A while back, I started working on a screenplay about an aging hitman seeking a way out of the assassination business while battling his new found guilt and audible/visual hallucinations (I’m still working on it as well as a million other ideas so DON’T STEAL IT!). And so when I found out about this comic by Frenchmen Luc Jacamon and Matz titled The Killer (Le Tueur in French), I was intrigued as well as slightly disappointed that my great idea was pretty much done in another form. So I plunked down the 14.95 for it (which is now OOP and worth anywhere from 39.99 to 129.99. Holy shitla!) and man was I blown away. This series draws you in from the moment you lay eyes on the first page but it isn’t without it’s fair share of disappointments.

....kill......clean....oil....repeat

The story opens with an unnamed hitman casing an assignment’s hotel room and as he waits, he reflects on his beginnings as he slowly begins to lose his mind. A born loner, we witness his slow descent into guilt and paranoia while he attempts to reach his goal of several million dollars so he can retire in a tropical paradise without a care in the world. A professional without a single botched job under his belt, Murphy’s Law takes over and sends him into his downward spiral. I won’t ruin the details but you can easily imagine the smokey noir music playing in the background as you admire every wonderful panel for its sheer beauty and wonderful pacing.

This series is collected in a hardcover format from Archaia Studio Press with 128 pages with surreal blues, yellows, and washed out greens filling the pages with a slight leaning towards style over substance, not unlike most Guy Ritchie films (Revolver, anyone?). With flashbacks interceding with the present day action, it would seem as if Tarantino was whispering to Matz overseas on how to tackle non-linear style plotting in the comics medium. It isn’t a terrible choice and makes it more accessible to comic and non-comic readers alike but there seems to be a little something missing; a little soul, a little humanity. We don’t get to relate with many of the characters besides the hitman which is semi-brilliant since it allows the reader to place themselves in his shoes, to show us that this man is really a sociopath. In one scene as he waits for his mark, he contemplates just shooting random people for the hell of it.

I wonder if they have Wi-Fi here?

Without ruining the rest of the story (which I have only had the pleasure of reading the first Volume; the last two have yet to be released stateside and I can’t read French), this is a pleasant surprise especially for a title I had not been aware of. First released in Europe as five volumes and collected in three volumes stateside (the next is due Feb. 2009), it is a bit of a guilty yet been-there-down-that plot that may seem predictable at times. And speaking of which, or writing of, with the mass adaptation of just about every comic in existence, David Fincher may be adapting this into a major motion picture. My problem with that? I’m still not sure. Fincher is without a doubt one of the best directors of his era but is he ready to tackle adaptations? He did it with Fight Club without a hitch and The Curious Case of Benjamin Button is already on the IMDB top 250 but how much of that is attributed to the source material rather than the attraction of Fincher’s dark exploration of our psyche and hearts? I’m still reeling from The Panic Room’s disjointed story telling but I digress. Honestly, if Luc Besson wasn’t such a loafer with his Arthur and Le Invisbles, I would say get his fat ass on it, but he did used to stick it to Milla Jovovich and I’m still angry about that. So, pfah!

So, long story short: The Killer gets a B+ for writing, A- for art, and all-around four out of five plastic sleeves for the whole package. Pick it up from eBay (if you can) or do a Google search for ISBN 9781932386448. Actually, Deep Discount has it for 14.96 as of this writing so get on it, Happy new Year, and keep turning those pages……

This entry was posted on Wednesday, December 31st, 2008 at 9:21 am and is filed under Comic Books, Video Games. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.