Comics Alternative

This week on The Comics Alternative, Andy and Derek review three recent works. They begin with Darwyn Cooke’s Richard Stark’s Parker: Slayground, from IDW Publishing. This is the fourth of Cooke’s comics adaptation of the Parker crime/heist novels from acclaimed writer Donald Westlake (AKA, Richard Stark). The Two Guys compare Slayground to the three other works Cooke has previously released: The Hunter (2009), The Outfit (2010), and The Score (2012). They note that while they like this graphic novel, and find Cooke’s artwork (as always) truly outstanding, they nonetheless feel that the book is a little slim, especially when compared to the earlier works. At the same time, the book also includes a reprint of the 11-page story “The 7eventh,” originally appearing in Richard Stark’s Parker: The Martini Edition (2011). What with IDW’s recent announcement that they’re going to be publishing Westlake’s original Parker novels, illustrated by Darwyn Cooke, and the promise of another Cooke adaptation of one of those n