Review by Booklist Review
The cold-blooded professional thief Parker, created by Donald Westlake under his Richard Stark pseudonym, is translated to comics by a creator acclaimed for his reinterpretation of DC superheroes (see DC: The New Frontier: The Absolute Edition, 2006). Cooke's adaptation of the first novel in the long-running series hews more closely to the original than its two film adaptations, plotwise escaping from prison, Parker seeks vengeance on the partner-in-crime who betrayed him after a heist and the wife who shot him and left him for dead and in its gritty, deglamorized approach. Cooke uses effectively large chunks of Westlake's third-person narrative and blunt dialogue, but several near-wordless sequences demonstrate how pure comics can render this sort of material. Although his cartoony style may strike some as unsuited to Parker's milieu, Cooke's visual economy and mastery of atmosphere, not to mention his obvious affinity for Westlake's work, prove otherwise. This first of a planned four Parker adaptations is gratifying enough to draw Cooke's fans to Westlake's celebrated character, and curious mystery lovers to graphic novels.--Flagg, Gordon Copyright 2009 Booklist
From Booklist, Copyright (c) American Library Association. Used with permission.
Review by Publisher's Weekly Review
Cooke has transformed the first volume of the late Donald Westlake's long-running Parker series (written under the pseudonym Richard Stark), about an indomitable outlaw, into a smashing graphic novel, making its ferocious mood and retro aesthetics the stars of the show. Parker belongs to the bottom of the urban jungle's economic strata, but the top of its food chain-anyone who stands between him and his revenge is doomed, whether they're trying to resist him or just happen to be in the way. As the book begins, he's returning to New York City in the Kennedy era with murder in his eyes: double-crossed by his wife and partners, he's come back to kill whoever needs killing to get his money. Cooke has a real affinity for the tough-as-hammers tone of Westlake's story. His Parker doesn't seem to enjoy or dislike slaughter (or anything else); he's just doing what it takes to reach his goal, with a certain dispassionate savoir faire. And Cooke's delicious two-color artwork nails the look of the early '60s, from hairstyles and tiki bars to the illustrative technique that defined the era everywhere except for comics: angular caricatures that capture his characters' motion and expressions with a bare minimum of elegantly rugged lines. (July) (c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved
(c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved
Review by Kirkus Book Review
Graphic-novel version of dark 1950s crime fiction. Donald E. Westlake, who died last year, was known mainly for his humorous caper tales, but he also wroteunder the pseudonym Richard Starka famous hard-boiled series featuring a stoic and brutal professional thief named Parker. The Hunter (1952) was the first of these; it had Parker exacting revenge on fellow thieves who betrayed him and was made into two films, Point Blank (1967) and Payback (1999). Canadian comic-book writer and artist Cooke (The Spirit, Vol. 2, 2008, etc.) has stylishly adapted it here as the first in a projected series of Parker graphic novels. Cooke has kept the story in its '50s setting, and his retro-flavored illustration style brilliantly fits this material. But his obvious reverence for the source at times works against him; one flashback section is so text-heavy as to nearly crowd out the illustrations. However, when Cooke frees himself from wordsas in the opening pages, which have little text or dialoguehis work truly shines. Fans of the noirest noir, such as Frank Miller's Sin City series, will find a lot to like in this well-executed adaptation. Copyright Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.
Copyright (c) Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.
