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Les Ogres-Dieux #1
Petit
Petit is the son of the Ogre King, and the littlest giant in the royal clan. Scarcely larger than a mere human, he is the latest sign of the family's rapid degeneration, which makes each generation smaller than the one before. His father wants him killed as an embarrassment, but his mother sees in him the possible regeneration of the family lineage, since he could mate with a human, just as the Founder of their lineage once did. Confused, she confides in great Aunt Desdée, the oldest of their clan, who was once dishonored because of her love for the humans, whom the Ogres consider little more than labor and food. But contrary to her guidance, she decides to raise Petit in the family traditions, including the violent impulses that this entails. So Petit grows into manhood, torn by the hunger he inherited from his upbringing and the sympathetic education he received from Aunt Desdée . . . will he find his place in this world divided between humans and giants, neither of which truly accept him? And will he survive the voracious appetite of his own monstrous family? A dark fantasy breathtakingly illustrated like a grown-up Disney feature for the Game of Thrones audience.
162 pages, Kindle Edition
First published December 3, 2014
11 people are currently reading
604 people want to read
About the author
Hubert
87 books147 followersHubert Boulard de son vrai nom ; il naît à Saint Renan, Finistère, en 1971. À l’origine, il ne se destine pas à la Bande dessinée, mais aux Arts plastiques. Il entre aux Beaux-Arts, d’abord à Quimper, puis à Angers. C’est là qu’a lieu une rencontre déterminante : Yoann (Toto l’Ornithorynque, La Voleuse du Père Fauteuil...), qui se destine déjà à être auteur et est publié en Angleterre. C’est lui qui fait (re)découvrir la bande dessinée à Hubert et ce qui s’y passe alors, tant aux États-Unis (Miller, Sankievitz, Mac Kean, Mignola ...) qu’en France (Barbier, David B., Trondheim...). En 1994, Hubert passe son diplôme de fin d’étude avec des installations tendance conceptuelle. Une fois sorti, il se pose l’inévitable question : « Et maintenant ?» d’autant plus qu’il se sent de moins en moins attiré par le milieu de l’Art Contemporain et de plus en plus par l’écriture. Après un bref passage dans le graphisme, il commence à travailler comme coloriste (Ninie Rezergoude avec Yoann et Omond, éditions Delcourt en 1999). De nombreuses collaborations suivront (notamment avec Paul Gillon, Jason, David B, Tronchet, Philippe Berthet, Vink…). Il est actuellement le coloriste de la série Spirou, avec Yoann et Fabien Vehlmann. Parallèlement, en 2000, il signe ses premiers projets en tant que scénariste : Le Legs de l’Alchimiste avec Hervé Tanquerelle, paru chez Glénat (qui passe le relais à Benjamin Bachelier au tome 4) et Les Yeux verts avec Zanzim au dessin, aux éditions Carabas. En 2006, Hubert ait son entrée chez chez Poisson Pilote avec La Sirène des Pompiers, dessinée par Zanzim et Miss Pas Touche, réalisé avec les Kerascoët. Suivront en 2010 Bestioles, avec Ohm chez Dargaud, La Chair de l’araignée avec Marie Caillou chez Glénat et en 2011 Beauté avec les Kerascoët chez Dupuis. Hubert vit et travaille à Paris.
Texte et photo © Dargaud
Texte et photo © Dargaud
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 170 reviews
July 30, 2019
Well, here we have something different that I couldn’t possibly imagine being created in the U.S., (the first volume of a trilogy of) a gothic fable about a world of incestuous monstrous ogres (I know, are there any other kind?) who eat humans. Setting: Castle on a mountain in, let me guess, France. The backstory of various characters is told in periodic two single-spaced pages; the rest is comics. For every inviting aspect of the work (Bertrand Gatignol’s black and white artwork, in this oversized sumptuously-produced hardcover, and the vaguely nineteenth-century French gothic horror) there are two off-putting elements (incest, cannibalism, violence, the prose backstories).
The giant queen bears a son, Petit, while eating dinner; he just falls out (cf., Monty Python, Meaning of Life), and she hides him away, because she has seen a pattern: Each ogre has children smaller than the original. She suspects inbreeding, gives him to one of her sisters, Aunt Desdée (the fave character, though none are really warm and cuddly!), to raise. Neither Petit nor the aunt seem to be cannibals. The queen finds a (human) girl for him and wants him to mate, like ALL the time, so there’s that. She wants to save the ogre race; we'l see how that works out for her, but I have my doubts.
