By Joëlle Jones, Jamie S. Rich, Laura Allred & various (Dark Horse)
ISBN: 978-1-61655-757-7 (TPB/Digital edition)
1962 was a strangely portentous and memorable year.
We all nearly died in a Cuban-based mushroom cloud; the United States Supreme Court ruled mandatory prayers in public schools were unconstitutional; The Beatles released their debut single Love Me Do and Vivian Vance became the first person to portray a divorcée on a US TV series (The Lucy Show).
Elsewhere, paragon of femininity and American First Lady Jacqueline Kennedy took television viewers on an intimate tour of the White House.
Way back then in a cosy era of prim, proper and perfectly contented wives and mothers, Josie Schuller is a bit of an oddball – although you’d never know it to look at her. In all ways she certainly looks like she always fitted in…
In a boldly thrusting consumer culture when men wear hats and smoke at work (and everywhere else), proper ladies are pliable, pliant, obedient and admirable deferential “homemakers” whose appearance and conformity are paramount. Sadly, Josie is shamefully keeping a secret from hubby Gene, their two adorable kids and especially her nosy live-in mother-in-law.
The busybody biddy has her suspicions though: a strange man is always hanging around, trying to talk to Josie when no one’s looking, and Mother Schuller suspects the shameful worst…
Her nasty mind might be relieved to know that her daughter-by-marriage is not cheating on her beloved boy, but merely indulging in a little freelance work on the side… although of course, even that would reflect badly on the breadwinner and Man of the House.
No, it’s not illicit sex that’s endangering this perfect union. Our deceitful little minx is just a covert assassin and really, really good at her job…
Unfortunately, Josie wants to leave the business, but her increasingly obnoxious handler Peck and his boss Stenholm keep piling on the pressure: forcing Josie to take on more and more contracts, with no regard to the happy home-life she wants to preserve.
Eventually, the devotedly domestic death-dealer decides that her dreams mean nothing to her employers and – after she’s despatched to dispatch another lady similarly seeking to quit the lethal game – Josie realises that if she ever gets to retire, she’s going to have to remove the organisation that owns her…
Devised and illustrated by Joëlle Jones (Catwoman, Wonder Girl, Mr. Higgins Come Home, Supergirl: Being Super, Fables), scripted by Jamie S. Rich (Ares & Aphrodite, Cut My Hair, Archer Coe and the Way to Dusty Death, It Girl and the Atomics, Justice League: Endless Winter) and coloured by Laura Allred, this wickedly witty satirical blow for femininity and feminism collects issues #1-5 of Lady Killer from January-May 2015.
By mischievously mauling the virginal, compliant stereotypes handed down to us from the heydays of Doris Day, Leave it to Beaver and Ozzie and Harriet – by way of Mad Men and Bullet Train – the creators have crafted a fast-paced high-octane period thriller which is a true joy to behold.
Bedded in with a wealth of additional material including an Introduction from crime-writer Chelsea Cain, roughs, working studies, faux contemporary ads, cover-&-variants gallery and commentary from the creators in a stylish Sketchbook section, this taut, timeless and tantalising thriller is packed with pots of action and swathes of suspense delivered with electric Élan and perilous panache to delight every reader who loves their comedy black and their body-counts high.
Read this quietly and make no fuss, and if you’re all good boy and girls and others, I’ll let you in on the shocking sequels…
Lady Killer ™ & © 2015 by Joëlle Jones and Jamie S. Rich. All rights reserved.