2011 Reading #74: The Hunter by Darwyn Cooke
Books 1-10.
Books 11-20.
Books 21-30.
Books 31-40.
Books 41-50.
Books 51-60.
Books 61-70.
71. Bury My Heart at Wounded Knee by Dee Brown.
72. The Lathe of Heaven by Ursula K. Le Guin.
73. Red by Warren Ellis and Cully Hamner.
74. Richard Stark's Parker Book One: The Hunter by Darwyn Cooke. It's weird--I've read a bit of Donald Westlake, but I've never read any of the Parker books. And yet I've seen two of the films based on this, the first of the Parker novels. (The Lee Marvin version, Point Blank, is much, much, MUCH better than the Mel Gibson version, by the way.) And now, a comics adaptation. What's striking here, to me, is how much harder it was for me to get past what a horrible person Parker is in a comic than it is in the films. That likely has at least a little to do with Hollywood making the character a little less awful, but there's also a feeling of claustrophobia here, of being stuck in Parker's head, that is unpleasant without necessarily being a bad thing for the story. Cooke, for those not familiar, is one of the best artists working in comics right now, with a slightly throwback style that gives the reader the impression of being in the hands of someone with a real awareness of the history of the medium. And the look here isn't your typical four-color spreads, it's a wonderfully noir gray scheme, so that everyone and everything has the look of emerging from a shadow. If you can get past the violent and misogynistic content, then there's a lot to admire here, but that may be a pretty big if.
Books 11-20.
Books 21-30.
Books 31-40.
Books 41-50.
Books 51-60.
Books 61-70.
71. Bury My Heart at Wounded Knee by Dee Brown.
72. The Lathe of Heaven by Ursula K. Le Guin.
73. Red by Warren Ellis and Cully Hamner.
74. Richard Stark's Parker Book One: The Hunter by Darwyn Cooke. It's weird--I've read a bit of Donald Westlake, but I've never read any of the Parker books. And yet I've seen two of the films based on this, the first of the Parker novels. (The Lee Marvin version, Point Blank, is much, much, MUCH better than the Mel Gibson version, by the way.) And now, a comics adaptation. What's striking here, to me, is how much harder it was for me to get past what a horrible person Parker is in a comic than it is in the films. That likely has at least a little to do with Hollywood making the character a little less awful, but there's also a feeling of claustrophobia here, of being stuck in Parker's head, that is unpleasant without necessarily being a bad thing for the story. Cooke, for those not familiar, is one of the best artists working in comics right now, with a slightly throwback style that gives the reader the impression of being in the hands of someone with a real awareness of the history of the medium. And the look here isn't your typical four-color spreads, it's a wonderfully noir gray scheme, so that everyone and everything has the look of emerging from a shadow. If you can get past the violent and misogynistic content, then there's a lot to admire here, but that may be a pretty big if.