Richard Stark's Parker: The Outfit

The Eisner-Award winning creator continues adapting Richard Starks world of criminals thugs and grifters with his signature pulp flair in this second installment. A hard-nosed thief Parker is Richard Starks most famous creation and Stark in turn is the most famous pen name of Mystery Writers of America Grand Master Donald E. Westlake. Darwyn Cooke’s beautifully stylized artwork perfectly compliments the hard-hitting action of one of the hardest hard-boiled characters in all of crime fiction.With his old scores settled Parkers living the good life... until a snitch rats him out to the Outfit for the bounty on his head. Now hes no longer living in swank hotels and enjoying the finer things and someone has to pay for that. The Outfits about to learn if you push Parker it better be all the way into the grave.Winner of the 2011 Eisner Award for Best Writer/Artist. Review Cooke renders it all in fine style his minimal blue and black palette shifting from classic pop-arty pulp through squat cartoony figures to faux-reportage the bam and crack of violence sitting alongside intricate plans that show how Parkers scams are enacted. Its fast smart and amoral: a gleefully guilty pleasure. -The GuardianThe Outfit is an example of graphic and sequential storytelling at its very best and Cooke repeatedly displays his mastery of story development through his layouts and visuals. -The Comics Journal About the Author Richard Stark is the most famous pseudonym of world-renowned author Donald Westlake (1933-2008). In 1962 hecreated the master thief Parker and began a series of novels that have been recognized as seminal works of crime fiction. Several of Westlake’s books have been adapted by Hollywood and Westlake’s adaptation of The Grifters earned him an Academy Award nomination for best motion picture screenplay. Westlake has won numerous awards for his fiction and in 1993 the Mystery Writers of America named him a Grand Master the highest honor bestowed by that prestigious society.Darwyn Cooke (1962-2015) was a graphic designer and animator who turned his attention toward cartooning in the late nineties. Known primarily for his work on the DC line of superheroes Cooke always had an affinity for crime fiction and has often cited the Parker books as a great source of creative inspiration. Cooke has won multiple Eisner Harvey and Shuster awards as well as the National Cartoonist Society’s Best Series award. In 2008 Cooke was Emmy-nominated for the animated adaptation of his magnum opusDC: The New Frontier.