Monday, 25 July 2016

PARKER...WELL DONE (AND YOU TOO, DARWYN)...


Images copyright IDW PUBLISHING

Something I discovered only recently is this series of books by RICHARD STARK (pseudonym of author DONALD E. WESTLAKE) and artist DARWYN COOKE, the latter having adapted and illustrated the former's novels about hard-as-nails master thief PARKER - not to be confused with LADY PENELOPE's chauffeur.

Graphic novels in the truest sense, Darwyn Cooke was initially contracted to adapt four books, which was then extended to five, but, alas, the fifth one never happened.  The four he did do though, are riveting reading, and I'm looking forward to starting the original novel of The HUNTER, for which he provided full-colour illustrations.  IDW intended that he'd illustrate all 16 Parker books, but disappointing sales of the first put paid to further editions.

Available from all good book shops, why not add them to your Darwyn Cooke collection today?








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4 comments:

  1. Graham25 July 2016 at 23:06

    I've read The Hunter and The Outfit and really enjoyed both of them. I wish he'd gotten to do them all.

    ReplyDelete
  2. Kid25 July 2016 at 23:43

    Yeah, G, that would've been some set to have in one's own personal library, eh?

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  3. Colin Brown26 July 2016 at 11:52

    Hi Kid
    Just to clarify, Darwyn never intended to adapt all 16 original Parker books. The contract was originally only for 4, but was extended. The next one was to be Butchers Moon which was the last of the 16 and would have been epic, being the longest and one of the best of the series. Westlake returned to the character decades later for another series of 8 before passing away. There are also 4 books about the Grofield character.
    You're right about the intention to release illustrated editions of the whole original series but the first one made a loss and they stopped. The first two graphic novels were packaged into a big beautiful slipcased edition with tons of extras called Parker The Martini Edition and I would recommend that to anyone interested in collecting Darwyn's work.

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  4. Kid26 July 2016 at 12:13

    Ah, right, CB. I must've mixed up the intention for the hardback novels with the plan for the graphic novels as well. I'll amend the text. Ta much.

    ReplyDelete

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