Petit is so far sort of just this wide-eyed innocent boy in the background of this insane surreal horror show swirling around him, but this is a trilogy, so we’ll see who he becomes. For some reason, I couldn’t look away, in spite of everything I’ve said. There are touches of black comedy throughout. There’s a lot of female nudity—this is French, duh. I mean, it’s over all fascinating/disturbing, as it is gothic, and I’ll just bet it is gothic romance (that girl Petit is having sex with that we know little about so far), but it just might be a masterpiece.
The giant queen bears a son, Petit, while eating dinner; he just falls out (cf., Monty Python, Meaning of Life), and she hides him away, because she has seen a pattern: Each ogre has children smaller than the original. She suspects inbreeding, gives him to one of her sisters, Aunt Desdée (the fave character, though none are really warm and cuddly!), to raise. Neither Petit nor the aunt seem to be cannibals. The queen finds a (human) girl for him and wants him to mate, like ALL the time, so there’s that. She wants to save the ogre race; we'l see how that works out for her, but I have my doubts.
Petit is so far sort of just this wide-eyed innocent boy in the background of this insane surreal horror show swirling around him, but this is a trilogy, so we’ll see who he becomes. For some reason, I couldn’t look away, in spite of everything I’ve said. There are touches of black comedy throughout. There’s a lot of female nudity—this is French, duh. I mean, it’s over all fascinating/disturbing, as it is gothic, and I’ll just bet it is gothic romance (that girl Petit is having sex with that we know little about so far), but it just might be a masterpiece.
January 18, 2019
I could immediately tell this was a bonkers French comic translated to English. It was just too weird and offputting for most American comic audiences. It's about this royal family of inbred giants. The queen gives birth to a human sized son and the king immediately tries to murder him. The queen raises the kid in hiding with her aunt. The queen constantly tries to get Petit to eat humans and have sex with them in order to have giant babies. There's tons of violence towards women and awkward sex scenes. I think the author may have had a bad acid trip and then turned it into a comic. The whole thing felt like a nightmare. The book also had prose stories interspersed between each chapter. I wasn't enjoying the sequential art's story so there was no way I was wasting time on the prose.
Received a review copy from Lion Forge and NetGalley. All thoughts are my own and in no way influenced by the aforementioned.
Received a review copy from Lion Forge and NetGalley. All thoughts are my own and in no way influenced by the aforementioned.
December 21, 2018
This book was bananas. Petit (out titular hero) is the smallest child born to an extended family of inbred giants (Ogres) who rule over a land of humans that they eat.
...Did all of that land? No? Good, it's only going to get weirder.
The art in this book (by Bertrand Gatignol) was the saving factor that helped me stay with any of this. It is largely a book about the crazy family dynamics of which giant is bigger than which and how do they feel about humans. Petit is human sized, but he's raised in conflict by his Aunt, who loves humans, and his mother who eats them. There is a lot of gory eating of human parts and more sex than was warranted from this bonkers story. There is a lot of violence towards women in here fwiw.
I read a description of this book that end with the line: "A dark fantasy breathtakingly illustrated like a grown-up Disney feature for the Game of Thrones audience." which is some supremely insipid marketing-speak for 'We have no idea how to sell this book or who it's for and French people are way out there.'
This is apparently Vol 1 and I am on the fence about if I'll read the next one. MOSTLY because when this ended, I'm not sure I cared. As an audience we're made to sympathize and care for Petit several times as he's picked on and threatened, only to have him make some big choices that aren't really justified or followed up on and only serve to make him less likable. I get that he's trying not to become a monster, but he leans into it several times without any real provocation.
- I really don't know man, I'm going to have to sit with this a while. It was so different than most graphic novels I've read I'm still trying to parse whether or not it was good and I'm just not used to it's style or if it really was just a weird, Brie-fueled hallucination.
I received an ARC from NetGalley and Lion Forge in exchange for an honest review
...Did all of that land? No? Good, it's only going to get weirder.
The art in this book (by Bertrand Gatignol) was the saving factor that helped me stay with any of this. It is largely a book about the crazy family dynamics of which giant is bigger than which and how do they feel about humans. Petit is human sized, but he's raised in conflict by his Aunt, who loves humans, and his mother who eats them. There is a lot of gory eating of human parts and more sex than was warranted from this bonkers story. There is a lot of violence towards women in here fwiw.
I read a description of this book that end with the line: "A dark fantasy breathtakingly illustrated like a grown-up Disney feature for the Game of Thrones audience." which is some supremely insipid marketing-speak for 'We have no idea how to sell this book or who it's for and French people are way out there.'
