Richard Stark's Parker #2

The Outfit that fits, this book is really good.  You do not need to read The Hunter (my review for The Hunter can be read HERE) to jump into this book, which is nice. The Hunter is considered "book 1" and the origin story of Parker.  The Outfit is a later crime story of Parker bring a crime organization down to its knees. While waiting for the Outfit to be released IDW released an over-sized comic novella of "The Man in the Getaway face" (my review for that preview can be found HERE), which was also in a sandy brown coloring instead of the blue that used in this book.  The Man in the Getaway face was suppose to be book two, but only really the plastic surgery is important, so that was adapted as a graphic novella and rolled into as part of The Outfit.  I have to say it runs smoothly and I am glad Darwyn took this approach.

What I enjoy about this book is Darwyn Cooke's storytelling skills.  There is a Prose section which I assume is straight from Richard Stark's book.  There is changes in art style to change the tones of the book.  This books is just great.

Sometimes Darwyn wants to make the a Heist less shocking and he does this by making his art more cartoonish compared to the base of the book.  In the Heist above it gives the reader the feel that stealing is easy for Parker and his band of criminals and that is what it is, it looks like child's play.  Only in comics can art style change how we feel about what we are reading.

As mentioned above, art and presentation changes the tone.  In the Prose section the art is far and few.  Each time we see the art it is better detail then most of the rest of the book. This presents a serious tone, I love the way Darwyn plays with the presentation.  In this Prose section, there is a short story about another Heist.  This is meant for us readers to take Parker seriously now.  Like a well oiled machine Parker and his partner raid the Club Cockatoo with razor sharp precision.

Darwyn is not only about extremes to comic narration, he also up holds the classic silent narration.  Most of my favorite pages in this book have little to no words.  It is the pictures and the language we decipher from it that makes this book so good  The Outfit is not just a good crime story, it is a well constructed graphic novel.    

One word I have yet to use in a Parker review is chiaroscuro.  I love Darwyn's choice to tell this story with a blue, black and white chiaroscuro style. The simplest definition of chiaroscuro is using light in art to add contrast.  Many "noir" crime novels take this contrast approach, since some things will "pop" more then others.  I approve very much on Darwyn's color and contrast choice and think the story works perfectly because of this minimal approach.   
 
I cannot recommend The Parker books enough.  They are some of the best crime fiction out, but they are also great examples of what can be done with the Graphic Novel..
 
Cheers
- Silkcuts