Richard Starks Parker The Outfit HCMedia Release -- IDW Publishing and award-winning creator Darwyn Cooke are pleased to announce that The Outfit, the second of Richard Stark's Parker novels that Cooke is adapting, will be available nationwide in October. Cooke's initial Parker release, The Hunter, has been a critical and popular success, appearing on over 50 "best of the year" lists as well as The New York Times best-seller list, and recently won a prestigious Eisner Award at the 2010 San Diego Comic Con for "Best Adaptation From Another Work."

The Outfit finds Parker riding high after evening the score with those who betrayed him in The Hunter. Disguised with a brand new face, life is good until a squealer turns Parker in to the Outfit for the price they put on his head… and suddenly this coast-to-coast crime syndicate discovers that all their bravado doesn't measure up against one hard man.

"With The Outfit, Darwyn reaffirms that he is one of the preeminent storytellers working in comics today," said IDW Special Projects Editor Scott Dunbier. "To me, editing a book like this is the literary equivalent of catching Sandy Koufax for the 1963 Dodgers."

Said Cooke, "Scott and I hope our readers enjoy this further look into Parker's dark and seductive world. October should be a fun month and we've several plans in the works to mark the release of this baby."

Darwyn Cooke, the Eisner-Award-winning writer and artist of such classics as DC: The New Frontier, Selina's Big Score, and The Spirit, brings to life one of the true classics of crime fiction: Richard Stark's Parker. Stark was a pseudonym used by the revered and multi-award-winning author, Donald Westlake.

The Outfit (160 pages, hardcover, 6" x 9") will be available in stores in October. Diamond order code AUG10 0301. ISBN 978-1-60010-762-7.

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