I sensed an evening with a bowl of ice cream and Josie Schuller, the deadly and gorgeous contract killer, would be fun. I was right. When you think about it, being a 1960s housewife is a perfect smoke screen. The laconic husband (who kind of lacks personality) is wrapped up in his own affairs, not interested enough to actually suspect any of the excuses. I mean, why would a perfect little domestic goddess lie? What motive could she have, when all she ever does is gossip with the neighbors, do grocery shopping, cook, and clean. Not much what's going on between the couple feels genuine, but it's deliberate and makes the contrast of the situation more interesting.

As it emerges at one point in the story, the juxtaposition of being a cold-blooded killer and a wife ready to serve her family a hot dinner with a wide smile might become an issue at some point. Constantly switching between two different personalities can be dangerous, but also take its toll mentally. I'm hoping that aspect will be explored later, because juggling between two worlds might cause Josie, as good as she is, to make mistakes and therefore cause more tension.

And she really is good. Skilled in close combat, relentless, sassy, brutal. She's determined and isn't afraid to get down and dirty, even though a little blood on the dress is irksome. At first, the plot focuses on setting the scene by showing her working with one victim at a time, which might be boring when repeated too much, so fortunately a bigger plot line appears when her boss questions her professionalism. There's the issue of the mother-in-law, too, and I can't wait what happens with that in the next issues. Contrary to some of the complaints, there's actually plenty of material left to be dealt with, and countless of possibilities for plot development. I'm sure the next volume addresses some of the things left unexplained.

The art completes the package. The linework's amazing and I love the color palette, which has a bit of that retro-comic feel to it. It all fits to the sense of fun, and I appreciate that this doesn't try to be a deep satire about the 60s. The lack of an elaborate plot works for its advantage. Like a psychotic Doris Day movie with weapons thrown in the mix.