Lady Killer

Lady Killer is a comic series about  an assassin turned housewife set in the 1960s. Josie Schuller is a wife and mom, trying to maintain a marriage, raise her children, deal with her busybody/nosy mother-in-law, all while secretly working as an assassin. One of the themes of this book is trying to strike a balance between home and work, and there are a few clever plays on this trope in how she uses various roles to get close to her victims (e.g. pretending to be a cosmetics seller or cocktail waitress).

Avon calling!

Complicating her already complicated lifestyle are her bosses at work, who think perhaps she is losing her edge. They also wonder if she is threatening her cover and their secrecy, which leads to some pretty hairy situations where she has to defend her family. I feel the book is an interesting mix of drama/satire/social commentary.

They don't always go quietly...

And as you can see from the excerpts here, the action sequences and artwork are superb. In the end, this book is a delight to look at.

This book is a collaboration between writer Jamie S. Rich and artist Joëlle Jones, and I have to say that while I enjoyed the story, the real star of this book is the artwork. It is full of energy, detail, and emotion, elevating the whole enterprise to another level. Industry experts echoed my view, as Jones was nominated for a 2016 Eisner Award for Best Penciller, while the series was nominated for Best Limited Series. This is her first ongoing comics series, but she is a sought after cover artist who has worked for a few companies. Rich has written a good number of comics series for multiple publishers, and my favorites have been Madame Frankenstein and The Double Life of Miranda Turner. Both creators speak more about their work on this series in this interview.

The reviews I have read about this comic series have been mostly positive. Craig Neilson-Adams wrote that it was "an utterly captivating read from start to finish, both in terms of concept and execution." RJ Casey was more critical of the book, concluding that it "excels when Jones’s art distances itself from the bad stiff shit genre that is often Dark Horse’s bread and butter, but it still can’t slice and dice itself from the rest of the chaff." Greg McElhatton remarked on its "darkly comic tone and a huge amount of potential."

Lady Killer was published by Dark Horse, and they have a preview and more info available here. There is a lot of blood and violence in this book, and it is intended for mature readers.