This is apparently Vol 1 and I am on the fence about if I'll read the next one. MOSTLY because when this ended, I'm not sure I cared. As an audience we're made to sympathize and care for Petit several times as he's picked on and threatened, only to have him make some big choices that aren't really justified or followed up on and only serve to make him less likable. I get that he's trying not to become a monster, but he leans into it several times without any real provocation.
- I really don't know man, I'm going to have to sit with this a while. It was so different than most graphic novels I've read I'm still trying to parse whether or not it was good and I'm just not used to it's style or if it really was just a weird, Brie-fueled hallucination.
I received an ARC from NetGalley and Lion Forge in exchange for an honest review
December 15, 2018
Ohhh this was creepy and neato. This is another situation where I wish Goodreads did half stars because this is definitely a solid 3.5 teetering on the edge of 4.
I'm more than a little bit in love with this absolutely grotesque world of man eating giants obsessed with maintaining their gargantuan stature. After years of inbreeding they are little more than oversized, babbling morons with an endless hunger for human's. The current giant queen gives birth to a human sized baby who she comes to believe with be the savior of the family. "Petit" is just like the ancient founder of their family, a conquering warrior who was man sized like Petit but nevertheless fathered countless giant children.
Petit is raised in secret by his human loving (non cannibal) aunt Desdee who encourages to abandon the human eating and terrorizing ways of his family, fostering in him a love of art and music. But Petit struggles within the confines of his world. If his father or evil, stupid brother's find him they'll eat him in two bites, but he longs to be a part of the wider world. Meanwhile is increasingly mentally impaired mother fights Desdee's teachings to instill in him the same fire that fuels her to save their family line from extinction.
There's just so much to unpack with this story. Author Hubert has created a really rich and epic sized history of this appalling race of monsters. Each chapter of Petit's story is begun with a short story that tells the history of the more notable members of the giant family, how it formed, and how its begun to fall. Its grim and gorgeous storytelling.
Obviously a big part of the "gorgeous" is Bertrand Gatignol's just delicious art work. Everything is done in this incredibly rich black and white. The giants are especially wonderful. They're draw with incredibly detail with full, lush lips and deep crevices in their faces. Their eyes seem to burn with a constant, black hatred for every human they come across. Petit, by contrast, is very wide eyed and seems to radiate a sort of restless energy, like he's infused with lightening.
There's A LOT of bloodshed and buckets of blood and human devouring but its somehow kind of darkly enchanting rather than disgusting. There's an opulence to this world that's attractive. It reminded me very much of Versaille and the dying days of the French aristocracy.
The only fault I find here is Petit, despite being the hero, is left a bit in the background in favor of the gaudier, arguably more fun giants. We never really learn all that much about who he is as a person. He wrestles with his identity and clearly has to fight not to give into some of his more primal giant urges but I never got a clear picture of what he actually wanted from his life or how he wanted his situation to change.
Still I am THRILLED to see where this goes and if black comedy, decadence and giants are your thing this is very, very highly recommended.
I'm more than a little bit in love with this absolutely grotesque world of man eating giants obsessed with maintaining their gargantuan stature. After years of inbreeding they are little more than oversized, babbling morons with an endless hunger for human's. The current giant queen gives birth to a human sized baby who she comes to believe with be the savior of the family. "Petit" is just like the ancient founder of their family, a conquering warrior who was man sized like Petit but nevertheless fathered countless giant children.
Petit is raised in secret by his human loving (non cannibal) aunt Desdee who encourages to abandon the human eating and terrorizing ways of his family, fostering in him a love of art and music. But Petit struggles within the confines of his world. If his father or evil, stupid brother's find him they'll eat him in two bites, but he longs to be a part of the wider world. Meanwhile is increasingly mentally impaired mother fights Desdee's teachings to instill in him the same fire that fuels her to save their family line from extinction.
There's just so much to unpack with this story. Author Hubert has created a really rich and epic sized history of this appalling race of monsters. Each chapter of Petit's story is begun with a short story that tells the history of the more notable members of the giant family, how it formed, and how its begun to fall. Its grim and gorgeous storytelling.
Obviously a big part of the "gorgeous" is Bertrand Gatignol's just delicious art work. Everything is done in this incredibly rich black and white. The giants are especially wonderful. They're draw with incredibly detail with full, lush lips and deep crevices in their faces. Their eyes seem to burn with a constant, black hatred for every human they come across. Petit, by contrast, is very wide eyed and seems to radiate a sort of restless energy, like he's infused with lightening.
