Mixed Pickles - the Book log 2012

Classic crime, memorably portrayed.

 Stark is the pen-name crime writer Donald Westlake used for his darkest creation, the anti-hero Parker.  You might remember Parker from Lee Marvin's portrayal in the '60s classic Point Blank, based on The Hunter (or, perhaps, from Mel Gibson's 1990s Payback - if so, bad luck).

Darwyn Cooke has adapted the first Parker story into graphic novel format in  a lovely, loose, cartoony duo-chrome pen-and-wash style reminiscent of early 60's advertising.  But the world being sold here is no consumer dream, rather a tale of a falling out between thieves, betrayal, and implacable revenge.  Cooke maintains a  feeling of tension by regularly changing the rhythm of the story-telling - wordless action sequences alternating with crisp, noir-style dialogue, lengthy internal monologues, and single establishing shots.

To be sure, he has top-notch material to work with, but the skill he shows in creating the early sixties ambience, in keeping the reader turning the pag, and in conveying the emotional existences of the cast proves him a master of the sequntial-art story form.  I'm off to search out the next volume.

Unputdownability: I know what's going to happen, but I want to see it now!