Parker: The score review

Richard Stark’s Parker: The Score

In Darwyn Cooke’s third masterful adaptation of Richard Stark’s Parker series, we find Parker being enticed into doing a job so crazy, that he can’t say no to. Knocking over the entire mining town of Copper Canyon, in one night. He’s told of the job and how many men would be involved which causes him to scoff at the very idea at first, but rolling it around in his mind causes him to actually say yes to this impossible feat that seemed like a plot to a movie that would never work in real life.

Twelve men crazy enough to help Parker take on this monumental job and keep their wits about them while hiding from the law, yeah, it’s crazy. And you’re glued to this book for the entire time.

Never once do you feel like you’re not in the same room as Parker and his crew. Cooke keeps it close and intimate.

The 13 Eisner Award winner’s art mirrors Parker’s own personality in some ways, he doesn’t say much and when he does, he lets the man’s actions speak for him.

The character of Parker is one that Hollywood just can’t seem to leave alone, Stark’s master thief has been played by many actors over the years, Lee Marvin, Michel Constantin, Jim Brown, Robert Duvall, Peter Coyote, Mel Gibson, and Jason Statham.

But who could blame him? He’s a very complex but simple character that you can’t help but cheer on and hope that he makes it.

All these actors played Parker in spirit but would never allow Parker's name to be used. (until Jason Statham in Parker). Apparently Donald Westlake, (the real name of Richard Stark) was so swayed by Cooke’s adaptation that he gave him his blessing to use the moniker “Parker”.  He went on to adapt the first four books in the series, The Hunter, The Outfit, The Score, and Slayground

 “Strip it all down to essentials and draw the hell out of what’s let.” Alex Toth once said.

And Darwin Cooke’s followed that with an almost monastic Focus. His characters are simple yet elegant, you almost tend to forget how brilliant his artwork is because of the simplicity of it, he knows where to put lines, and curves. Everything is exact and nothing ever seems out of place for one moment.

He knows how to channel his art in that Toth-esque minimalist style in a way that no one has ever tried before. He has a way of delving straight into that vein that Toth started long ago in the ’60s.

And that's what makes this artwork so beautiful and so timeless when you look at it, you don't see art, you see the past, you see exactly what he wants you to see.

Parker is the proto character that other popular writers modeled their protagonists after, he‘s close to Lee Child’s Jack Reacher, in that he’s this big animalistic brute that doesn’t say much. Parker is an unrepentant, thuggish, bastard and yet you can’t help but love him. And just like Stark, you’ll end up liking him for what he won’t tell you about himself.

Cybertronic Spree in concert!

"One good thing about music, when it hits you, you feel no pain." -Bob Marley

I left home with a friend of mine around noon on Friday and started on our trek to Spa-con, nearly 3 hrs away in Hotsprings.

Now, I have problems with anxiety and panic attacks and its hard to go about your day when you are fighting it. It was hard to get in my vehicle and start on the trip.

After a while, my anxiety started to dissolve and I began to relax, then we ran into dark clouds and very heavy rains. The air became almost solid and water as cars were pulling off the road with their hazards flashing, which caused my anxiety to creep back up. But I stuck with it and kept going, and the rain eventually died down to a drizzle.

Further on there was more rain and strong winds and then halfway thru the trip, I thought we missed our exit and had a detour that let us know that our phones stopped working. No phone calls, no texts, no google maps. Which for me was yet another trigger. Having a nonworking phone during bouts of anxiety is a very tough thing.

Luckily, I like to be prepared and I wrote down the directions just in case.

After getting to Hotsprings, I just wanted to know why our phones weren't working and being in a strange new city, you'd normally use your phone's map application or google to find your way around. I was wanting to find a Verizon store to ask them what was going on.

After asking a man at a gas station if he knew what had happened. He explained that the radio said the entire southwest area of the state was out of service with Verizon.

I was relieved to hear some news at least even though it was bad news. Eventually, service came back and I was able to connect with my wife who was in Texas.

I was exhausted and having all kinds of second thoughts about coming today, but again, I persevered and went on.

After we grabbed some fast food, we headed over to the convention center, went in and waited for the concert to start.

They say there's something magical about seeing your favorite band play live. You're not in the comfort of your home or car, but someplace better. You're not listening to a studio recording where everything can come out perfect, but you are in someplace better.
You're in a place where there are people with similar interests, people who've driven hours and hours to see their favorite musicians.

The moment the first song starts mind just cleared up. It was as if the sounds made my thoughts flutter away like a startled flock of birds and strife of the day dissipates.