There's A LOT of bloodshed and buckets of blood and human devouring but its somehow kind of darkly enchanting rather than disgusting. There's an opulence to this world that's attractive. It reminded me very much of Versaille and the dying days of the French aristocracy.
The only fault I find here is Petit, despite being the hero, is left a bit in the background in favor of the gaudier, arguably more fun giants. We never really learn all that much about who he is as a person. He wrestles with his identity and clearly has to fight not to give into some of his more primal giant urges but I never got a clear picture of what he actually wanted from his life or how he wanted his situation to change.
Still I am THRILLED to see where this goes and if black comedy, decadence and giants are your thing this is very, very highly recommended.
January 10, 2022
Non mi dilungherò in una recensione approfondita perchè non mi ritengo un'esperta nel campo del (o della) graphic novel. Semplicemente l'ho trovata una storia interessante, illustrata molto bene, ho anche apprezzato la struttura che alterna l'illustrazione all'approfondimento dei personaggi in prosa.
Bella l'ambientazione molto oscura e macabra.
Non vedo l'ora di recuperare il secondo volume.
Bella l'ambientazione molto oscura e macabra.
Non vedo l'ora di recuperare il secondo volume.
July 14, 2023
Fairy tales over time have become categorized as "children's stories" but they didn't start out that way. Based on the famous collections of the Brothers Grimm, I have long thought of fairy tales as "grim."
Volume 1 of The Ogre Gods is a fairy tale for adults, and as was traditional in the folk tales that became known as fairy tales, features universal themes of sex, death, and violence. The title character, Petit, is born a giant but is undersized—for a giant.
The giants consume "humans" for food and if one was feeling allegorical one might imagine the analogy to how the rich and powerful consume the underprivileged. We even use some of the same language, referring to people as being "big guys" and "little guys" in terms of the perception of their relative power.
The black and white art is richly detailed and atmospheric. The story is layered and unfolds. Between each chapter are prose pieces, each only a couple of pages, offering backstories to characters or situations; these prose pieces were also interesting and helped deepen the work.
I don't often give 5 stars to graphic novels, because usually they leave me unsatisfied. But here, in this grim yet optimistic tale, in spite of the violence and cannabalism, the whole package achieved a kind of synergy and left me keen to explore the further adventures of this tiny, determined, giant.
Volume 1 of The Ogre Gods is a fairy tale for adults, and as was traditional in the folk tales that became known as fairy tales, features universal themes of sex, death, and violence. The title character, Petit, is born a giant but is undersized—for a giant.
The giants consume "humans" for food and if one was feeling allegorical one might imagine the analogy to how the rich and powerful consume the underprivileged. We even use some of the same language, referring to people as being "big guys" and "little guys" in terms of the perception of their relative power.
The black and white art is richly detailed and atmospheric. The story is layered and unfolds. Between each chapter are prose pieces, each only a couple of pages, offering backstories to characters or situations; these prose pieces were also interesting and helped deepen the work.
I don't often give 5 stars to graphic novels, because usually they leave me unsatisfied. But here, in this grim yet optimistic tale, in spite of the violence and cannabalism, the whole package achieved a kind of synergy and left me keen to explore the further adventures of this tiny, determined, giant.
January 30, 2019
I received an ARC from NetGalley for an honest review.
A dark and beautiful masterpiece. This was somehow deeply disturbing, and I’m not sure I could put into words why. Of course it’s dark to see humans being eaten nonchalantly, but that wasn’t it. There were, after all, three distinct sizes of human-like beings in this book (very large ogres, small ogres, and tiny humans).
We’re supposed to be the smallest ones, the humans, but it’s still interesting to think eating very small creatures that resemble us and thinking nothing about it.
I think the black and white art and the subject matter are only part of what makes this so disturbing, because sometimes the lack of color is quite lovely.
The dialogue, or just words that are yelled out, along with the facial features of each person… that’s what really gets me.
The faces are so emotional, no matter what emotion it is being depicted, even if that emotion is blankness. It’s unnerving. It’s at times so accurate and then such an exaggeration, sometimes mere panels apart. I love it. It makes me very uncomfortable, in the best way. The triplets are especially creepy.
The giant ogres eat the little humans and have the humans as servants.
The queen ogre has a son while eating dinner, he just falls out. He’s tiny, the size of a human baby. The King tells her to kill it, so she pops the baby in her mouth, but doesn’t eat him. She takes him to this HUGE ogre lady, , and asks her to raise the little ogre baby, Petit, with the help of the little human servants. The giants are smaller now than they used to be, mostly from being so inbred.
