It's Graphic Time: Lady Killer Vol. 1 by Joelle Jones and James S. Rich

Title: Lady Killer Vol #1

Author:  Joelle Jones and James S. Rich
Publisher:  Dark Horse Books
Publishing Date:  September 15th, 2015

Pages: 138
Genre: Dark Humor, Horror

Series:  Lady Killer Vol #1
 

Josie Schuller is a picture-perfect homemaker, wife, and mother—but she’s also a ruthless, efficient killer for hire! A brand-new original comedy series that combines the wholesome imagery of early 1960s domestic bliss with a tightening web of murder, paranoia, and cold-blooded survival.

I am just now starting to really get into graphic novels. This is one that Ash had on her  list for a while that really piqued my interest. In a graphic novel trade moment, I received this one from Ash. I was so very excited to read this but also a little nervous. I am not the best with gore. I finally read it and I loved it. Yes it is a bit more gory than I like but the story was interesting and I totally adored the artwork... minus the gore. 

Josie is an assassin in the late 1950's/early 1960's. She is also a homemaker, a wife, and a mother. She is ruthless and she gets the job done. Lately though, she hasn't been making her bosses very happy. So they put a hit out on her. Josie decides it's not her time and she retaliates. And this pretty much causes a war among assassins. 

So there is so much great about this graphic novel... but also so much wrong.  Great in that I enjoyed the story, the imagery, and the characters. Wrong as in how okay it is for a mother to be a hitman. Funny too though. 

The story is very interesting to me. I mean to think that an assassin is a girl in the 1960's and also that she has a normal life outside the hits. She has a husband and children, a mother in law that lives with her, and neighbors that she parties with...none of which know what her double life is like. I also loved the way the hits went down. It was fun to see what Josie had to do do to be in the right place at the right time, undetected. 

The artwork is wonderful in this graphic novel. It works well with mixing the tone of the dark humor and the decade together to create a crazy story. The feel of the entire thing is just wonderfully done. The colors and the style follow the decade very well. 

I was actually amazed how much I enjoyed this graphic novel... even though I really was hoping I would love it... I was fearful that it would be too much for me. Now it is a lot... it is very dark and gory.. so it may not be for all. But if you like dark humor, gore, and the macabre.... try this one out. 

I really enjoyed everything about this graphic novel... 

Writer/Illustrator: Joëlle Jones is an Eisner nominated artist currently living and working in Los Angeles, CA.
Since attending PNCA in Portland, OR, she has contributed to a wide range of projects and has most recently has worked on Batman for DC comics. She also wrote and drew the series, Lady Killer, published by Dark Horse comics. Jones has also provided the art for fashion designer Prada, and various projects for Marvel, Boom, Vertigo, Oni Press and The New York Times. Joëlle currently has projects with DC comics as well as continuing her Series Lady Killer.

Writer: Rich is an author of both prose (Cut My Hair, I Was Someone Dead, and The Everlasting) and comics (the two-volume series Love the Way You Love; the Spell Checkers series). His third full-length novel, Have You Seen the Horizon Lately?, was released by Oni Press in the summer of 2007. He regularly collaborates with artist Joelle Jones, including the Oni graphic novels 12 Reasons Why I Love Her and You Have Killed Me. Rich most recently wrote It Girl & the Atomics for Image Comics and A Boy and a Girl with artist Natalie Nourigat. He also serialized his fourth novel, Bobby Pins and Mary Janes , online.