I've loved everything of Gillen's that I've picked up, and We Called Them Giants is no exception. The standalone graphic novel examines the dark parts of humanity in a post-apocalyptic world, and the way that the brightest parts of humanity are our ability to connect with and love other living creatures. I wasn't quite sure what to expect based on the blurb, but I wasn't disappointed. I loved Lori and how prickly and hellbent she was about surviving, and Annette worked so well as her bubbly foil. While Gillen's writing was excellent as usual, I did feel like the pacing felt a little rushed at times, and would've liked another few pages just to flesh characters and their relationships out a bit more as time passed.

But the crown jewel of We Called Them Giants is Stephanie Hans' art. I've been a fan of her work since I first saw it, but she went above and beyond with these illustrations. Her work was achingly beautiful, it stopped me in my tracks every page - I ended up rereading the story a second time so I could fully appreciate it as a whole because I had spent so much time admiring the depth and emotion in each panel. I can't wait to hold a physical copy of this masterpiece in my hands once it's out, and it's far past time that I pick up the first volume of Die from my local comic shop.

Short and sweet. It’s a heartwarming, beautiful little story about survival, empathy, attachment issues, and relationships—with great tip-of-the-iceberg worldbuilding and wonderful art.
It’s a bit similar to the tv show The Leftovers in a sense that it’s not about the rapture itself but the people living in the changed world.
Great stuff: I’ve only read Gillen’s Star Wars stuff before, but I’m definitely gonna check out his original series.

A beautifully drawn post-apocalyptic graphic novel, with good characters, a good premise, and a beautiful ending. My only complaint is that it felt very short, and could definitely have been expanded on more. This has definitely inspired me to read more indie comics and step out the Marvel and DC hemispheres.

Astounding art and unique story! The book is fast paced and keeps you on the edge of your seat, wanting more, but withholding answers. I enjoyed that the story provokes discussion, as the world building is incomplete

Lori awake to an empty world. Everyone she knows is gone, but she manages to find another human being: Annette. Together, they try to survive among the Giants that have taken residence among them.

The story was well paced, and it has an intriguing plot that was easy to follow. The characters are well developed and they felt like people I’d know in real life, but I wish that we were able to learn more about Lori’s backstory and the origin of Giants.

I was pleasantly surprised that every single panel in this book was illustrated by hand, especially considering the amount of detail and the type of art style the artist went with! A lot of comic series will utilize 3d models to help out with backgrounds and make the process quicker, but this was hand drawn. The art is excellent and every single page pops with color. The artist is amazing and they’ve portrayed beautiful scenes through lighting, effects, perspective, color theory, and expressions!

Story was okay, I wanted a little more. Illustrations were great. Overall had a good time reading.

Thank you netgally for this ARC in exchange for an honest review.

This was certainly interesting. I’ve exploring a lot of graphic novels lately and this caught my eye. A sudden rapture and elemental giants, what could go wrong?
The art is beautiful, but the story really went on a very different direction that what I was expecting. I thought it being the beginning of a series made sense, but the I realise that it was an only volume. We miss a lot of worldbuilding and context, but the main message of the story was really beautiful.
Overall, I wish this was a whole story and not a single volume.

When I saw that a new graphic novel was being released by the creators of DIE, I jumped at the chance to read it and thanks to NetGalley and Image Comics I got to read it early! Thank you once again for allowing me to read your comics. It's truly an honour to be auto approved.

The art in We Call them Giants is absolutely phenomenal. Each panel feels like a painting, and it really felt like they utilised colour in such a distinct way. Sometimes I found myself having to go back because I got to distracted by the pretty pictures.

I liked the main character, however we don't learn a lot about her as the story is more world driven than character driven.
I really enjoyed this Graphic Novel and I'm excited to try and read more of their stuff that's already out when I have the time.

Normally I find standalone comics feel rushed, but I enjoyed the pacing of this story. And to me, the Red giant reminded me of someone who has cats. Cat distribution system but with humans. I'm only putting it at a 4 star because I don't see myself going back to reread it.

Thank you to Netgalley and the publisher for letting me read an advanced copy of this graphic novel.

The die comic series was my first introduction to Gillen and Hans work together and absolutely loved the art style out of it that I immediately requested this when I learned it was coming out. Again, I loved the art style that they have in their collaborative works but like I saw with Die, I think it missed the chance to go deeper into parts of the story in favor of aesthetic. It had the plot beats of a comic but with the short amount of pages, it left a lot of the mystery and world building just up in the air.

Leaning into the beginning where everyone goes missing except Lori and a few others had pushed it towards a scary setting but with moving the timeframe to skip ahead to scavenging for food instead of wondering what happened just made it insignificant once the giants had arrived. There were plenty of questions as the story went on and Lori did have them but nothing was focused on enough to give a proper idea as to what was going on, but the giants were beautiful. I think I would have enjoyed this better if it was longer and had more than the three characters we were set with.

I absolutely loved this graphic novel. A world where people suddenly disappear leaving only a handful of people behind. 2/3 survivors have to learn to trust the unknown in order to survive.

The art was stunning and it fit this book beautifully. It made me think of how people can often be scared of the unknown. Untrusting, even when there’s no real threat in front of them.

