would love to see more of the universe in future installments and feel this could match DIE in terms of storytelling given more time.

3 out of 5 Stars

It was good. The art is quite lovely. However, the text is far to small for the digital version so if you're interested go for the physical.

Thank you Netgalley for this E-Arc.

"We Called Them Giants" is a nice read with artwork that truly sets the scene beautifully. The premise is great and full of potential, but it falls short in the storyline department. The story moves way too fast, making it feel like you're missing chapters of important information. While the art is impressive and the concept intriguing, the narrative could use more development to fully realize its potential.

The art is absolutely stunning. Each panel feels like a painting and the use of color (particularly wherever there’s contrast) was absolute magic. Makes me really want to go read the other graphic novels by this team (Wicked + Divine and DIE) if only for the art.

Lori made a great apocalyptic protagonist - prickly and cynical with survival always the first (and usually only) thing on her mind. Combine that with Annette who’s bubbly and hopeful and brave in a way that is wholly unfamiliar and inscrutable to Lori. I wish we understood Beatrice better; instead she felt more like a means to an end.

This could have done so much more if it was longer, but even at only 100 pages, it feels complete - though not so conclusive that the world and characters couldn’t be revisited in the future.

What a astonishing artstyle, the way the colors and style blend makes such a beautiful contrast to the narrative.
I really enjoyed the story, it was a fast-paced thought provoking story about survival & love.
The pacing did feel a bit too fast, especially because it felt like we didn't get to know the characters enough.

I just finished it, read it in one sitting!!! So very lucky I got approved for an ARC through NetGalley!!! It’s a unique, beautiful and moving story! Unlike anything I have ever read before! The artwork is ASTOUNDING!!! The only negative thing about it, is that it was so short!

The art in this story was phenomenal. I found myself pausing and looking at the art for moments at a time because of how they were depicted.
I liked the main character. We didn't get to learn too much about her, but that's because the story was less about her and more about the world she had found herself in. I liked her cynical attitude and I liked the way she developed her friendships and wanted to keep them safe despite not feeling like they could do the same for her.
My one issue was that the pacing felt a little off. At times, I wasn't sure how much time had passed and how things were determined. But other than that, I enjoyed this story a lot!