Although it’s mostly illustrations, this book also has full page stories of character backgrounds and the like, similar to what you’d see in a book of fairy tales. The main illustrated story is broken up by little section pages from The Book of Ancients. Beautiful ornamental pages that really set the dark fairy tale mood.
I really enjoyed the Desdee Story, the God-King Story, and the Founder’s Story. I’ll include a zoomed-out picture of the first page of Desdee’s to show what I mean. It’s just perfectly done.
Little things here and there just set this graphic novel apart. Even small things, like juxtaposing a serious situation and great, dark art with a word balloon that is just a black scribble to show his anger and frustration.
And what a crazy ending for a first volume. I am so excited to read the next one! I have a few ideas about where it could go from here, but I know I’ll be surprised no matter what.
Oh… I should probably say that this is definitely a book for mature readers, if that wasn’t obvious. Adults only, kids. Nudity, violence, cannibalism, incest, the works.
A dark and beautiful masterpiece. This was somehow deeply disturbing, and I’m not sure I could put into words why. Of course it’s dark to see humans being eaten nonchalantly, but that wasn’t it. There were, after all, three distinct sizes of human-like beings in this book (very large ogres, small ogres, and tiny humans).
We’re supposed to be the smallest ones, the humans, but it’s still interesting to think eating very small creatures that resemble us and thinking nothing about it.
I think the black and white art and the subject matter are only part of what makes this so disturbing, because sometimes the lack of color is quite lovely.
The dialogue, or just words that are yelled out, along with the facial features of each person… that’s what really gets me.
The faces are so emotional, no matter what emotion it is being depicted, even if that emotion is blankness. It’s unnerving. It’s at times so accurate and then such an exaggeration, sometimes mere panels apart. I love it. It makes me very uncomfortable, in the best way. The triplets are especially creepy.
The giant ogres eat the little humans and have the humans as servants.
The queen ogre has a son while eating dinner, he just falls out. He’s tiny, the size of a human baby. The King tells her to kill it, so she pops the baby in her mouth, but doesn’t eat him. She takes him to this HUGE ogre lady, , and asks her to raise the little ogre baby, Petit, with the help of the little human servants. The giants are smaller now than they used to be, mostly from being so inbred.
Although it’s mostly illustrations, this book also has full page stories of character backgrounds and the like, similar to what you’d see in a book of fairy tales. The main illustrated story is broken up by little section pages from The Book of Ancients. Beautiful ornamental pages that really set the dark fairy tale mood.
I really enjoyed the Desdee Story, the God-King Story, and the Founder’s Story. I’ll include a zoomed-out picture of the first page of Desdee’s to show what I mean. It’s just perfectly done.
Little things here and there just set this graphic novel apart. Even small things, like juxtaposing a serious situation and great, dark art with a word balloon that is just a black scribble to show his anger and frustration.
And what a crazy ending for a first volume. I am so excited to read the next one! I have a few ideas about where it could go from here, but I know I’ll be surprised no matter what.
Oh… I should probably say that this is definitely a book for mature readers, if that wasn’t obvious. Adults only, kids. Nudity, violence, cannibalism, incest, the works.
March 10, 2019
This book is a freaking bizarre combination of fairy tales and Attack on Titan, Vol. 1, filled with incest, cannibalism, gore, and very unlikeable giant characters. The art and story are both simultaneously weirdly beautiful and repellent. I might enjoy this more if the young title character weren't so feckless and ineffectual, but I'll probably check out the next volume to see how he might develop as a person.
December 10, 2020
Rabelais qui rencontre Zola qui rencontre Attack on Titans. L'histoire est à l'image de ses personnages : monstrueuse et absurde, tout en étant terriblement d'actualité. C'est vraiment très noir, avec quelques scènes assez atroces. La fin a tout juste assez d'espoir (if you squint) pour ne pas donner complètement envie de se pendre, mais le côté conte/parabole fait que ça marche hyper bien malgré tout.
Et bon sang que c'est beau. Très, très, très grosse claque visuellement.
Et bon sang que c'est beau. Très, très, très grosse claque visuellement.
November 1, 2018
A disturbing story of a child of giants who is almost human size, almost, but wholly.
The giants are considered gods, and have humans waiting on them hand and foot, and if you displease any of them, you are eaten. Sometimes you are just eaten anyway.
But there is a problem. Each giant has children that are smaller than the original giant. The current queen suspects it to be inbreeding, and so when her child, Petit, is born human size, she hides him, and gives him to one of the older Aunties, to raise, as she can't be seen with him.
