JOE KELLY TALKS ABOUT I KILL GIANTS

[MattBrady]

Think of it as a full-on creative resurgence for Joe Kelly after a relatively quiet period.

Recently, we told you that he’ll be joining the writing team on Marvel’s Amazing Spider-Man, and now, we’ve got word of a series of projects coming up later this year from Image. The first, I Kill Giants, with artist Ken Niimura.

We spoke with him about the upcoming quirky story.

Newsarama: Joe, let’s start at the top – tell us about I Kill Giants.

Joe Kelly: First I have to say that I’m extremely excited about all the books that we’re doing as a group through Man of Action through Image this year, and for me, I Kill Giants represents a pretty huge departure from the kind of stuff that I’ve been doing, but a huge leap towards the kind fo stuff that I want to be doing.

It’s a story about a girl who’s a bit of an outsider – she’s smart-assed and funny, but totally in our geekland: she’s obsessed with Dungeons & Dragons, 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.

There’s also something going on in her home where she won’t go upstairs in her house, because there seems to be a monster up there that she’s deathly afraid of.

So we can’t tell if she’s seeing things for real, or if she’s just a little nutty. But the balance of her world view gets thrown out of whack when three people descent on her life – she makes a new friend, she becomes the target of a bully, and the school psychologist starts talking to her. The threads of this life that she’s got start to unravel, and she becomes a lot more anxious, and thins take off from there.

In a weird way, it’s Juno meets Pan’s Labyrinth.

NRAMA: Those are quite the disparate ends of the continuum that you’re pulling from….

JK: [laughs] Yeah, that’s sort of the sick Hollywood spin I can put on it. But at its heart, it’s a smaller story about a girl who’s struggling with some big stuff, and it’s manifesting in these visions, and in this fantasy life that she’s dealing with.

But it’s not all fantasy. It definitely takes a page from magical realism. A lot of stuff happens in this story, and that makes it pretty hard for me to quantify. I wish I had a good tagline for it. I’ve described it as drama, I’ve described it as drama/fantasy, and it’s got all of that, but that still doesn’t quite nail it down.

It’s done in a manga style and drawn by Ken Niimura who’s a new guy for our market, but has done some work in Europe. He’s fantastic – he just gives it this lively feel without falling back on some of the manga tropes that people might be familiar with. It’s a new style and a new look for a lot of people.

NRAMA: You said that it’s a step away from what you’re known for, but a step towards what you want to write. What do you mean by that? Less capes, and more quirk?

JK: Definitely, yeah, I love high concept stuff and Four Eyes is really high concept, but these things with a “quirk” factor is what I’m really interested in. There’re plenty of dark stories in comics – you can’t swing a dad cat without hitting them in our industry at the moment. But yeah – I’m looking more for things where you’re taking a chance, but still bounded by and grounded in a real story – that’s the kind of stuff that I’m wanting to do, and Giants does that for me. It’s also looking at the medium that we all enjoy, and stretching it to encompass other kids of stories.

I’ve been reading a lot of the older Osama Tezuka books, and for the longest time, I only knew him as the guy who made Astro Boy, and then you start to read some of these darker things – and some hideously dark – he wrote, and you could see that he was really stretching out and enjoying the medium for what you can express in it, and how you can express characterizations, and all of that great stuff, while not sticking to one specific genre. That’s what I’m looking to do.

Wait - Four Eyes? What’s that about now? Check back early next week, and we’ll tell you..

[ejulp]

Lol...this looks nice, I imagine they'd pry try to spin this into a nicktoons show or something.

[CitC]

This looks really, really good. What age would it be apropriate for? The main girl is in fifth grade, so would it be for 11 and up, or is it for older (I guess that's 2 questions: would it be apropriate to give to your 10-11 year old kid, and would it be apropriate for use in an upper elementary class)?

[Arnout]

Joe Kelly creator-owned = I'm in.
Now how'sabout finishing up M-Rex?
Anyone?
Duncan? No? Yes?

[mendolar]

Sounds like a classic in the making.

[bdbell]

Originally Posted by Arnout

Now how's about finishing up M-Rex?
Anyone?
Duncan? No? Yes?

I second that emotion.

bdb

[Blackbeard]

This looks great.

Count me in!

[DF2506]

I'm not a manga/anime fan, BUT I have to admit: the style here is unique and a little different from the usual manga style (well expect for the lines in the first panel).

FIrst and foremost though, man...wish I had thought of that concept! Wow. Sounds really cool imo. " I kill Giants! "

I think this might be a fun series and you know, Joe Kelly is a good writer.

Glad he's on Amazing Spiderman, but its also nice to see him doing his own series too.

Hmm. If I ever get a job, I might check this series out!

DF2506

[Nandop]

Originally Posted by Arnout

Joe Kelly creator-owned = I'm in.
Now how'sabout finishing up M-Rex?
Anyone?
Duncan? No? Yes?

that'd be awesome!
IKG looks amazing btw

[idkidd]

Love the cover design.

Unfortunately, the article excludes some very basic info -- release date, miniseries or one shot?

[Arnout]

Originally Posted by idkidd

Love the cover design.

Unfortunately, the article excludes some very basic info -- release date, miniseries or one shot?

I was wondering about that myself. I'm assuming at least mini, but when, that I'd like to know.

[NotAnIssue]

Any chance of fixing the title of this thread to match the title of the book?

Thread says "I Kill Monsters"

[Arnout]

Issue 1 of 7 is sollicited in the May Previews.

[Odjn Ouen]

Originally Posted by MattBrady

Wait - Four Eyes? What’s that about now? Check back early next week, and we’ll tell you..

Did this ever happen?

[Arnout]

Originally Posted by Odjn Ouen

Did this ever happen?

That reminds me of this article thay had on here years ago about Chichester's DD epic around 300, where I asked what had happened o Chichester. The contributor of the article replied on talk-back there'd be a big announcement soon, but it never happened. Too bad too. Anyway, I'm sure we'll hear more about Joe Kelly soon enough.