Westlake/Stark link roundup 5/10/09

Donald Westlake as drawn by Darwyn Cooke

It’s been awhile since I’ve done one of these–let’s see what I’ve accumulated in the past month or so.

Hey Oscar Wilde! It’s clobberin’ time!!! has Darwyn Cooke’s portrait of Donald Westlake (above). (Thanks to Will Kane of World of Kane.)

Things I’d Rather Be Doing has an interview with Charles Ardai of Hard Case Crime. There is some discussion of Westlake, and the whole thing is worth reading. If you’re not reading lots of stuff from Hard Case Crime, you should be!

The Independent Weekly (Australia) has a brief review of the final Parker novel, Dirty Money.

ComiXtreme has a brief interview with Darwyn Cooke that touches on the upcoming Parker comic.

Ed Gorman has a brief review of the 1964 Westlake novel, Pity Him Afterward.

Thoughts About Books has a brief survey of the novels Westlake wrote under the Samuel Holt pseudonym.

The recent passing of Dom DeLuise has caused a few people to bring up his 1979 film Hot Stuff, apparently based on something by Donald Westlake (I have no idea what). Here’s one recollection.

Blogcritics compares Lawrence Block’s character Keller, in his latest novel Hit and Run, to Parker. I love Block, but I haven’t read any of his Keller books yet.

Jim Jarmusch’s latest film, The Limits of Control, is partially inspired by Point Blank:

You were inspired by the movie Point Blank. Why?

I’m a huge fan of Lee Marvin and Angie Dickinson, and it’s one of John Boorman’s strongest films—a masterpiece, I think. It’s based on Donald Westlake’s book—he wrote a series under the name Richard Stark about a character named Parker. And Parker is a criminal who is very, very focused and cannot be distracted. He is samurai-like, in a way.

Here is the trailer for The Limits of Control:

Looks interesting!