This was a beautiful short story with a shining message about the importance of hope, and maintaining belief in unconditional love despite everything that speaks to the contrary.
I’ve read a fair bit of Gillen/Hans’ previous work, and We Called Them Giants seems markedly different from their usual style. This was a lot more straightforward and the story was simple and linear (possibly due to it being a standalone), however I enjoyed the novel nonetheless. A lot of emotion is conveyed in a few short scenes, and there’s just enough dialogue to give life to the gorgeously detailed illustrations and build a wider story. The story itself is very focused on survival in both the physical and emotional sense: the main character constantly grapples with her own feelings of abandonment and distrust of other people, and it takes the length of the novel for her to come to some important realisations about the nature of love, albeit amongst a frozen wasteland filled with constant danger. All in all, this is a heartwarming (and often sad) story about a girl and her companions at the end of the world, and how hope can blossom, grow and heal even in our darkest times.

We Called The Giants by Kieron Gillen, illustrated by Stephanie Hans
Rating: ⭐️⭐️⭐️

One day Lori wakes up and nearly everyone is gone. Thrust suddenly into a post-apocalyptic world we follow Lori and another girl Annette as they do their best to survive. And then some other worldly (and giant) beings arrive.
First and foremost the artwork in this graphic novel is beautiful and is what drew me to it in the first place. That being said this book just left me wanting more. This felt like just the base of a story instead of something fully fledged out. While I’m fine with books leaving me with some questions at the end, there were just a few too many at the end of this one for me.
I would love if the creators decided to continue this story because I do think it has a lot of potential and would love to see more of this world and learn more about the “giants” and why so many people disappeared.

Thank you to the creators, Image Comics, and Netgalley for the arc in return for my honest review!

Check out We Called Them Giants on November 12th!

The art is in this was stunning, absolutely beautiful use of color. I liked the exploration of communicating across barriers, both internal and external. It felt very introspective while still following an external plot. Definietly a unique short read!

This was REALLY cool! I am so curious about the origins of the Giants, but I realize that may always be a mystery. I also REALLY loved the art style, and so much about the storyline! Lori was a great character, even if she was cynical. Loved it!!

We Call Them Giants starts with most of the human race dissapearing suddenly and Lori, who is used to surviving by herself is left alone to survive in this new world along with her friend Annette and some companions they meet along the way. It is a great story about humanity, comunication and building trust.

The art is beautiful and there is a marked difference between the beauty of some pages along with the bleakness of the new world which adds to the atmosphere.

Lori’s voice throughout is a perfect way to explore with world from her cynical point of view as she learns to trust the people around her.

Thank you to Netgally and Image Comics for providing me with an advances reader copy of We Called Them Giants and I eagerly anticipate future novels from this writing team. I would also love to learn more about this world and would read a continuation of this book

We called them Giants is not only moving but also thought provoking. I loved the parallels between the main protagonists want for a cat and her eventual storyline.

The illustrations were beautiful and I will be thinking of the graphics for a long time. They match the story perfectly.

My only thought, I wish the protagonist had a bit more back story at the beginning. I wanted more from her and why she is so sceptical of newcomers and their actions.

Thank you to NetGalley for allowing me to read this in advance.

Stunningly beautiful. Story and art. Simply gorgeous. It proves that stories can be both bleak and hopeful at the same time. Very highly recommended.

"We Called Them Giants" is a gorgeous graphic novel! The art is honestly beautiful, each panel could be a painting. The dreamy quality of the art really helps to elevate the story and adds to the otherworldly feeling of "them". The story, however, feels a tad incomplete. Most of the dialogue isn't spoken, it's merely Lori's internal dialogue. Her thoughts are basically a running narration of everything happening in the story, but it's strange. It's written as if she's telling the story to someone else, but...she's thinking to herself. I guess the "telling a story" style is meant to make it feel like she's telling the story to the reader. But it doesn't feel like that, it just feels strange. This story moves at a very quick pace. You don't learn much about the world or even the characters themselves. Because you get no chance to connect with the characters, when emotional moments happen, you feel nothing. I do find the concept very fascinating and I do love the character designs. But the message of the story just...feels like nothing. I read it and went "Okay." and had no emotional response. However, I do think this could translate well into a movie or animated film!

Thank you to NetGalley and the publishers for an advanced copy in exchange for my honest review!

I was a big fan of Gillen and Han's comics series Die, so I was so excited to get an ARC of their graphic novel. Hans art was fantastic. I'm always partial to art styles that look similar to water colors, I also loved the contrast between colors during some of the scenes with the GIants, it really highlighted the action of the sequence.

This graphic novel might have only been about a hundred pages but I really feel like it told a complete story. There was not a lot of background on the characters, but I did not feel as if that was missing since the story is about what comes after everyone disappears. Anything before that doesn't matter. The contrast between how Lori, Annette and Beatrice all viewed what was happening to them was also interesting. The plot was easy to follow, and having these three different personality types added depth to what was going on. Overall, this was another story by Gillen and Hans I really enjoyed!

Let me start by saying that this rating does not correlate with the art, because the art is absolutely stunning. The colors, the scenes, everything about it kept me intrigued. As for the three stars, the writing was decent. I wish there was more dialogue instead of thoughts from the main character, as well as more world building. Though I understand this is the first of the series, if this will a series and the themes and main overall plot was still interesting. If this becomes a series, I will definitely read it but either way, recommend reading anything from the artist for sure!