Richard Stark’s Parker: The Score by Darwyn Cooke
Posted: January 3, 2013 Filed under: Books, Comic | Tags: Books, Crime Fiction, Darwyn Cooke, Donald E. Westlake, English, Parker, Richard Stark 2 Comments
This yellow colored Parker looked best of them all. And read best. It was the simplest story – just one gigantic hit, not on a bank, not on an armed vehicle – a hit on a whole town, banks, jewelers, company safes, all of it.
Absolutely delightful and absolutely brutal – though not as brutal as it used to be. “You've misjudged me. I don't kill as an easy way out. If I kill, it's because I don't have any choice.”
New book will be out late in 2013. I'll wait.
Richard Stark’s Parker: The Outfit by Darwyn Cooke
Posted: January 3, 2013 Filed under: Books, Comic | Tags: Books, Crime Fiction, Darwyn Cooke, Donald E. Westlake, English, Parker, Richard Stark 1 Comment
Parker from The Hunter is still in rage and waging a full fledged war on the Outfit, a US undercover gambling syndicate stretching coast to coast. More bodies rolling, more action, more fun.
Second novel was much more gripping than the first – at least, to my taste – and much more complex, both narratively and graphically. Never read the original, so hard for me to compare that to the base material. The built-in pages with description of various hits were a gem – but not only they.
I am seriously considering forgoing some sleep tonight and reading the third part The Score in one go. Oh, well, tomorrow is another day.
Richard Stark’s Parker: The Hunter by Darwyn Cooke
Posted: January 2, 2013 Filed under: Books, Comic | Tags: Books, Crime Fiction, Darwyn Cooke, Donald E. Westlake, English, Parker, Richard Stark 2 Comments
I don't remember reading Richard Stark's Parker novels when I was a kid (though I did read a ton of crime fiction at the time) – but I might as well did read some. Nor I knew that Payback movie starring Mel Gibson was based on The Hunter.
A simple enough and quite cruel story of a criminal getting his revenge against a former accomplice who had crossed him – and later, against the crime syndicate that the guy worked for. Gruesome, as the main protagonist is a criminal not to high on morals, so quite a few innocent bystanders die here – not so typical in our Hollywood PG-13 oriented world, it has immediately come to my mind.
Nice art by Darwyn Cooke – Wikipedia claims that the late Donald E. Westlake (the real Richard Stark) supervised The Hunter and was impressed by it. Will read the follow-ups for sure – The Outfit and The Score are out so far. I wonder, how many more issues Mr. Cooke will cook, as Richard Stark wrote 24(!) Parker novels.
The Walking Dead, vol. 103-105 by Robert Kirkman, Charlie Adlard and Cliff Rathburn
Posted: January 1, 2013 Filed under: Books, Comic | Tags: Books, English, Robert Kirkman, Zombie Leave a comment
Intrigued by the increased action and gore in the collected volume 17 of The Walking Dead: Something To Fear (Glenn was literally butchered, for X's sake!), and more and more attracted to digital comic book universe, bought the 3 last issues of monthly installments for Comics app by comiXology. Man, do they look awesome! Nicer than kindle, that's for sure.
Storyline going the way it should've – less zombies, more nasty butchers, hell on earth, huh. Rick is having some hard time big F way. Now waiting for #106 this January. Yeah!
The Underwater Welder by Jeff Lemire
Posted: January 1, 2013 Filed under: Books, Comic | Tags: Books, English, Jeff Lemire 3 Comments
Serenity: Better Days by Joss Whedon, Brett Matthews and Will Conrad
Posted: December 31, 2012 Filed under: Books, Comic | Tags: Books, English, Firefly, Joss Whedon, Science Fiction, Serenity 1 Comment
Better Days, volume 2 of Serenity comic books, was actually much better than volume 1. It actually had a feel of typical Firefly spirit from the TV series, of fun, action, some humor, and a tiny bit of clumsiness.
In a nutshell, I liked it. The rest of the shorter stories, nothing impressive. Oh well.
Serenity: Those Left Behind by Joss Whedon, Brett Matthews and Will Conrad
Posted: December 31, 2012 Filed under: Books, Comic | Tags: Books, English, Firefly, Joss Whedon, Science Fiction, Serenity 2 Comments
Breaking through my block of buying e-comic books for kindle, I've decided to start from the least valuable chewing gum crap, which I won't regret not having in physical paperback or hardcover form on my shelf.
Joss Whedon's Firefly / Serenity comic books are nothing too worthy of attention – still, bought the second volume already. Eh.
30 Days of Night: Dark Days by Steve Niles and Ben Templesmith
Posted: December 28, 2012 Filed under: Books, Comic | Tags: Ben Templemith, Books, English, Steve Niles, Vampire Leave a comment
Good art, poor storytelling. The original 30 Days of Night book was much stronger than this sequel and resulted in a no less scary motion picture.
Nothing to report, folks, really – just 120 pages of vampire driven chewing gum – but again, Ben Templesmith's sloppy, raw drawing style fits it perfectly.
So sad very few decent comic books are available for kindle. Yet. Oh well.
The Walking Dead vol. 17: Something To Fear by Robert Kirkman, Charlie Adlard and Cliff Rathburn
Posted: December 28, 2012 Filed under: Books, Comic | Tags: Books, English, Robert Kirkman, Zombie 1 Comment
Important change for me – after very long deliberation and sixteen volumes on my shelf, I stepped over my collecting craze and bought #17 electronically for kindle (kindle for ipad, that is, of course). Cheaper, faster and the quality of scan was great. Amazon promised panel-by-panel view – but somehow they lied.
While vol. 16 was boring as hell, in vol. 17 (actually, numbers 97-102 of the actual serialized comic) the hardcore action returns. And given these bits were likely created in parallel with Walking Dead: The Game by Telltale Games (which is absolutely fabulous and beats both the comic book AND the TV series combined – something I couldn't have expected) – similar topics appear. Bandits taking 1/2 of the supplies – or killing all. Zombies are nearly out of the picture. As usual, people are worse and scarier. Looking forward to vol. 18 – or should I start buying original 103, 104 volumes etc?
The Hive by Charles Burns
Posted: November 25, 2012 Filed under: Books, Comic | Tags: Books, Charles Burns, English, Tintin on drugs 1 Comment
The Hive is a dark and disturbing continuation of X'ed Out, recently published part 2 of Charles Burns' new trilogy definitely inspired by Hergé's Tintin – but with a Naked Lunch twist.
Given it's a very complex multilayer story (part 1 made no sense on its own, part 2 now start to form patterns of sense), I was left with no option but to re-read X'ed Out again – just to remember what it was about. Timelines cross – reality, imagination, hallucinations, present and past, all intersect and collide – and oh boy, now both X'ed Out and The Hive have become a thrilling read.
My problem – by the time part 3, called Sugar Skull, hits the shelves, I will have forgotten X'ed Out and The Hive entirely, and will have to re-read both again. It looks like a marketing scam, I would say, splitting a 300 page graphic novel into 3 thin installments to sell 3 books $20 a piece and not just one for $25. Oh well, I like it so much now that I couldn't care less. Finally, a great follow up to Burns's renowned Black Hole, well overdue.
nomiresdebajodelacama 