This is one of those rare cases where the film is better than the book it was based on. MUCH better. Everything I loved about the film A HISTORY IF VIOLENCE is missing here in the book. Don't waste your time with this one.

Really good graphic novel. Not on the same level as Cronenberg's film, but highly enjoyable. I loved the artwork. It had a very indy-penciling sort of feel to it. It really added to the grittiness of the story, for me. Recommended.

This was a fast paced, mob infested, morally grey graphic novel that I flew through.It was incredibly atmospheric and our main character Tom was brought to life in the graphics and his actions; you can see why this became a film.The illustration was great, i personally enjoyed the simplistic nature of the drawing (though I recognise it’s a phenomenal skill that I am abysmally shit at) it allowed the dialogue to really take centre stage.

Gave this a try after watching the movie.I personally enjoyed the movie more. The scenes in the book are more brutal, especially Richie's fate.Overall, the story is great in terms of pacing all the way to the end.Didn't like the art style at all. Messy and hard to follow. Looked like thumbnails for preliminary drawing.

A family man dragged in to a violent situation, which as that old cliche states only begets more violence. The story of an ordinary man dealing with underworld figures in an attempt to protect his family. It's all good noir stuff. Even the opening recalls the excellent Ernest Hemingway short story (fatally adapted in to two mediocre at best noir movies) The Killers found in Men Without Women: Short Stories. Hopes they were high.I wasn't a fan of the scribbly line drawing style of art chosen for

I had a hard time deciding how I felt about this book. Could something like this story happen? Sure, it could. Has something like this story happened? Possibly, but more likely not. Of course, getting involved in the Mafia is generally seen as a bad thing, especially if you try and steal from them, but this kind of story has become something of a cliche of the Godfather type, which makes still it harder to assess it's place in this genre. Still, it's by the legendary John Wagner, which is never

Pretty good graphic novel but the movie was much better. 3/5 stars

i love the cronenberg adaptation and had been meaning to read this for a while just to see if it ended the same way (i like the movie's ending but always had a hard time believing that a graphic novel would end in such suspension)... well, it doesn't end the same way... it also doesn't middle the same way... beginning's the same, though, pretty much. it's much cleaner and simpler and more black-and-white than the movie; ties up all the loose ends and makes the main character likable (he was tryi...

The movie led to the book. It was an interesting read (I liked the whole backstory of Joey/Tom and how it was executed), but I still like the movie just a tad bit better.

I hear a fair amount talked about the movie adaptation of this comic, great many people enjoying it as a cult classic, but the comic itself rarely comes up. Which is a shame, because I like it better than the movie. Probably for the more involved backstory, and for rather preferring Tom to be a more unassuming quiet kid even in the past, just getting on rough times and falling in with the wrong people, rather than having been an assassin and an unrepentent killer himself. I feel that it reflects...

As a person, I have my own history of violence, and that history has led me to become obsessed, as a thinker and author, with violence as a concept. I see it everywhere. I dwell on it, am awed by it, wonder about it, write about it, dream about it, nightmare about it, loathe it and love it in turns. Thus, when I pick up a book with the title A History of Violence, I expect to read something that engages with violence consciously, something that doesn't simply use violence for visceral gratificat...

#ThrowbackThursday - Back in the '90s, I used to write comic book reviews for the website of a now-defunct comic book retailer called Rockem Sockem Comics. From the May 1997 edition with a theme of "Offered Again" Comics:FROM THE BACKLISTA HISTORY OF VIOLENCE (DC Comics/Paradox Press)My expectations were low when I bought A HISTORY OF VIOLENCE earlier this year. Previous books published under the Paradox Graphic Mystery imprint of DC Comics have been rather generic crime/mystery thrillers lackin...

A good story overshadowed by lackluster art.

I watched the movie before I even realized it exists as a graphic novel. The two differ extremely. The movie took the main character Tom, a few aspects of plot, and moved in an entirely different direction. I'm glad for this, because it was more believable--I don't think it would've translated well into a film otherwise. For example, when someone reveals to his wife that he has murdered people and lied about his entire past for over a decade, I wouldn't expect her to accept it without the slight...

The film adaptation by David Cronenberg is one of my favorite movies ever, and it is a rare example of a screenplay that is far superior to its source material.In general I don't particularly enjoy graphic novels, but this is a story I admire. However, I feel that the book doesn't quite capture the devastatingly potent psychological effect Tom’s heroic act of violence has on him and his family members as well as the film does.I also prefer the ambiguity of Tom's past in the film - it lends a sen...

Robbing the mob is never a good idea, and in one man's case, his crimes come back to bite him in the ass decades later. The movie I saw a few years ago left no impression on me, so I was expecting the book to be a bit more compelling. Even with its particularly grisly ending, I doubt this story will stay with me either.

Def could have been more exciting and more violence!

Like its title, there's a lot of violence and being a graphic novel, it is, uh... graphic.

A History of Violence is the original book from where the movie was based. As with most things, I prefer the book.Two psycho armed robbers decide to rob a small coffee shop in some nameless small town. But the mild-mannered and polite coffee shop owner ends up killing one and making the other thief cower. Who is this guy? Trust the vultures in the media to forget any ones right to privacy and plaster his face all over the local news. Enter the Mob from New York.This is the story of a man who was...

A History of Violence - John Wagner, Vince Locke pleh.  Guy carries off one well-planned crime as a teen, that makes him a master of hand-to-hand combat 20 years later?  Vile and gratuitous in every way. Plus, I'm just really tired of the revenge-makes-violence-acceptable gambit. No, it doesn't. but if you just want to show a lot of violence, don't try to whitewash it.<br/>Library copy