2000 AD Online Forum

A History Of Violence by John Wagner & Vince Locke.

Hot diggery DAMN! that's good.

I've read it before (borrowed it off W.R.Logan a couple of years ago), but I've just read it again and want to say that it is brilliant.
Although 'hard to find' almost applies to this book, the New & Used section of Amazon has it new & for ?4.50 - so I ordered it.

Read it all in one go late last night - I only meant to quickly read the first few pages as a taster before I got around to reading the whole thing, but I just couldn't put the book down.
Although I didn't immediately like Vince Locke's artwork in the opening 2-3 pages (it has a kind of 'scrappy' or 'done-in-biro' look to it not dis-similar to Eddie Campbell's art in 'From Hell') but I was so totally drawn into the story that I ceased to notice this very quickly - in fact it adds to the grittyness of the piece (again, same thing happened with 'From Hell').

The story flows seamlessly through the three acts constantly building up and up on the drama, the tension, the history and the violence. All the characters are very believable, and the small town atmosphere is captured perfectly.
If there was ever a comic book screaming out to be turned into a film then this is it - fortunate then that David Cronenberg is already on the case (a trip to www.imdb.com shows that Viggo Mortensen has got the lead part of 'Tom Stall' - curiously as it was Tom McKenna in the comic! I wonder why the change? Also, on a side note - I was at school with a Tom McKenna. He was Canadian).

I would advise trying to keep SPOILERS off this thread, if possible people.

Link: Amazon new & used

Been wanting this a while-just bought the one remaining copy on Amazon!

If the artwork is a bit Eddie Campbell,this can only be a good thing in my book...

M.

Yeah, I bought the one remaing copy too! I think it means there's only one supplier in the 'New' market.


This book is straight from the same corner of John Wagner's mind that brought you Button Man.

I bought it through used and new at Amazon a couple of years ago. Came when I was laid up in bed for a couple of weeks with the worst flu I've ever had in my life, and it realy helped to cheer me up and make me feel much better at the time (surprising, given the subject matter).

Seems Amazon's doing well from us posters, at the moment. Also ordered said tome from said online shop-and i can honestly say, it's the best ?4.50 i've ever spent. Can't wait for the movie. I agree with the boarder who made the Button Man comparison- the similarity in style, enhanced my enjoyment even more. Other fans of Button Man should, without hesitation, check out A history of violence.

According to this website the film is released September 30:

Try that again!

http://www.comingsoon.net/films.php?id=6502

I just picked up a copy of this. It's a "soon to be a major motion picture" edition, so possibly that's a new printing.

Anyway, it's damn good isn't it? And pretty grim. As with Button Man it's interesting seeing how damn good Wagner is even when he's not playing the humour or SF angles we know him for most.

Yep, it's been reprinted & is published by Titan in the UK. Does the new edition still have Wagner's introduction? It's a fantastic piece of writing that illustrates quite how good a storyteller Wagner really is, as well as giving some background to the creation of the story, and it would be a shame if it was dropped.

The introduction is intact in mine.

Yeah, a shame there isn't a real market for these sort of books in the UK.

Hey there paul,i hav'nt red this yet is it worth my time? and will i get the proferbial "it"?

It is worth your or anyone else's time.  An intriguing story of violence come to a small town that ends in a tough gruesome thriller.  I couldn't reccomend a book more highly.

I was looking through the Comics2Film website and saw that Cronenburg has distanced himself from the source material

"CS!: Did you read the graphic novel before reading the script or did you try to avoid it while making the movie to get your own look and feel?"

"Cronenberg: No, it was no influence whatsoever. It's only because of the strange circumstances that I didn't really know that the script was based on a graphic novel. It didn't say it on the front page, and I got involved with the project and was working with New Line, then with Josh (Olsen) doing rewrites of the script. Somebody eventually mentioned the graphic novel and I said "What graphic novel?" I have no idea why I wasn't told, but I said I guess I better read it, and I did. It took awhile for them to dig it up, because it was long out of print. I could see that although the basic premise was obviously the same, we had already gone off in a direction with the script, first because Josh had done it on his own and then I worked more that way with him?it went on a completely different direction from the novel to the extent that the novel really had nothing to offer me because it was just so different. That was basically it. I can't really say, in a sense, creatively, that I had the experience of adapting a graphic novel, because it always felt like it was Josh's original script to me. The visual elements of the novel were pretty irrelevant."

Link: Cronenburg on History Of Violence

Cronenberg sounds a bit of an arrogant twat there, doesn't he?

Anyway, spurred on by this thread, I've ordered a copy off amazon.

It sounds like this Josh has a lot to answer for - how could it have got so far with Cronenberg thinking it was Josh's original story??