In 1962 a book was released that took the literary world by storm. It was a small book written under the pseudonym Richard Stark about a cold-blooded thief and tough guy named Parker who was out for revenge against those who had double-crossed him. The book was titled The Hunter and in the forty-seven years since its initial release it has not only continued to gain notoriety but has also been the subject of several interpretations. In 1967 Lee Marvin starred in a film adaptation titled Point Blank and in 1999 a more popular film version titled Payback hit the screens starring Mel Gibson.
As valiant an effort as both of the movies were they failed to capture the essence of the book, the thing that made The Hunter such a wonderful noir tale. Enter writer/artist extraordinaire Darwyn Cooke whose unique gifts allowed him to reinvent the JLA with New Frontier, add fresh perspective to Cat Woman and Batman as well as breathing new life into The Spirit. Cooke has thrown his hat in The Hunter ring by releasing a hardcover Graphic Novel based on the book and for the first time in 47 years somebody has nailed Richard Stark’s (real name Donald Westlake) vision.
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I must admit that I was tense when this book was announced because The Hunter is one of my favorite novels of all time and Darwyn Cooke is one of my favorite artists. When a combination like that hits it can either be a dream come true or a nightmare. I am here to report with great excitement that Darwyn Cooke’s version of The Hunter captures all the hard-boiled elements of the book as well as the essence of it. Cooke nails it on both fronts, writing and art, neither of which is easy.
Writing wise turning something like The Hunter into both words and pictures is hard on the most basic level: Space. While Cooke has lifted the text nearly word for word what he’s done here that’s such a tribute to his talent is to find what was needed to capture the plot and essence of the book.
I’ve read The Hunter several times and while I saw where things had been edited out I never felt that it compromised the integrity of the novel the way the film versions had. It must’ve had the same effect on Stark/Westlake because he allowed Cooke to call the main character by his true name “Parker” for the first time ever. In both film versions the main character had been christened with a new name.
