Lady Killer Volume 2

Volume 2 of Lady Killer is very much more of the same as Volume 1, but that’s a good thing in my book. Housewife/contract killer Josie Schuller is back trying to juggle a stereotypical 1950s home life (husband, two beautiful little girls, hosting Tupperware parties) with being a murderess for hire. Only now, having broken up with the Organization, she’s freelancing. But this only leads to more stress, and it seems likely that she’ll be taking up with a new syndicate until the re-emergence of an old partner-in-crime, a fellow who turns out to be a Marcel Petiot figure who is very hard to get rid of. I’d say he has a crush on Josie, but it’s not that kinky a comic. Meanwhile, Josie’s cranky mother-in-law is revealed to know even more about Josie than she learned in Seattle.

As with the first book, it’s not an overly complicated plot. It’s more the stunning vintage-style art that makes the sale. I love the way Joëlle Jones recreates this world, as though clipping it out of the pages of fashion and lifestyle magazines of the period, with great use of fabric as a design element. And while Josie’s obviously a sort of feminist icon taking a bloody revenge on various chauvinist types this is an angle that isn’t overly played up.

One nagging question I had right from the opening slaughter had to do with the running gag about how good Josie is at cleaning up the mess she makes when she bludgeons her victims to death with a hammer or whatever likely weapon is at hand. I get the joke (Tupperware really is handy!), but surely the smarter thing to do would be to not make such a mess in the first place. A professional with her amount of experience should have figured that out by now.

Well it’s a great comic and a lot of fun, even if it feels like it’s over too soon. The end would seem to hold out the hope for more to come, but seeing as these comics were first published in 2017 and nothing has happened yet on that front I suspect there may not be a sequel. Then again, maybe the release of a movie based on Josie’s character will create demand for more. It certainly seems as though the story has room to grow.

Graphicalex