By Bruno Savill De Jong — After completing a job, Parker undergoes an overwhelming need for sex. Parker (first name not provided) is always composed and monosyllabic, treating his criminal missions with ruthless efficiency and professional determinism, stonewalling against outside interference or desires. But in the aftermath, Parker allows “his emotions the only release he permitted them”, letting the withheld thrills and animalism wash over him, until his lust subsides and he’s ready to resume work. Buried beneath Parker’s ice-cold demeanor and the narration’s straight-plank prose lies a demented rot at his core. Likewise, while creator Darwyn Cooke keeps his bold and elegant art-deco outlines from DC: The New Frontier in this book, these brushstrokes have greater cracks and grit in them. Rather than Dave Stewart’s vibrant colors, Parker: The Martini Edition is tinged with watercolors and heavy noir shadows. Cooke’s artwork is too refined to be messy, but Parker is imbued with a sense of unpolished energy and intimate craftsmanship, where all the stages of creation were done with Cooke’s own two hands. Just as Parker would want it.

The Martini Edition collects Cooke’s first two adaptations of the crime-thrillers by Richard Stark (aka Donald Westlake), The Hunter and The Outfit, alongside additional materials, which form a complete introduction to Parker. Set in the early 60s, Parker is a professional thief, who after being betrayed and left for dead by his wife Lynn and associate Mal, vows revenge against them. Although the premise seems extremely generic, Parker is differentiated by his relentless and mechanical vengeance. Parker steamrolls across America for compensation, uninterested in compromise or justice. Even anti-heroes like Tony Soprano seemed always on the edge of moral revelation (even if they ultimately backed away), but Parker is so amoral he undergoes no self-reflection on his actions, shrugging off such introspection as superfluous as small-talk. While The Hunter covers Parker's revenge against Mal, The Outfit continues his determinism against the criminal organization Mal was linked with, becoming an unstoppable one-man army against this conglomerate. Despite his amorality, Parker remains a compelling character throughout due to his single-minded endurance, remorselessly chipping away against The Outfit, while his motives are never glorified or disguised as anything other than brutally pure business.

Darwyn Cooke maintains the novels’ ruthless and terse tone with his constantly extraordinary artwork, The Hunter’s extended opening scene not showing dialogue or even Parker’s face. Here, Cooke carefully replicates the rhythm and effects of Stark’s hard-boiled narration without simply regurgitating the words, the densely packed panels reflective of Parker’s distilled workmanlike demeanor. Things expand slightly as the story progresses, with flashbacks often reprint the novels’ narration, and featuring splash-pages that showcase the quiet preparation between action. The Outfit particularly sees greater experimentation from Cooke, since that novel showed the multiple operations of The Outfit and how they are undermined, which are visualized by Cooke in the style of newspaper-strips. The Martini Edition provides ample opportunities for Cooke’s gorgeous artwork, including wonderful spreads of Parker sitting beneath towering Diners and Motels, brought to life through dynamic shadows and beautiful compositions. But the art never overshadows the story, instead harmonizing with it. Cooke is clearly faithful to Stark’s creation, his luscious artwork suitable decoration to the novels’ sturdy architecture.

Cooke discusses his admiration for Stark in one of The Martini Edition’s extra-features, a roundtable discussion between himself, IDW editor Scott Dunbier, friend/crime-writer Ed Brubaker and legendary comics journalist Tom Spurgeon. Tragically, Spurgeon joins Cooke and Stark as those no longer among us, The Martini Edition functioning as a tribute to all of them. They were all professionals at the top of their craft, with Parker being the ultimate (albeit homicidal) professional of them all. As the name implies, The Martini Edition is strong and dry, Parker being brutally amoral and frequently misogynistic. Parker has not been softened up, but taken by Cooke straight from the page, his face “a chipped chunk of concrete, with eyes of flawed onyx”. The Martini Edition is an expertly-made collection of thrilling adaptations, nothing less than solid as a rock.

Parker: The Martini Edition REVIEW

PARKER: THE MARTINI EDITION
Adapted from: Richard Stark
Artist/Colorist/Letterer: Darwyn Cooke
Publisher: IDW Publishing
Price: $99.99
The great Darwyn Cooke adapted four of Richard Stark’s (AKA Donald Westlake) Parker stories as graphic novels, as well as two others in shorter form. This oversized (9 x 13 inches) volume contains the first two, “The Hunter” and “The Outfit,” as well as shorter works of “The Man with the Getaway Face” and “The Seventh.” Besides the four stories, this volume contains copious amounts of illustrations by Darwyn, and a long form discussion on Parker and Donald Westlake, featuring Darwyn, Ed Brubaker (acclaimed writer of Criminal) and noted comics journalist and historian Tom Spurgeon. Tragically, Darwyn died several years ago, but he leaves behind a truly outstanding legacy of great stories and covers, of which Parker is perhaps at the pinnacle and will live on through this edition and others. This book comes in a gorgeous slipcase.
Release Date: April 2020
Buy It Digitally: Parker Books via comiXology

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Bruno Savill De Jong is a recent undergraduate of English and freelance writer on films and comics, living in London. His infrequent comics-blog is Panels are Windows and semi-frequent Twitter is BrunoSavillDeJo.