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51 of 53 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
He can't run, he can't hide; but he CAN fight., September 20, 2005
This review is from: A History of Violence (Paperback)
Looking ever so forward to the David Cronenberg-directed adaptation of _A History of Violence_ to arrive at my local theater, I found it of the utmost exigency to buy the 1997 graphic novel that inspired it. And let me tell you, it does not disappoint one bit.
_AHoV_ tells of a small-town Michigan diner owner named Tom McKenna. McKenna is a nice guy with a loving wife, an adorable preschool daughter, and a quirky but still likable teenage son. Life is just one uneventful day after another - just as Tom likes it.
Until one day that should have been like every other, two thugs with robbery and murder on their minds enter Tom's diner for the first (and last) time. The hoodlums decide to push their luck until Tom is forced to kill one and badly injure the other. The press catches wind of the incident of course. While Tom is hailed as a hero by his friends and neighbors, he does whatever he can to downplay his newfound fame. It doesn't work.
Shortly after the failed robbery attempt, three mobsters from New York City come to the diner. All three of them have rap sheets with just about everything on them except broadcasting without the expressed written consent of Major League Baseball. Johnny Torrino, the leader of the three, is an aging assassin with failing eyesight looking for someone named "Joey", whom he needs to settle a score with. Torrino wears a necklace with a Joey's severed finger as a pendant. Mckenna, curiously enough, is missing one of his little fingers. Soon, it becomes evident that McKenna lived another life before settling down to small-town family life.
What makes _AHoV_ stand out from all the "edgy" graphic novels on the shelves is how it reads more like a great crime novel than just another graphic novel. It has a cinematic atmosphere that feels like what would happen if Martin Scorsese and Sam Peckinpah were to collaborate on a film. Make no mistake about it, this is one grisly read. Even with the borderline minimalist black and white artwork, the violence elicits more than a few cringes. Characters are either done in with or injured by bullets, axes, chainsaws, axes, power drills, etc. Take that "Suggested for Mature Readers" label seriously here.
But even with all the bloodshed, there is plenty of heart here as well. Tom and his family are presented as people just trying to keep their heads above water when faced with an unexpected and hostile situation. Tom does everything he believes he can do to keep his family of danger. You can't help but feel for the McKennas.
I love everything that _AHoV_ represents. There are no super"heroes" who are more attitude than personality, no superheroines who look like Playboy centerfolds, and no absurd comic book cliches. It's just a nice little (albeit graphically violent) tale of how the average American is anything but. For all those aspiring comics artists and writers trying to figure out how they are going to reinvent Superman the 16,549th time, read _AHoV_ and learn something new.
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29 of 30 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
You Have a Gun in Your Face--What Do You Do?, August 13, 2005
This review is from: A History of Violence (Paperback)
As other reviewers have noted, David Cronenberg's movie adaptation of "A History of Violence" will be released at the end of the year. This is the primary reason I picked up this graphic novel tha I passed on when it was first published. I'm glad I did pick it up, because John Wagner and Vincent Locke have crafted a gut-wrenching story of violence and revenge that transcends its lurid subject matter.
Wagner's premise is simple. Tom McKenna, husband and father of two, is closing up his diner when a couple of killers attempt to rob and murder him. Tom foils them, killing one in the process. Naturally, he receives a great deal of publicity, which he seeks to avoid. In short order, some very tough looking types come around looking a guy named Joey, a guy, it seems, who resembles Tom, right down to missing a finger. What follows is a hard-boiled tale in the best tradition of Ross MacDonald or Jim Thompson, as Tom finds his past catching up to him, and trying to eat him and his family alive, while Tom does everything in his power to beat that monster back (including killing a few people).
John Wagner is a British comic book writer, most remembered as a co-creator of Judge Dredd. That early work shows to some extent. "A History of Violence" is, well, violent, often appallingly so, as Tom is witness to, and himself inflicts, all manner of cruelty upon human beings. However, Wagner imbues his work with a soul. Tom and his wife, Edie, are good people, and Wagner makes it clear that whatever Tom has done, he has paid his dues. He deserves his happiness. That is underscored by the appalling antagonists Tom fights. Wagner further makes it plain that for Tom to win the final showdown, he still has to pay one last due.
Vince Locke's art is an interesting moody and sketchy style. It is highly detailed on the one hand, and yet his line work has an almost surreal quality, reminiscent of a woodcut. While it goes without saying the acts of violence are vivid (and almost difficult to view at times), Locke also depicts the more mundane aspects of the McKennas' lives, underscoring the everyman quality of Tom and the essentially average existence he leads.
Cronenberg has admitted in interviews that he did not know that the script for "A History of Violence" was originally a graphic novel until he and the screenwriter had gone through several drafts. Still, the advance reviews are good. The key to a successful translation of this GN to film is maintaining the central point: you have a gun in your face-what do you do?
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12 of 15 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
I got this one after seeng the movie "based" on it - for Mature Readers only, January 26, 2006
This review is from: A History of Violence (Paperback)
I'm glad I got the book, which is actually a very graphic comic book that goes far beyond the film version which is "based" on the book. This book is far superior to the film, in my view, although it is so graphic that I was wincing at parts of it. Imagine whatever weapon you want - chainsaws, drills, guns, knives...and you'll find them being used in this story. The drawings are very...detailed...and my tolerance wasn't as high as it should have been to handle all that blood and gore, at least not in illustrations. I prefer to read about stuff like that. Visuals can be too intense for me.
Still, don't let me scare you off. This book was not only believable but had integrity and heart, in its own violent, grisly way. I have to admit there were times I wished I was simply reading words on a page instead of having the images thrust in my face (this may also be the reason why the film sometimes seems "watered down" compared to the book, which is so graphic that it might have turned off film audiences).
You won't find any superheroes like Batman or Superman in this book. It is the type of comic that represents real life, starting with a guy, Tom, who seems to have a pretty low key life in a very small town. He runs the diner. He's barely on anyone's radar screen, apart from the people he knows in town and his wife and kids. He has a reputation for being a decent guy, even a better than average guy with a generous heart...but he's not particularly ambitious and he certainly isn't out to make waves. In fact, he PREFERS being out of the limelight - for reasons even his own family wouldn't suspect.
Everything changes when a couple of lowlifes come to town and try to rob him. He's forced to protect himself and those in the diner and he does so with amazing skill. Even so, no one suspects that this is particularly unusual, except for the fact that this type of crime doesn't usually happen in their town. So he's the hero of the local (and even the national) media for awhile and then it seems that things will die down.
Except that they dont...and in the process, Tom is forced to examine his entire life, going back to a childhood which wasn't always so peaceful, to hidden parts of his past...and he also puts his family in danger and tests his marriage and his wife's trust.
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