The book is mixed in with short prose pieces that give background as well as forewarnings of what is to come. It is a good way to get the backstory, without loading too much into the graphic narrative, but I'm wondering if it is necessary to the current story-line, and doesn't give away to come of what is to come. Even though this first volume leaves us with Petit leaving his home, there are narratives, in the book, where he has gone out into the world, and married, and borne children.
And since this is french, there is a lot of female nudity. And a lot of people getting eaten, because that is what the giant ogres do. Nice details in the buildings, and clothing. There is a lot going on in the pages.
Thanks to Netgalley for making this book available for an honest review.
The giants are considered gods, and have humans waiting on them hand and foot, and if you displease any of them, you are eaten. Sometimes you are just eaten anyway.
But there is a problem. Each giant has children that are smaller than the original giant. The current queen suspects it to be inbreeding, and so when her child, Petit, is born human size, she hides him, and gives him to one of the older Aunties, to raise, as she can't be seen with him.
The book is mixed in with short prose pieces that give background as well as forewarnings of what is to come. It is a good way to get the backstory, without loading too much into the graphic narrative, but I'm wondering if it is necessary to the current story-line, and doesn't give away to come of what is to come. Even though this first volume leaves us with Petit leaving his home, there are narratives, in the book, where he has gone out into the world, and married, and borne children.
And since this is french, there is a lot of female nudity. And a lot of people getting eaten, because that is what the giant ogres do. Nice details in the buildings, and clothing. There is a lot going on in the pages.
Thanks to Netgalley for making this book available for an honest review.
August 2, 2022
Feels good to be vegetarian
September 16, 2022
4/5
Gothique, envoûtant, déroutant, parfois même écœurant... Cette BD ne ressemble à nulle autre, j'ai adoré l'ambiance, l'histoire, les illustrations, c'est une vraie pépite !
Gothique, envoûtant, déroutant, parfois même écœurant... Cette BD ne ressemble à nulle autre, j'ai adoré l'ambiance, l'histoire, les illustrations, c'est une vraie pépite !
December 8, 2022
Il troppo stroppia: troppo focus sul macabro, che perde a lungo andare il suo impatto; troppe donne disperate e piangenti, stereotipate donzelle un po' vittoriane; troppo cannibalismo (come se esistesse una soglia in cui a "cannibalismo" venga associata l'espressione "la giusta quantità di"); personaggi troppo piatti, manca proprio una qualsiasi forma di evoluzione; love interest del protagonista con occhi troppo tondi e simil-manga.
Peccato, perché credo che la trama potrebbe essere interessante e la struttura, che alterna la storyline principale con una ricostruzione genealogica in prosa, funziona. C'è anche da considerare che questo sia il primo volume di una tetralogia, quindi si possono giustificare certi difetti con la necessità di dover costruire una realtà autonoma coerente, che sostenga anche le vicende dei successivi sviluppi di trama, e, scegliendo gli autori un worldbuilding molto articolato, capisco la scelta di rallentare il ritmo. Credo, quindi, che darò una chance al secondo volume, sperando in un POV diverso. Si poteva, comunque, fare meglio, soprattutto per quanto riguarda le parti di Piccolo: la storia procede saltando bruscamente da una scena alla successiva, senza fluidità temporale.
Commento a latere. Mi fa volare leggere le recensioni in inglese: tra quelle con più like, ricorre la constatazione che questa graphic novel sia molto "francese" o il più generico "europea". Ora, io non sono una fine conoscitrice di letteratura classica, ma non credo che un topos ricorrente dei nostri cugini d'oltralpe siano i giganti sanguinari nè tantomeno che sia tipico di Proust o di Stendal un tono gratuitamente macabro, per quanto avrei apprezzato TANTISSIMO una svolta gore ne "Il conte di Montecristo": porca puttana Valentine smetti di piangnucolare prendi un ferro da calza e fai una strage al grido di "Libertà per Haydée"!
Peccato, perché credo che la trama potrebbe essere interessante e la struttura, che alterna la storyline principale con una ricostruzione genealogica in prosa, funziona. C'è anche da considerare che questo sia il primo volume di una tetralogia, quindi si possono giustificare certi difetti con la necessità di dover costruire una realtà autonoma coerente, che sostenga anche le vicende dei successivi sviluppi di trama, e, scegliendo gli autori un worldbuilding molto articolato, capisco la scelta di rallentare il ritmo. Credo, quindi, che darò una chance al secondo volume, sperando in un POV diverso. Si poteva, comunque, fare meglio, soprattutto per quanto riguarda le parti di Piccolo: la storia procede saltando bruscamente da una scena alla successiva, senza fluidità temporale.
