COVER STORY: Richard Stark’s Parker: The Score
What makes the best comic book covers? It’s a great topic for debate. For us as individuals there is no wrong answer, of course. It’s purely subjective. But with a little thought it is frequently possible to explain what it is about a particular image that grabs you. The best ones are the ones that make you stop and check out something you weren’t previously going to purchase – and in some cases, you even end up picking up a title you’ve never even heard of before.
No matter what the character, no matter who the creator, it’s always a risk for the publisher to go without a logo on the cover of a comic book or graphic novel. Sometimes, though, that gamble pays off.
The convention edition of Richard Stark’s Parker: The Score created for Comic-Con International: San Diego in 2012, limited to 175 copies, was one such successful roll of the dice for IDW Publishing, editor Scott Dunbier, and writer-artist-adapter Darwyn Cooke.
Cooke’s work in four Parker graphic novels and some shorter pieces to date has provided a huge volume of austere-yet-dynamic images that capture the spirit of the main character, a blunt instrument possessed of grim determination and his own code of conduct. The books thus far have been produced with spot color, which combines black and white line art with a single color (different in each case) for effect.
Many of the images have been downright iconic, so it’s almost counterintuitive that none of those iconic pieces have been seen on the covers, all of which have been very good but none of which have been showstoppers.
Except the convention edition of The Score sold at San Diego in 2012. With no logo on the front, no trade dress of any sort, no author’s byline, just a simple type “san diego score” on the back cover, it still manages to scream “Darwyn Cooke!” “Parker!” and “You must buy this right now!” to fans of the series.
IDW Publishing had no problem selling out the 175 copies, all of which were signed by Cooke. He also hand colored the signature page on the spot.
Richard Stark was a pseudonym for the prolific, late author Donald Westlake.
– J.C. Vaughn
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COVER STORY: Richard Stark’s Parker: The Score
What makes the best comic book covers? It’s a great topic for debate. For us as individuals there is no wrong answer, of course. It’s purely subjective. But with a little thought it is frequently possible to explain what it is about a particular image that grabs you. The best ones are the ones that make you stop and check out something you weren’t previously going to purchase – and in some cases, you even end up picking up a title you’ve never even heard of before.
No matter what the character, no matter who the creator, it’s always a risk for the publisher to go without a logo on the cover of a comic book or graphic novel. Sometimes, though, that gamble pays off.
The convention edition of Richard Stark’s Parker: The Score created for Comic-Con International: San Diego in 2012, limited to 175 copies, was one such successful roll of the dice for IDW Publishing, editor Scott Dunbier, and writer-artist-adapter Darwyn Cooke.
Cooke’s work in four Parker graphic novels and some shorter pieces to date has provided a huge volume of austere-yet-dynamic images that capture the spirit of the main character, a blunt instrument possessed of grim determination and his own code of conduct. The books thus far have been produced with spot color, which combines black and white line art with a single color (different in each case) for effect.
Many of the images have been downright iconic, so it’s almost counterintuitive that none of those iconic pieces have been seen on the covers, all of which have been very good but none of which have been showstoppers.
Except the convention edition of The Score sold at San Diego in 2012. With no logo on the front, no trade dress of any sort, no author’s byline, just a simple type “san diego score” on the back cover, it still manages to scream “Darwyn Cooke!” “Parker!” and “You must buy this right now!” to fans of the series.
IDW Publishing had no problem selling out the 175 copies, all of which were signed by Cooke. He also hand colored the signature page on the spot.
Richard Stark was a pseudonym for the prolific, late author Donald Westlake.
– J.C. Vaughn
Popular Topics
Overstreet Access Quick Links
