We Called Them Giants by Kieron Gillen, Stephanie Hans & Clayton Cowles

Ooh, look, a standalone graphic novel from one of my favorite creative teams! And, interestingly, an object lesson in how to write a book that doesn’t explain everything yet still manages to feel both satisfying and complete, which I’ll delve into more later on in this review.

This is also my first review of the Graphic Novels slate for the 2025 Hugos. I’m still torn as to whether I want to do a complete roundup column for the category, but I can safely say that this was not my favorite of the bunch.

Which isn’t to say that it wasn’t good! Stephanie Hans’ art is spectacular as always, as is Clayton Cowles’ lettering. The Blah Blah Blah motif was a nice moment of levity in an otherwise grim book that essentially centers around the premise of unexpected compassion in the midst of devastation.

Essentially, Lori wakes up one day and discovers that everyone has disappeared. As a foster child, she’s used to feeling abandoned but still feels an intense sense of relief when she encounters Annette, a schoolmate with a much more optimistic outlook on life. Until, that is, they discover that food supplies are unexpectedly low and electricity no longer works either. Together, they go questing for food and safety, in a world that was already hostile to teenage girls even in times of abundance.

Unsurprisingly, the world has devolved into the standard dystopia of violent gangs taking the center of power, with nonconformists like Lori and Annette ekeing out an existence on the margins. The big difference here is that oversized wolves hunt the remaining humans, forcing our heroes to edge ever closer to capture by the local gang. Until, that is, someone shows them another way.

So this is a weird book that doesn’t explain why so many people disappeared or where the giants came from and why they’re there. It ends rather bleakly, too, in the material circumstances of the survivors. But it had a wonderfully life-affirming message of compassion and love that left me satisfied, as people doing the best they can to survive without hurting others come out of this with hope for the future.

I also didn’t mind not knowing why the world had changed so abruptly — tho I also wouldn’t mind learning more in future books, if there are any — because there was almost literally no way Lori or Annette were finding out either. I’ve been annoyed with other Hugo-nominated works that didn’t explain their dangling world- and plot-building threads because the answers seemed like things the protagonists could have easily discovered and communicated to the reader. But in this book, a book which underscores the difficulty of interspecies communication, the truth seems so unfathomable to our main characters that I don’t mind not knowing either.

This was definitely in the top half of the Hugos graphic novel slate for me this year. It certainly isn’t the strongest of this creative team’s work, but it’s a fine example of their output, in one easily digestible package.

We Called Them Giants by Kieron Gillen, Stephanie Hans & Clayton Cowles was published November 12 2024 by Image Comics and is available from all good booksellers, including