Killer II : Affairs of the State

The assassin returns—and this time, the job gets personal.

From Eisner-nominated creators Matz and Luc Jacamon, the legendary French noir series continues with a new chapter that delves even deeper into the cold precision and emotional psychology of its titular hitman.

Now operating out of a secluded cabin in the mountains of the South of France, The Killer has developed a straightforward routine: take the job, complete the mission, disappear. But when an unexpected neighbor with her own dark past suddenly disrupts his carefully managed solitude, it becomes the catalyst for a mission unlike any he's taken before.

After uncovering a sprawling human trafficking operation with international ties, The Killer is forced to confront not only his enemies, but also the limits of a dangerous quality: The potential to care despite his own detachment.

Brutal, elegant, and psychologically razor-sharp, The Killer: Affairs of the State II is a masterclass in striking crime fiction!

Collects The Killer: Affairs of the State #1–6.

In 1998, Matz’s hit series, The Killer, with artist Luc Jacamon, made its comic book debut. It became a bestseller that found its way onto the shelves of bookstores in many countries, all the way to the US with Archaia. It was then optioned by Paramount for a movie that has drawn the interest of director David Fincher (The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo). Matz has also created a new line of comic books, Rivages/Casterman/Noir, which are adaptations of noir novels. But Matz’s day job for the last 15 years has been to write for the video-game industry, as he has been an employee at Ubisoft. Now in charge of the writing department, Matz has been involved with games such as Splinter Cell, Ghost Recon, Rainbow Six, Prince of Persia, and the Assassin’s Creed series.

Luc Jacamon had his first moves in the comics field in 1986. In the following years, he focused on illustration work, however. In October 1998, he published his first album with Casterman publishers. This album, Long Feu, was the first in the series Le Tueur (The Killer), which he created with scriptwriter Matz. This critically acclaimed series, deals with the life and psychology of a hitman, a character different from the stereotypes of detective novels and cinema. After a cycle of five albums, Jacamon and Matz ended their prize-winning series in 2003, and launched the futuristic saga Cyclopes.