Darwyn Cooke to adapt "Parker" novels.
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"The funnies call it the syndicate. The goons and hustlers call it the Outfit. You call it the Organization... But I don't care if you call yourselves the Red Cross, you owe me forty-five thousand dollars and you'll pay me back whether you like it or not."



My favourite current graphic novelist Darwyn Cooke is adapting the first four of Richard Stark's (aka Donald E. Westlake) Parker novels for IDW; 'The Hunter' (aka 'Point Blank'), 'The Man with the Getaway Face' (aka 'The Steel Hit'), 'The Outfit', and 'The Mourner'.

I love Westlake's novels (I'm reading 'The Hot Rock' at the moment) and the movies based upon them, especially 'Point Blank' (one of the most visually dazzling movies ever), 'The Outfit' and 'The Split' (based on the novel "The Seventh").
One of the movies, 'Slayground', was even filmed in my home town!


I attended a screening of 'Point Blank' a few years ago where Westlake and director John Boorman gave a talk afterwards (the first time they'd ever met!).
I kicked myself later for not handing Westlake a copy of 'Selina's Big Score', Cooke's tribute to Stark's Parker novels (there's even a character called "Stark" in the story, modelled after Lee Marvin), but it sounds like Cooke was already in contact with Westlake at the time.

Coming from a background in graphic design, advertising and animation Cooke has enjoyed much commercial and critical success in recent years as a graphic novelist of note.
With a reputation as one of the comic industry's biggest characters; his particular brand of two-fisted, hard-drinkin', meat-eatin', cigar-chomping masculinity (but without the rabid right wing political views that usually run concurrent with that persona) has endeared him to his many fans.
Living everyday like it's 1963 can have it's drawbacks though; I once witnessed Cooke order a "Cuppa Joe" at a diner, only for the waitress to return with a mug of yoghurt.

His seemingly straightforward tales of heroic daring-do often cloak a satirical swipe at todays' more cynical, neurotic, narcissistic society and are often arguments on the very nature and meaning of heroism.
In his 50s/60s-set series 'DC: New Frontier', (a kind of The Right Stuff-with-Superheroes) Cooke harked back to a, if not more innocent then, certainly more naive time where heroism was assumed to involve some degree of selflessness. While admitting to that period's obvious faults (Racism not the least of them) it was a progressive and optimistic period compared to today where the aspirational is more likely to be valued over the inspirational.

An animated adaptation of DC:New Frontier, overseen by Cooke, was recently been released on DVD. Fatally compromised by it's absurdly truncated running time, it is nonetheless well worth a look, if only for it's terrific Saul Bass-inspired opening title sequence.