At one point, I was assigned to write a review of Darwyn Cooke’s latest Richard Stark adaptation, the Outfit. However, after finishing my read of the book, it turned out I was having an incredibly hard time reviewing it. It’s incredibly hard to write a lot about books you absolutely love, because it’s often hard to resist temptation to just write “This book is phenomenal, and you need it.” The book is phenomenal, and you do need it, but why?
For the why, I teamed up with fellow writer David Harper, who has also read the book, to sit down and hammer out some of our favorite moments in the latest Parker book by Cooke from IDW. So without further ado, take a look behind the cut for our thoughts on Parker: the Outfit.
Matthew Meylikhov: Today, David and I sit down to discuss the second book in Darwyn Cook’es adaptation of Richard Stark’s PARKER books! The first book was a huge hit with us, which is know surprise considering how awesome Darwyn Cooke is on a regular basis. Now that the second story is completed and in our respective collections, what are your first and initial reactions to it, David?
David Harper: The Outfit? More like The Outshit, because this book was AWFUL.
MM: Really! You didn’t like it?
DH: Of course I did. I named it my favorite book of the month on both 4 Color AND my Month in Review article. You vex me Matthew, you don’t read my writing?!
MM: You know, I could make a joke here about reading lists, David! But I was simply playing along. I felt it was good for business.
DH: You probably could, but yeah, for all intents and purposes, this is about as good as you can get in terms of comic booking. Exceptional adaptation of an 
original work, exquisite art, varied and innovative artistic layouts, incredible atmosphere, and one of the single best crime protagonists I’ve ever experienced. It’s about as near to comic book perfection as you can get.
MM: Did you like it more or less than the first book?
DH: I liked it more, I think. You? To be fair, I loved both of them. It’s hard to choose between my two hard boiled children.
MM: Not entirely decided to be honest. I mean, you’re right, it’s kind of hard to pick. Hopefully I’ll be more sure of my thoughts after you and I hammer out our thoughts on the second one right now! I loved the book, though. Cooke really has the market on this sort of “revival style” of classic comic books and 1940’s sensibilities. He is literally the only writer and artist I trust with this type of work anymore.
DH: I think part of the reason why I preferred the second book more is because a) I naturally prefer non exposition stories, b) the mood and atmosphere seemed more solidified in this, c) the heist scenes in this book. I can’t even express enough how much I loved the heist scenes. Explaining how exactly The Outfit makes their money and how Parker’s boys would hit them was genius, and the way he depicted them on the page was nothing short of extraordinary. The varied styles made all of those sections POP.
MM: Oh, yes. In fact, that I think was one of the most impressive aspects of the book. Cooke has had always had his recognizable style, but with the Outfit he took an entire chapter to have variations on that that played to a cartoon form of nostalgia you really couldn’t beat. I mean, the whole sequence of briefcases and airplane flights? CLASSIC. I love Cooke’s art regardless, but it was pretty awesome to watch him play around with page layouts and figures for a good chunk of the book. I think the main difference between the first two books, though, is as you said: this is more of a heist story. The first story was the return of Parker, and it was all about revenge. While this story certainly had it’s revenge flair, it wasn’t as streamlined of a story. There wasn’t a straight Point A and Point B here. How did that come out in your reading of the book?
Continued belowDH: Well, I think it was revenge too, but I feel like it worked better to exemplify Parker as a character who with his sheer force of will and using his mind can make nearly anything happen. He’d make a hell of a Green Lantern.
MM: I think making him a Green Lantern would end up about as well as making Thaal Sinstero one did.
DH: You know what I mean! So much will! But yeah, I think just the way the story flowed…it just worked better for me. I voraciously read this book, I literally could not put it down. It was one of the most exciting reads I had of the year, by far.
MM: Oh, definitely… I just wish we got to see Parker get his hands a bit more dirty! Plus, having released a good chunk of the opening chapter before in that oversized $2 comic certainly cut down my reading of the book a bit, considering I already knew that huge chunk of the beginning.
DH: Yeah, but it still was awesome in the flow of the story. I enjoyed The Man With the Getaway Face more in the flow of the story than as a standalone one. And get his hands dirty? He got his hands plenty dirty. I LOVED the way he worked with Fairfax and Karns to take out (other guy whose name escapes me), it was just so incredibly badass. I think my favorite part of Parker is the fact he seems to have such incredible control of every single situation – he’s the puppet master of puppets who aren’t even self-aware. It’s fantastic.
