The Comic: A History Of Violence

Written by John Wagner (whose work also spawned Judge Dredd) and illustrated by Vince Locke, the book was originally published by Paradox Press in 1997, and was then bought up by DC's Vertigo imprint.

David Cronenberg did a superb job translating the book's look at small town American life shattered by mob violence, drawing great critical responses and Oscar attention.

The first half of the film stays roughly faithful to the book, but writer Josh Olson (who nabbed an Oscar nom for the solid script) has admitted that he had to take several liberties with the rest in order to make the complex revenge plot fit a cinematic structure.

And Cronenberg made his own changes - including switching the pivotal character of Ritchie to Tom's (VIggo Mortensen) brother to give his fate more impact.

Franchise Potential? The story wraps up in both the film and comic book versions, so we're going to go with no. Unless, you know, we introduce zombies into the mythology.