Commento a latere. Mi fa volare leggere le recensioni in inglese: tra quelle con più like, ricorre la constatazione che questa graphic novel sia molto "francese" o il più generico "europea". Ora, io non sono una fine conoscitrice di letteratura classica, ma non credo che un topos ricorrente dei nostri cugini d'oltralpe siano i giganti sanguinari nè tantomeno che sia tipico di Proust o di Stendal un tono gratuitamente macabro, per quanto avrei apprezzato TANTISSIMO una svolta gore ne "Il conte di Montecristo": porca puttana Valentine smetti di piangnucolare prendi un ferro da calza e fai una strage al grido di "Libertà per Haydée"!
September 20, 2025
(4.4) I picked this up on a whim, intrigued by its premise centered on a lineage of ogre royalty. Much like human royal families, this dynasty has deep origins, divisive members, and flashes of outright madness. Its evolution and rise to power—along with the inevitable transformations—mirror the darker side of humanity itself: cruel, bloody, and compelling.
November 19, 2018
Book provided by Lion Forge through Netgalley
TW: gore, attempted rape, cannibalism
In a royal family of monstrous ogres, continuous inbreeding has been yielding smaller and smaller children. Petit is the smallest yet. So small his mother did not know she was pregnant with him until she birthed him. Instantly reviled for his human size, the court demands to eat him, so such blight can be erased from the royal family.
His mother, however, believes Petit will bring about great things, much as their distant ancestor: the Founder, who mated with humans and thus had bigger and bigger children.
I absolutely LOVED this! Petit reads as a grotesque fairy tale, certainly not for the faint hearted, but amazing just the same. The monstrous court, violent and stupid, feasting on humans and reveling in their reign of terror, the bizarre architecture of the gigantic palace, the story meandering through the present interspersed with short stories about the great ancestors of the royal family... it was all absolutely delicious!
I highly recommend this one, and I can't wait for the second volume!
October 3, 2018
This was weird enough but really good! Giants ogre acting like Gods over humans population, eating them and ruling them like they want to. The story is good, the universe is great and the rythm is well balance between story evolution and action. There is also pages from time to time that goes back to the history of some characters or their relatives in ancien time, and those part are totaly in text, not comic. A good, original and unique work! Well done!!
June 12, 2025
J'ai trop de choses à dire sur cette oeuvre que je découvre un peu tard, je suis subjuguée par les dessins, l'histoire, le style, les expressions des personnages, toute la critique sociale... ça m'a eu, c'était génial et j'ai hâte de lire la suite
May 30, 2024
...con quel finale un po' così...bha!
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
September 8, 2021
Petit était vraiment une BD sympa, qui a travers une histoire aux prémices intriguant arrive à toucher à des thèmes vraiment intéressants comme le déterminisme familial et l'héritage.
Petit, le géant de petite taille, à peine plus grand qu'un humain se retrouve confronté aux traditions de sa famille : tyranniser et manger les Hommes. Est-il obligé de suivre les traces de sa famille où peut-il, et va-t-il réussir à s'en émanciper ? En plus de ça, sa mère lui a prévu un grand avenir : que faire et comment réagir ?
Vraiment, les questions et les thèmes traités sont super intéressants et c'était super de suivre tout ça. Surtout que Petit est un personnage assez nuancé, ce qui rend le tout encore meilleur !
Les dessins sont superbes et arrivent à rendre compte à la fois de la grandeur des géants et de leur monstruosité, nous plongeant dans un univers assez glauque et gothique dans lequel les serviteurs humains apportent leurs semblables à manger aux géants.
Le seul bémol, c'est que je pense que les thèmes auraient pu être plus approfondis, plus creusés, ce qui aurait rendu le tout encore meilleur à mes yeux.
Mais je recommande très fortement cette BD absolument superbe !
Petit, le géant de petite taille, à peine plus grand qu'un humain se retrouve confronté aux traditions de sa famille : tyranniser et manger les Hommes. Est-il obligé de suivre les traces de sa famille où peut-il, et va-t-il réussir à s'en émanciper ? En plus de ça, sa mère lui a prévu un grand avenir : que faire et comment réagir ?
Vraiment, les questions et les thèmes traités sont super intéressants et c'était super de suivre tout ça. Surtout que Petit est un personnage assez nuancé, ce qui rend le tout encore meilleur !
