All throughout April and May, we’re crowdsourcing a coronavirus quarantine comics reading list. Each weekday, we post a new recommendation from someone in the comics industry to help folks get through the isolation. This includes writers, artists, letterers, editors, comics journalists, publicists, and more…often paired with a local shop that’s currently selling the books via mail order.

Today’s pick comes from writer Van Jensen…enjoy!

Among the tonnage of graphic novels in my writing shed, there are a great many I read and reference regularly, but a scant few that I would term comfort reading. They're the ones I'll pull out if I'm under the weather and need a fun distraction, or that I'll turn to when I simply need some perfect comics to rekindle my love for the medium. Books that are immaculate and beautiful and fun as hell.

Atop that pile are the four Parker graphic novel adaptations from Darwyn Cooke: The Hunter, The Outfit, The Score, and Slayground. Darwyn took the precisely crafted crime tales of Richard Stark and owned them, transforming the prose into some of the very best comic pages that have been drawn. The art is spare, with never one line more than what is needed, and a controlled color palette to direct the eye through the action.

There are places where Darwyn had to take something very textual and find a way to make it visual, and he does it with an elegance I tried but failed to emulate in adapting Ian Fleming's James Bond novels. Beyond the pure craft to appreciate, these are intense, driving stories that grip you on page one and never let go. I wish there were more of them to read, but I feel lucky to even have these four to read and read again. -Van Jensen

Van Jensen is the writer of Two Dead, a crime graphic novel, as well as the James Bond adaptations from Dynamite Comics. He has also written The Flash and Green Lantern Corps, among other titles.

The Hunter; The Outfit; The Score; and Slayground
Writer: Richard Starks
Artist: Darwyn Cooke
Publisher: IDW Publishing
The groundbreaking Parker books are adapted for the first time as a series of graphic novels by legendary artist Darwyn Cooke introducing readers to the dangerous anti-hero's cold and calculated world of criminals, thugs, and grifters.

Support Local Comic Shops: Located on High Street (heh) in Columbus, Ohio, Laughing Ogre is taking orders for comics via email. Check out their Facebook page here.

Or, to find a local comic shop near you, check out his directory from the Comics Industry Collective of stores open and doing mail order!

Click here for the full coronavirus reading list!