Locker Loyed, once a deadly sniper, lost his vision—and his job—on a mission gone wrong. Now, he's joined an unlikely circle of former contract killers, each grappling with their own personal collapse. Among them: Gloria Maze, a meticulous assassin whose career imploded after catching her husband cheating and killing the mistress in a jealous rage; Jerry Cole, a justice-obsessed lawyer turned bloodthirsty executioner; and Jordi Joe, a delusional con man who's never actually killed anyone.

As they try to pick up the pieces of their shattered lives, Locker begins to realize his past isn't done with him. A dangerous figure—the one responsible for his blindness and a friend's death—is still at large. And revenge is still on the table.

Unemployed Killers Support Group has a story and art by RIO. English translation is done by Vanessa Liu and lettering by Tom Williams. Published by Titan (April 21, 2026). Rated M.

Erica Friedman
Rating:

There is a special kind of entertainment in seeing terrible people be terrible. In Unemployed Killers Support Group, people end up being terrible, after circumstances sort of put them along that path. Loyed and the other members of the support group didn't mean to become killers, but all of them find themselves very good at doing what they have to do. At the beginning of the story Loyed is losing his eyesight after having been clobbered from behind. Before he has to get out of the business, though, a chance for revenge makes him take some chances. And get a dog.

This story spirals and winds its way through our cast members' lives, circling back over and over to bring these four people into a truly intimate circle of peers, who share their lives, and the deaths they've caused, until the final act plays out like a finely tuned machine that none of them knew they were building.

Predictably, there is a lot of violence in this book, some of it very impersonal, some quite personal indeed. There is a surprising amount of vulnerability, even genuine tenderness. The whole reads more like a European movie than a manga, and would, in fact, make an amazing movie. The art is stylish and noir, as is the book design, which brings me to the only negative point— the lettering. Text is small in very tight word balloons and hard on the eyes. Otherwise, this is a good-looking book.

If you like good stories about occasionally sympathetic people doing morally objectionable things, Unemployed Killers Support Group makes for a good time.

Kevin Cormack
Rating:

Crime fiction, or stories featuring former criminals, is a genre I generally don't enjoy. Why revel in the darkest aspects of human nature, with tales full of murder and other nastiness? My wife enjoys watching the most gruesome crime documentaries and grim police procedural dramas, yet I usually make excuses to leave the room when the details get too graphic. I was, therefore, a little reticent to read this manga about a group of unemployed assassins. I'm thankfully pleased to report that, in this instance at least, moving out of my comfort zone was a good choice. Unemployed Killers Support Group is a really well-constructed and entertaining story.

Ex-sniper Locker Loyed is made redundant from his previous employment due to a head injury-induced retinal detachment, robbing him of his sight. It's hard to pick out targets via scope when you can't see. He's sent to a support group comprised of another three ex-killers, all with their own baggage and personality quirks. While Locker initially struggles to relate to them, over time they gradually become a tight-knit group who help each other out both physically and mentally, sometimes to darkly comic effect.

It's not only a black comedy, but Unemployed Killers Support Group is a tightly-plotted and clever multi-layered narrative, told via a combination of flashbacks and more linear storytelling techniques that gradually fill in gaps in character histories and motivations, building up to an emotionally satisfying conclusion. The art is a little cartoony and simple, but that does provide an amusing disconnect between some of the more brutal aspects of the story and its appearance on the page. Also, one support group attendee (Jerry Cole) is a dead ringer for Breaking Bad's Walter White, and I'm entirely sure that's deliberate.

As a single volume, it's a worthwhile impulse buy for a short, contained, clever story filled with moments of genuinely amusing (if dark) humor, and a surprising amount of pathos. I'd like to read more by this author.