Exclusive: Valiant's 'Killers' Revealed

Towards the conclusion of 2018, comic book readers were guaranteed a significant breakthrough from Valiant Entertainment. More specifically, they were promised a line-up of four, boundary-shattering new series to propel the Valiant Universe into a bold new era. That line-up included the critically-acclaimed The Life And Death of Toyo Harada (JAN192176), the hotly-anticipated Punk Mambo (FEB192041), and the recently revealed (and gorgeous looking) Fallen World (MAR192062). Appropriately enough, that leaves B. Clay Moore and Fernando Dagnino's Killers shrouded in mystery. No longer! Valiant and series editor Karl Bollers are giving PREVIEWsworld an advanced preview of this superspy thrill ride, featuring some of the deadliest characters in the Valiant Universe. All character designs below are by AJ Jothikumar.

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PREVIEWSworld: This is clearly spinning out of Ninja-K, but how did KILLERS come about?

Karl Bollers: KILLERS came about as a direct result of the premise of Valiant Entertainment’s NINJA-K series—“Ninjak” is and has always been a misnomer. Agent Colin King’s call sign designation within MI6’s Ninja Programme is letter K—as in, he is Ninja-K. His predecessors within the Programme were Ninjas A-J, whom we saw brief glimpses of within that series. The premise of British Intelligence having a Ninja operative for every decade dating back to World War I was so strong and the idea of seeing what became of these predecessors was so compelling, we really thought it would be great to further explore them and this side of our Universe.

PREVIEWSworld: What made B. Clay Moore the ideal writer for this story?

Karl Bollers: Clay’s pitch for KILLERS was, well, pretty damned killer! But seriously, it felt like it had the potential to be a lot of fun. Not fun in a comedic way, but fun in a kinetic, fast-paced way. He proposed a simple type of story with a clean structure that could allow a reader to easily get into it without having any prior knowledge of Ninjak or the Valiant Universe. He’s crafted a tale that serves as a great entry point for new and casual readers.

PREVIEWSworld: Let’s talk a bit about Ninja-G. Who is she? What made her the character to follow throughout this wild ride?

Karl Bollers: Ninja-G was MI6’s Ninja operative during the 1970s, but she’s been retired and out of the game for over 30 years. She really hasn’t been a part of the world of ninjas, killers, and spies for some time. So, in a way, she’s the perfect “gateway” character for readers unfamiliar with that side of the Valiant Universe. As G is reintroduced to it all, readers can join her for the ride.

PREVIEWSworld: What is it with assassins? They can never just retire. Are you having fun with some of the tropes of this action sub-genre?

Karl Bollers: The thing with assassins is that they can never really retire in peace. Not the interesting ones, anyway. It’s a karma thing! Don’t hate the slayer! Hate the game! actually, we’re having a great deal of fun with this series, playing with established tropes, subverting them, but our main concern is creating a fun, well-told, entertaining story where we can introduce an audience to a brand-new cast of colorful characters who are just waiting to break out.

PREVIEWSworld: What about the rest of the cast? Can we look forward to an alphabet soup of assassins here?

Karl Bollers: It’s actually more of a bouillabaisse...no, a gazpacho...wait a sec! I take that back. It’s a goulash for sure. But seriously, this series will focus on five former Ninja Programme operatives, but these five share one unique commonality and that’s what makes this story so personal to them. What is it? Well, we don’t want to give it all away in this interview, do we?

PREVIEWSworld: Can we expect to see the events of KILLERS circle back to Ninja-K?

Karl Bollers: The events of KILLERS can circle back to a future NINJAK series and, by the time it’s wrapped, we’re hoping that’s what audiences will be begging for. We’ve got a great new colorful cast of characters here with their motivations and skills, so it would be cool to see them round out the more spy-based, street-level side of the Valiant Universe.

PREVIEWSworld: Who would you say the prime audience is for this series?

Karl Bollers: The prime audience for KILLERS is people who are looking for something different and unexpected. Based on the character designs, you can tell we’re really trying to make audiences think about ninjas in a completely different way. A fun, dynamic way that doesn’t seem dated.

Killers #1 from Valiant is in comic shops July 2019.

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