Monday, January 5, 2009

Another reason Donald Westlake's loss is so profound



Sure, writer Donald Westlake wrote over 100 novels, both under his real name and under various pseudonyms like Richard Stark, but somehow it still doesn't feel like enough. For anyone who hasn't read any of Westlake's books, and especially his PARKER novels written under the name Richard Stark, hopefully this project coming next summer kickstarts some new interest in his novels. But I wanted to show some new projects for 2009 this week, and in light of Westlake's passing on New Year's Eve, this seems like the best place to start -- the cover to cartoonist Darwyn Cooke's adaptation of the first Parker novel, THE HUNTER. It's being released as a standalone hardcover graphic novel in July, and is just the first Parker book coming from Darwyn.

6 comments:

Unknown said...

Wow Chris... the trade dress is absolutetley Beautiful. You should be very very proud. I also hope this brings new readers to Parker and maybe we'll even see new printings of some of those long out of print novels.

Chris Ryall said...

Thanks--that trade dress is fully courtesy of Darwyn, who's as good a designer as he is an artist. This thing's gonna be a beaut.

BobbyNash said...

Beautiful cover.

Anonymous said...

yeah,awesome design to go with the art,
I was shocked to hear of Donald's passing,
he was a fantastic writer,
only went by his website a few months ago,
may he be in a better place,

peace.

Anonymous said...

Will there be a softcover version at some point.

Gary Fitzgerald said...

crap, this is the first I've heard (read) of his passing...I have about 10 of the parker novels and was very envious when it was announced that Darwyn would be adapting some...

crap... sad now...