Have you ever thought about killing people for money? I'm not talking about some macho guy movie stuff, just being an ordinary person who, instead of teaching, selling or working in a factory, kills people to earn his daily bread. A comic book series called "Le Tueur" (The Killer) tells the story of one such person. It's French series consisting of 10 episodes so far written by Matz and drawn by Luc Jacamon. I recently read Croatian translation of first five episodes which we can call "first part" 'cause it concludes the main story.
The main character is a nameless contract killer. He's an ordinary guy, maybe a little withdrawn. His looks aren't what you would expect of a killer, nor are his thoughts. It's a lonely job and the more time he has on his hands the more he thinks and the more complicated his life gets. He thinks of life, death, money, power, fairness and unfairness, surviving the day, love, loneliness, friendship and all the other things which bother you, me and everyone else no matter what our job is. That's why he is nameless. It could be any of us.
The interesting thing about the books is that almost all of the time we're guided through the story by the killer's thoughts. That causes little jumps back and forth along the time-line, which can maybe be confusing for someone but give an accurate reflection of how our thought process works. There is a very small amount of dialogue, which is unusual but functions pretty well here. The story, as can be expected gets more and more complicated. Police, drug cartels, dirty politicians and other prominent figures come and go as the main character tries to quit his job and settle down. It isn't especially new and original but it's interesting and has a right pace. Alternating longer introspective sequences with short action set pieces it gives you enough time to think about it and doesn't get boring doing so.
By far the best side of these books are drawing and coloring by Jacamon. Going through the books you get the feeling the text is almost always redundant and I really don't know a better compliment for the drawing. The way Jacamon draws action scenes is so energetic it makes your heart pound more than any action movie and he doesn't have a problem expressing all kinds of nuanced emotions of the characters too. But the things that I liked the most are framing and lighting of the scenes. The scenes that are framed in the panels and the arrangement of the panels on the page are very cinematic and pull a reader in with ease. And the lighting of the panels... Night, shadows, street lights, sun, headlights, lamps. It's all done so realistically and colored so beautifully I think I've never seen it done better.
So far "Le Tueur": has a good story, is very well written and is fantastically drawn. It has some depth but it displays it openly, it has some action but it mostly consists of one person's thoughts, so it can be interesting to all kinds of readers. I'm waiting for a translation to see how the other five episodes turned out (I'm not so eager to buy it in English) and I'll inform you about it as soon as I lay my hands on them. In the meantime, try to get a hold of this series even if you don't feel like reading it. You don't have to. It's worth just looking at.
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