‘Die’ Creators Kieron Gillen And Stephanie Hans Team-Up For New Post-Apocalyptic Graphic Novel ‘We Called Them Giants’

by Olly MacNamee

Two-time British Fantasy Award winning series creators of Die — Kieron Gillen (The Wicked + The Divine, Immortal X-men) and Stephanie Hans (Secret Wars 1602: Witch Hunter Angela, Black Bolt) — are reuniting for an all-new graphic novel, We Called Them Giants.

“We Called Them Giants follows main character Lori, who wakes to find the streets empty. Everyone has gone. Or at least, nearly everyone. She’s thrown into a world where she has to scrape by in the ruins of civilization, nearly starving, hiding from gangs when… They arrive.

We Called Them Giants promises readers the poignant, romantic, and devastating story of a young girl who wakes up to find her world has turned upside down.”

Speaking with Gizmodo, who broke the news, Gillen said:

“After we finished Die, we knew we wanted to do something completely different. Rather than a sprawling ongoing, do something smaller, intimate, self-contained and really pure. So, in the middle of the covid lockdowns, I was left alone with my cats, staring at them, and them staring at me, and thinking about the miracle of relationships between beings of completely different kinds of intelligences, and the wonder of the jump across that gap. The image of the feral girl in the devastation and the giants came quickly after that, and we were away. People will fall in love and have their hearts broken—the full Hans/Gillen experience. Despite the post-apocalypse setting the story has an almost weird-fable kind of vibe, and ends up basically as a conversation between The Walking Dead and The Iron Giant. Basically, We Called Them Giants is the story of communication across a chasm at the end of the world. Folks have seen what Stephanie does on a month-by-month rush on an ongoing comic. Here, it’s a thrill to see her luxuriate—creating this single long story, and being able to shape the whole thing into a poignant, romantic, devastating single canvas.”

Hans added:

“As an Artist, it is always a joy to work on new challenges, especially when it is with such a great Writer. Kieron wrote an emotional story in which he let me go wild on designs. It’s a new, beautiful end of the world tale, a little bit epic, a bit nostalgic and a bit contemplative. It’s nothing like we did before. In all the best ways.”