The wildly successful “THE HUNTER” adaption by Darwyn Cooke of Donald Westlake, aka Richard Stark’s, work has been bandied about with regularity since the book landed in reviewers hands a couple of months before it debuted at this year’s San Diego Comic-Con International.

    For those not in the know: Parker has been an inspiration to generations of writers with his gritty, violent take on the underworld and its operators. His books have been made into movies, only he insisted on changing the characters names and several story elements. He would let other writers play in the world he created, but never let them use Parker’s name in their tales. Until Now.

    Through a series of meetings with Westlake, the two were able to come to in agreement on the project: The first straight adaptation of Parker in any medium. The result?

    Let’s start with the presentation before you even get the book open. Its smaller than your standard Graphic Novel, and is instead the size of a new Hardcover you might buy at the book store. The cover treatment, again, looks more like that of a novel. Even the first several pages with the indicia and the like have a very non-comic feel. You actually flip through seven pages before ever finding an illustration. Oh, and the paper. It has a nice yellow quality to it which makes the book feel as though it from another time - namely the early nineteen sixties. But overall, it a nice, clean packaging smartly done with the book market in mind.

    Now, onto the story. Our main character is the aforementioned Parker, a selfish, unforgiving, remorseless, yet highly successful underworld operator. I think the only reason one can really find sympathy for Parker is we can see his reasoning for revenge. No matter how many sick, twisted, just plain old evil things he does he still is doing to the people who screwed him over following a successful heist. The story itself moves briskly from chapter to chapter, each nicely building upon the other and shaping a complete story in a larger tale (rumors are Volume II of the series will be ready for New York Comic-Con in October).

    Cooke’s art and storytelling remain fantastic as ever, the blue hued tones adding to the richness of the historical atmosphere. The art, story, and graphic design leap the story off the page - you can almost hear the sounds and taste the smells of New York City in the nineteen sixty-two.

    A great read by a great creator. I was not disappointed in the least. Check out a nineteen-page preview at idwpublishing.com.

    That’s all for now, check out the blog for more reviews and the continuation of “The Unabridged History of Paper Dream Productions.” And remember, feel free to leave a comment below!

Jay