The Killer (Le Tueur) is a French comic book by writer Matz and artist Luc Jacamon which follows the life of an initially unnamed male contract killing assassin.

Publication history

The series was published in 13 albums by Casterman. It was translated into English and published by Archaia Studios Press, who turned each album into two comic books.

Publications

The French albums from Casterman are: A sequel series (Le Tueur - Affaires d'état) from the same publisher contains the following albums:

Collected editions

Volume One (collects The Killer #1-4: "Long Fire" and "Vicious Cycle", hardcover, 128 pages, September 2007, ISBN 1-932386-44-0) Volume Two (collects The Killer #5-10: "The Debt", "Blood Ties", and "The Killer Instinct", hardcover, 176 pages, March 2010, ISBN 1-932386-56-4) Volume Three (collects: "Modus Vivendi", "Ordinary Mortals" and "The Natural Order Of Things", hardcover, 176 pages, February 2011, ISBN 978-1-936393-03-9) Volume Four (collects: "Unfair Competition", and "Putting Your Heart In It", hardcover, 128 pages, April 2013, ISBN 1-936393-69-7) Volume Five (collects: "One Track Mind", “The Hand That Feeds”, and "Lines of Flight", hardcover, 176 pages, February 2017, ISBN 978-1608867684) Affairs of the State (collects: Affairs of the State #1-6: "Negative treatment", "Short circuit", and "Adjustment variable", hardcover, 176 pages, December 2022, ISBN 978-1684158584)

Awards

The Volume One collected edition won "Best Indy Book" in IGN's Best of 2007. The edition also won "Best Comic You Didn't Read This Year" from Newsarama and was nominated for "Best U.S. Edition of International Material" in the 2008 Eisner Awards.

Film adaptation

Development on the film adaptation began in 2007 at Paramount Pictures and Plan B Entertainment, with David Fincher signed on as director and Alessandro Camon as screenwriter. In 2021, Fincher later moved the project over to Netflix with Andrew Kevin Walker replacing Camon as writer and Michael Fassbender in the lead role. The film began a limited theatrical release on 27 October 2023 via Netflix, before streaming on the platform on 10 November 2023.