Killing

Character

Killing is a vicious criminal, totally without mercy. Wearing a black and white skeleton costume and a belt with a "D" insignia, he slaughters other criminals unrepentantly, often stealing their already stolen loot. A master of disguise, he crafts masks from a flesh-like substance to imitate his victims. Killing's methods are brutal and sadistic, and the stories often feature him attacking, torturing, and murdering scantily clad women.

He gets support from his lady-love, Dana. Dana is the only person who knows Killing's true identity. His main rival is an inspector named Mercier. Mercier always tries to catch him, but he is unsuccessful every time.

Argentina Illustrated series

The original Italian series was reprinted in Argentina and then later new issues were made using local actors and locales. After that, an illustrated series began appearing in the magazine Skorpio. The series presented the character as more of a vigilante, who murdered criminals in order to serve justice. The series provided an origin story that saw young scientist Claude Darrieux become Killing after a horrid car bombing on his honeymoon that killed his bride Dany and put him into a coma. Claude awoke from his coma with disturbing dreams of a man in a skeleton suit exacting revenge on those who had killed Dany. With the aid of his nurse Dana,and a formula he had invented that allowed him to copy anyone's face, Claude faked his own death and then went on to take his revenge on terrorists who had killed his bride. The series also presented a final tale for the character. Taking place in New York, Killing is now the mysterious vigilante Skorpio. An incident that lead to the death of a young boy caused Killing to leave France and come to New York City, where he donned trench coat, fedora and mask, and began fighting crime. Skropio is reminiscent of Mystery Men such as the Shadow or the Green Hornet. Skorpio also has a secret identity, that of father Flanagan a priest helping the children of one of New York`s roughest neighborhoods.

Notes

Killing was a fotonovela series where the character was portrayed throughout the series without credit by Aldo Agliata.

Names

Known as Killing in the original Italian series, the character was known as Satanik in the french publications (which were being release at the same time as the original Italian issues). The character was called KiLiNK/KiLLiNG in Turkey, where the Italian series was serialised in newspapers and then later made into a film series. In Argentina, where the character appeared in both photo-comics and illustrated comics, he was referred to as Kiling. The English translations of these series use the name SadistiK.