I've been trying to see The Cybertronic Spree for years now. They have toured in Canada exclusively for a while and then they gradually started touring the upper east area of the USA, which started giving me hope that maybe one day I could finally get to see them.

I tried to save enough money to get up to Retro Con in Philadelphia but was never able to do it. I began to think they'd be a band that I would never be able to experience live.

That is until I heard they were coming down from the great white north, the land that they crashed landed in, and play in my home state. I was shocked and excited beyond belief! I haven't been this psyched about seeing a band in years!

The Spree started their aural onslaught with "The Transformers theme". My mind was still in denial of what was happening before me! The crowd around was feeling it too. I guess videos and pictures do not do this band justice until they are three feet from your face. They have this otherworldly power in grabbing your attention and keeping you connected with them and the rest of the audience. Yes, you were experiencing the concert subjectively, but also, because of them, the crowd also became a kind of hive mind. It was otherworldly.



Next up was the theme of One punch man, which totally caught the crowd off guard which is something this band has a special ability in doing! I could hear people behind me going, "what!!!???"

The familiar chords of the Stan Bush song, Dare was next. I've heard this version countless times and never ceases to give me chills. It seemed the crowd instinctually knew to echo Hot Rod's vocals of  "Keep Going"!

I wasn't prepared to hear them do their cover of Shuki Levy's immortal Thundercats theme. I grinned like a big old idiot thru the song.

I was so very happy about what they played after that. Hammer of the gods, for all you true Zep fans out there, or for the casual listener, The Immigrant Song. Hearing Arcee's howling vocals joined by Unicron's staccato riff is just pure magic! Also? Hearing her Valkerie like voice say, "We are your overlords", brought a boyish smile to my face. I wouldn't mind that at all!

There was a rather cute dance battle between two human girls, but sadly both were deemed, "Innocent" by Quintesson and they were promptly sent off to be torn to shreds by the Sharkticons and were never seen again.

Nothin's gonna stand in our way was just as amazing as hearing it the first time I listened to the soundtrack when I was 12. I just love how this band can pull all these emotions out of me and also rock my face off!

The Pokemon theme song got kids and teens, and adults singing along. And when you can get that from a crowd, you have something special!

The Doom Theme morphed into another Shuki Levy masterpiece which was The power rangers theme song, expertly played by the gang.

The Cybertronic Spree played their first original song Cybertronic Warrior, which I reviewed on this blog when it first came out. (I'm seeing a pattern here.) And it still rocks my socks off! It makes you want to become an Autobot wrecker and destroy some Decepticons!

Unicron's most disliked song, The Touch made famous by Stan Bush and also made famous by Hotrod, er...Rodimus Prime throwing Galvatron out of the planet eater's torso! He must not be that sore about playing it, because he slayed it on the eight-string guitar!

Weird Al Yankovich's Dare to be stupid is always a crowd-pleaser. There were guys beside that were belting out the lyrics almost as loud as Hotrod!

Right after that, they kept up the momentum with the Canadian Band, Spectre General's song, Hunger which Arcee's fantastic pipes were a highlight! She can belt it all the out to the cheap seats!

Encore where they powered down and but could only power back up by our applause. Trust and believe this dude yelled and hooped and hollered!

I must admit during the encore I screamed my throat raw for them to play The Racoons' theme song, Run with us. I even got some of the guys around me to say it too! And yes, I cried when I heard it startup. That songs still has a hold on my heart and was the main reason why I wrote a rather lengthy thank you letter to The Spree that I posted on this blog some years ago.

The last song of the night was Ray Parker Jr's world-famous Ghostbusters theme. Which the crowd ate up and got them all moving and grooving. There was a guy my age next to me, that started the show pretty reserved. Taking random pictures and videos of the band, but by the time the concert was halfway in. This guy was a dancing fool! He didn't care if he was getting eye rolls by Millenials. He was having the time of his life.

On the way home, after seeing them in concert, the experience really quietened down all my inner turmoil of the day. I erased my feelings of the day and left me with a smile on my face that just wouldn't leave!

Even as I write this, I can't stop thinking about how approachable the band was after the show. How at ease they were with their fans. They talked to us all like we were great friends that they haven't seen in awhile, and that's only happened one other time in my 20 plus years of going to concerts.

Thank you Cybertronic Spree. For coming out and giving it full throttle, and showing a small town, the time of their life!

Oh, and also for giving this shy, transformer loving dork, a perma-smile that just might stay on his face for the rest of the year!