MM: Assuredly… I just like seeing him bust his mitts out and take the violence into his own hands. The story is a very interesting and clever plot interwoven in itself, though. It’s kind of insane how well everything works out for Parker. It’s kind of like the “Joker Bomb Plot” – if even one thing didn’t go exactly how he thought it would, he would’ve never been able to get away with it! I suppose that adds to the list of why this book is great though. In anyone else’s hands BUT Parkers, this plot would never have worked. So with that in mind, seeing as we’ve already doated over the writing plenty, were there any artistic moments that particularly stuck out to you? Aside from the aforementioned heists, of course.
DH: Well, besides the heists, I just thought the way Cooke designed scenes. Things like when he goes in for the big kill with Handy at the end are just so cleverly designed, it’s fun to walk your head through them visually. I imagine Cooke has to map out the scenes before he starts illustrating them, because everything played out so incredibly well from a structural standpoint it astounded me. Some artists get lost in scenes. Cooke has a choke hold on them and makes them do his bidding. It’s a remarkable talent he has.
MM: I love his use of color in the book. The whole book is singularly toned, but it’s a different shade from the previous volume – a darker one. It really helps to emphasize the whole story, I think.
DH: I was going to ask you about that. The coloring is very interesting, and typically I’d think it indicated mood, but I honestly do not know what it indicated. I don’t have the book on me right now, but I do seem to recall the darker shade being present often.
MM: Certainly a huge aspect of that has to do with the fact that the majority of the story happens at night. The book opens at night, it ends at night, so the darker shade of coloring here works. But to me, I think it works on another level – which of course could be me reading a bit into the book beyond what Cooke had in mind (because for all intents and purposes, he could just have preferred this color). When I read it, though, and saw how much darker the book looked now, I took that as part of the transition between stories. Parker has a new face, is certainly older now than before, but when going up against the Outfit it’s just a much more mature story than him simply getting revenge. He has to go above and beyond to take these guys down and arrange a sequence of events to effectively do so, and that involves a much more involved story than the previous one did, where he was just seeking answers. It came off to me that the choice of color, going from lighter in the last book to darker in this one, showed the passage of time between Parker in the two stories.
DH: I like that – I’d say that’s a good call for the coloring. I knew a lot of it was because it took place at night, but the meaning you’re suggesting makes a certain amount of sense. I have to say one other scene I really loved was the opening one with Bett. I can’t wait to see more of her in later books (or at least I assume she’ll be there) as she seems like a good opposite number for Parker. That was an incredible scene to lead with.
MM: I’m not sure if anyone besides Parker will return in the next story, actually. I feel like the story is really more about the world centered around Parker rather than specific characters with him, you know? If she does return, it would certainly make sense.
DH: Well, he himself mentioned her multiple times, and it’s not like we didn’t have characters from the first book in this one. I think it makes sense to have a femme fatale character in the story.
MM: I would love to see Parker go up AGAINST her, to be truthful.
DH: It might happen. Last thing I want to say about the art – I love the way Cooke recreates the era. He does such a phenomenal job making that era come to life, and I can’t even imagine the research he must have put in to make it happen.
MM: Good God yes. If nothing else, Cooke makes me wish I’d been alive then. I would love to go to some of the bars Parker goes to!
DH: To rob them, right?
MM: Of course to rob them. So I suppose as we wrap up, is there anything you DIDN’T like in this book?
DH: Ummm…not really? I can’t really think of anything. Everything from the art to the writing to the packaging is just phenomenal. I guess my biggest disappointment was the fact that the back of the book said the next one doesn’t come out until 2012 right? That sucks.
MM: Yeah, it’s quite a wait. For me, I kind of wish something had been done differently with the Man with the Getaway Face. I almost didn’t buy it when it came out because I assumed it’d be in the book, but how could I resist? When I got to that point in the story, it made more sense… but … I dunno. Felt like we could have had something more there, or something different. Really, I’m just greedy and want more excuses to buy Darwyn Cooke stories.
DH: Agreed entirely.
MM: So – final verdict, David? What does this book get on the David scale?
DH: 9.9. I said that on 4 Color, and I’ll stick to it. It isn’t momentous enough to earn a 10 from me, but it’s about as close as you can get.
MM: Nice! I’m going to be a bit more discerning… only a 9.5 from me. But even so, this is a definite buy for any comic fan out there.
DH: I don’t know if that makes you more discerning, just gives you a different rating. I mean, that means you think this comic was less good than Brave and the Bold #33…which horrifies me a little bit. In fact, I think I vomited on myself. A lot.
MM: You hush your mouth, sir. Now if you’ll excuse me, I’m going to go continue plotting how to take down every other comic website through a series of clever internet heists.