Les dessins sont superbes et arrivent à rendre compte à la fois de la grandeur des géants et de leur monstruosité, nous plongeant dans un univers assez glauque et gothique dans lequel les serviteurs humains apportent leurs semblables à manger aux géants.
Le seul bémol, c'est que je pense que les thèmes auraient pu être plus approfondis, plus creusés, ce qui aurait rendu le tout encore meilleur à mes yeux.
Mais je recommande très fortement cette BD absolument superbe !
June 26, 2018
3.5
Ho comprato questo fumetto perché intrigata dall'ambientazione, che ricordava molto Gormenghast. L'idea di base è interessante e mi sono piaciuti moltissimo gli intermezzi scritti dedicati ai membri più importanti della casata dei giganti. Va comunque detto che, interni a parte, il disegno non mi ha entusiasmato: alcune volte risulta un po' troppo rigido (avevo proprio difficoltà a capire alcune vignette) e ho notato un paio di tavole in cui c'erano degli effettivi errori, tra cui il fatto che i giganti cambiano taglia da scena a scena!
Infine, parere totalmente personale, magari ci sarebbe stato meglio uno stile diverso dall'euromanga, per meglio adattarsi all'atmosfera gotica. Per quanto riguarda la sceneggiatura: c'erano dei cambi di scena e di tempo che non venivano segnalati in nessun modo, da una vignetta all'altra si passata da un costesto ad un altro. Onestamente, non ci voleva niente a mettere all'angolo della vignetta un bel quadratino con su scritto "qualche ora/giorno dopo..."
Ho comprato questo fumetto perché intrigata dall'ambientazione, che ricordava molto Gormenghast. L'idea di base è interessante e mi sono piaciuti moltissimo gli intermezzi scritti dedicati ai membri più importanti della casata dei giganti. Va comunque detto che, interni a parte, il disegno non mi ha entusiasmato: alcune volte risulta un po' troppo rigido (avevo proprio difficoltà a capire alcune vignette) e ho notato un paio di tavole in cui c'erano degli effettivi errori, tra cui il fatto che i giganti cambiano taglia da scena a scena!
Infine, parere totalmente personale, magari ci sarebbe stato meglio uno stile diverso dall'euromanga, per meglio adattarsi all'atmosfera gotica. Per quanto riguarda la sceneggiatura: c'erano dei cambi di scena e di tempo che non venivano segnalati in nessun modo, da una vignetta all'altra si passata da un costesto ad un altro. Onestamente, non ci voleva niente a mettere all'angolo della vignetta un bel quadratino con su scritto "qualche ora/giorno dopo..."
September 25, 2018
Reads like a classical fairy tale-- the kind meant to scare children into behaving. Gorgeous grayscale art lends a bleakness to the setting, and the artist does not shy away from gore (this is definitely not for the squeamish, as the ogres have a habit of eating humans), but this is far from a horror story. I also enjoyed the prose interludes, which gave the ogres context and purpose in the world. I'll definitely be reading the next volume.
March 1, 2021
Volume splendido. Una coppia tra sceneggiatore e disegnatore, perfetta. Ho amato tantissimo questo volume che racconta una favola dark. Un volume che tratta temi difficili e parla soprattutto di crudeltà. Edizione italiana perfetta, impreziosita da tanti dettagli in oro.
Gorgeous volume. A perfect couple between screenwriter and dcomic artist. I loved this volume very much which tells a dark tale. A volume that deals with difficult issues and speaks above all of cruelty.
Gorgeous volume. A perfect couple between screenwriter and dcomic artist. I loved this volume very much which tells a dark tale. A volume that deals with difficult issues and speaks above all of cruelty.
October 9, 2019
Spellbinding, original, eerily good! Finally something that sets itself apart. The only issue I had was that some choices were not explained enough and sometimes the plot did not flow seamlessly. Aside from these a wonderful, haunting piece of art!
September 28, 2017
Tendre et croustillant à la fois. À dévorer.
January 18, 2018
Une bd qui me faisait de l'œil depuis longtemps... J'ai pensé à Gargantua (beaucoup), à l'Attaque des titans (un peu), à des fables et des contes (surtout), et j'ai donc hâte de lire la suite !
October 2, 2018
I liked the style of the art, but this was way too grotesque for me. Probably would have minded it a little less if most of the violence hadn't been directed at women.
January 3, 2019
Holy hell, this was unexpected. Really great world building - really unsettling. I'm dying to see where the next volume goes.
December 18, 2020
Qué lástima que no se hayan editado más tomos en castellano de esta belleza.
November 13, 2020
I don't know why I keep reading Hubert, his stories are always revolting.
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