Richard Stark's Parker: The Martini Edition Hardcover – April 8, 2020

This is THE EDITION TO GET. Even if you have the original smaller sized ones, this one is better and will increase your appreciation of the whole project. What I want to emphasize is how many wonderful EXTRAS help push this version over the top of awesome into absolutely essential:1. The design of everything is beautiful, from the slipcase, to the spot illustrations, the typefaces/fonts, even the abstract/modern art designs on the inside covers. Just awesome art and design throughout.2. There is a very insightful interview/conversation between comics journalist Tom Spurgeon, Darwyn Cooke, and fellow graphic novelist Ed Brubaker.3. Many bits of background on the original writer, Donald Westlake, and information and art about previous adaptations of the Parker novels. The book includes cool old cover art from the original paperbacks.4. Lots of extra art from Cooke, like exclusive covers and inserts he did for various promotional editions.5. An example of the original art to see how it looked before being touched up for publication, and some sequential photo showing how Cooke creates a panel, from pencil to pen to ink brush to the monochrome watercolor shading.6. A gallery of Cooke's take on the various films that were based on the Parker novels, with his impressions of them. Very interesting - even as a big film buff I was unaware how many movies were inspired by the Parker books.7. Extra stories: They are collected elsewhere now, but its great to have them big like this. There is "The Man With the Getaway Face" which fits in between the two main stories, plus "The Seventh" which brilliantly adapts a whole novel by basically paring it down to the exciting and fitting finale. There is also an interesting "Parting Shot" excerpt from the Parker novel Butcher's Moon with a full page illustration by Cooke.8. The extra art and commentaries provide TONS of insight into the character of Parker and some interesting stuff about the original writer Donald Westlake. This book and its extras made me a much bigger fan of this project then ever before.If you like crime comics at all, get his. If you like film noir at all get this. If you liked the Sin City graphic novels, I think you'll be surprised just how much Frank Miller was influenced by the Parker novels, both in terms of character and the world they inhabit. Lots of similarities between the stories in this book and the early Sin City stories.

This hudge beautiful book is a tribute to Darwyn Cook. His illustrations tell the story the same as the book does. I met Darwyn at the MegaCon Orlando, and I looked for him each year I went. We would talk, he would draw a little Parker on the inside page and sign it.... wonderful man, kind and personable....I miss him. I have collected a few Darwyn Cook books, all the he Parker books and New Frontier which is totally amazing, if you don't have a copy.... get one.... you'll thank me later. (I have a Blackhawk figurine based on his drawing of that character. He signed the box.)I will sit with this tomb, this tribute to Darwyn Cook and enjoy every page, you will too, so buy it, thank Darwyn and go find comic's and book's he's written and illustrated.

Like many, I hate how damaged some items have arrived when I used Prime free shipping. I’ve been using Amazon since 2003 so I saw how many things have changed. Regarding this book I was concerned about how damaged it would arrive BUT not many stores physically had it in their stores so I bit the bullet. I canceled my Prime and ordered it using their free shipping that is projected to take 5-7 days to arrived. I have done this with two previous hardcover graphic novels as experiments and here we are. Book arrived with the plastic bubble wrapping and no major damage at all. The case looks gorgeous and the inside is just as breathtaking as I anticipated. So my advice to collectors would be to choose the longest waiting period for shipping if you don’t have prime. If you do choose Prime delivery day. I ordered mine on a Sunday and it arrived on Wednesday. My conclusion is choosing the longest shipping period somehow gave the folks time to package it with their plastic bubble wrap and be somewhat careful when transporting it.

The book arrived on time and in great conduction.

This marriage of artist and story is one of the all-time great pairings. Richard Stark’s Parker books are wonderful on their own, but Darwyn Cook’s adaptation and artwork make them sing. The world is lucky to have these graphic novels, and this edition is worthy of that legacy.Prospective buyers should note that the artwork here is not full color, but rather each component novel is rendered in its own monochromatic palette. Stylistically, this works well. But I wanted you to be informed.

RIP Darwyn Cooke. This is a very high quality printing in a very nice hardcover. One of the greatest comics ever made, with beautiful art by the legendary Darwyn Cooke.

This is just a MUST if you are a comic fan... A pice of art from a genius that leaves us too soon.

The book is fantastic! It also includes a brand-new illustrated Alan Grofield short story by Multiple Eisner Award-winning creators Ed Brubaker & Sean Phillips that I thought was quite wonderful and thoughtfully done. This book is most highly recommended!