Richard Stark’s Parker Series by Darwyn Cooke
My rating: 5 of 5 stars
“Please…they’ll kill me.”
“I’ll kill you…worry about me.”
A long time ago Donald Westlake (aka Richard Stark) imagined an imposing figure with large hands storming over the bridge into New York. Who was he? Why was he so pissed off? Who was he intending to kill? And so was born Parker.
Fast forward past 24 novels, 8 film adaptations, and countless impersonators and homages, and we come to this graphic novel series by Darwyn Cooke. I’m not a fan of most of the film adaptations of the Parker novels as they don’t seem to understand the material – although Payback – Straight up: The Director’s Cut was pretty close to getting it right. But Cooke did understand the material.
This series didn’t just adapt the novels to the graphic novel format, it improved upon them. The artwork especially captured the grit of the original stories. This was done without compromising on the story, remaining very faithful to the originals.
I have previously read The Hunter, The Outfit, and Slayground, and managed to get my hands on an Omnibus edition to read The Score and re-read the others. It was a treat. At the end of Slayground is a short adaptation of The Seventh, a novella I have previously read. Cooke managed to capture much of the story with just a few panels on a handful of pages. I think this short work is emblematic of the skilful artwork and storytelling Cooke has brought to these adaptations.
Unfortunately both Cooke and Westlake are not longer with us. Just as there will be no more Parker novels, there will be no more graphic novel adaptations by Cooke. It is a pity.
Tyson Adams 
Did you disable likes on this review? Or is chrome acting up on me again?
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I love likes. So must be Chrome.
Mine was being a memory hog last night, so could be an updates thing.
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Ok, something is weird. I’m in firefox now and I can’t see a like button here either, OR on your comment. Gahhh, that means I have to go check out Edge 😦
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And Edge isn’t showing a “like” button either. It shows all the social buttons, but not a like one. Sigh
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Back on WP here.
Anyway, I can see the “like” option in my feed, so I know it’s there now. I just can’t see it when I come to your page. On an browser. I might try from work tomorrow to see if it’s my computer. Crap, I hope not…
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I can see the like and reblog button on your previous post, but they disappear when I come here. So it’s this page/post.
Can you see the like button?
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Hmm, I’m just looking now and seeing the same thing. I didn’t change my settings but they seem to have changed when I updated my sharing connections.
Super thanks for pointing out the change!! I probably wouldn’t have noticed for quite some time.
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