Meet Eli, The Jewish Hitman, the Star of a New Graphic Novel

LOS ANGELES, May 5, 2015 /PRNewswire/ -- Film and literature are filled with lovable hitmen.  Who can forget the almost childlike title character in Leon: The Professional?  Or the hilarious Vincent Vega and Jules Winnfield of Pulp Fiction?  In George V. Higgins' novel, Cogan's Trade, turned into the movie Killing Them Softly in 2012, compassionate hitman Jackie Cogan prefers shooting his victims without warning, so they don't experience fear. 

Now meet Eli Katz, the Jewish hitman who earns his living wiping out the dregs of society.  While Leon received his assignments from a Mafia boss who did business out of an Italian restaurant, Eli gets his hits from—who else?—The Rabbi, who holds court in the back of a luncheonette.

The Rabbi presents Eli with plain brown envelopes, inside of which are reasons why an often anonymous party would like to have someone rubbed out.  The targets include rapists, pedophiles and drug dealers, to name a few. 

"I only kill in self-defense," Eli says, "and I don't use weapons. I'm not the cold-blooded type who enjoys taking people out with guns, knives and car bombs. "

What Eli does have is a mastery of Krav Maga, the style of hand-to-hand combat used by the Israeli Army.  He also has an incredibly foul mouth and the ability to goad his targets into attacking him.

"That's when it becomes personal," Eli explains to his newfound girlfriend Robin, a psychiatrist who, perhaps against her better judgment, falls in love with him.

Complications arise when Eli's lovelife collides with a particularly risky assignment that takes him to Australia, where a Ponzi-scheming mastermind has been hiding from authorities.     

Eli is the brainchild of Adrian Fuller, a financial adviser from South Africa who worked for Goldman Sachs in London before moving back to his homeland.  An admirer of directors Quentin Tarantino and Martin Scorsese, he said, "I love gritty gangster movies with funny, fast-paced dialogue."  Fuller is also a martial artist with a third degree black belt.

The art in the Eli graphic novel is by rising star Will Ripamonti, who lives in the Italian region of Lombardy and counts Max Bertolini (Nathan Never) and Mike Mignola (Hellboy) among his influences.

More about Eli can be found at www.eligraphicnovel.com.  The 164-page Eli graphic novel is available for download at amazon.com.

Photo - http://photos.prnewswire.com/prnh/20150429/212796

SOURCE Storyboard Graphic Novels