Writer: Matz
Artist: Luc Jacamon
Company: Archaia Studios Press

The professional killer is a character that holds a great deal of allure for storytellers. At its basest level, a story about a hitman is probably going to be a springboard for plenty of violent action sequences, and if you go a little deeper, there’s a lot of character exploration to be done on someone who has decided that it’s OK to kill people for a living. The Killer leans mostly on the latter aspect, the first issue revealing how a law student became a hired killer, as told in his own words. As the killer spins his tale via narrative captions, Jacamon’s gorgeous artwork shows us the actions behind his words, depicting the murders he has been a part of as well as those that he believes to justify his actions. Archaia Studios has built quite a reputation for unusual subject matter and beautiful books with comics like Artesia, Mouse Guard and Robotika, and The Killer is another great addition to their lineup.

The Killer works in large part because Matz (and translator Jacamon) take what is a completely foreign idea and make it intimate, connecting the reader deeply to what’s going on. The killer is never named in the book, we know him only as a “voice,” a first person narrative that seems like it is talking directly to the reader. This kind of thing can read as lazy, or can be used for comedic effect, but the breaking of the fourth wall in this case leads to a deeper connection with the lead character. Despite his guarded profession, he is spilling his guts to the audience, telling us everything that goes into his thought process about his rather amoral choice of profession.

Amoral is the right word for the way the killer approaches his job, but what’s really impressive about the work is the subtext that’s there. The fact that the killer needs to justify himself, to bring up past massacres or sociological factors that contribute to the misery of the world, sends a clear signal that he does have a trouble conscience, that his justifications represent someone struggling with what he does, at least on some level. It doesn’t make what he does any more sympathetic, quite the opposite in fact, but it does bring the reader into a place where they can see what the character is thinking and connect with what he does as a result.

The emotionless facade that the lead character puts up, and the way he approaches his work, could easily have given way to an all too quiet, even boring story. But while The Killer is somewhat subdued in tone, it is never boring. Jacamon’s artwork brings the European setting of the killer’s latest job to vivid life, and his choice of angles and panel placement are great indicators of moody introspection on the killer’s part. The visuals indicate a man of near-infinite patience, going about a routine while he waits for his target to arrive. And the flashback murder sequences are brutal, fast and effective. The underwater assassination is particularly chilling, as a man who we’ve seen to be a father is taken by surprise and murdered with the same level of emotion most would demonstrate when squashing a cockroach.

Beyond just having a beautiful painted look reminiscent of European artists like Jordi Bernet or Herge, Jacamon has a storytelling sensibility I quite like. He uses a lot of odd-shaped panels to give just the right emphasis to certain moments in the story, and his panel-to-panel flow is perfect. There are also a couple of very clever uses of in-set panels to show a specific moment (like a diver dropping into his dive) or to give visual reminders of what’s going on in the narration (such as when he illustrates a sweatshop or an execution in process).

The Killer #1 is one of the best first issues I’ve read this year, a moody and intense character study that serves as gateway to a very intriguing new story.