Django Unchained inches closer and closer with each day — I believe the first screenings are held this week, as a matter of fact — and the signs are popping up everywhere. TV spots are, from my experience, as good a sign as any (you’ve got to sell it to regular folks soon enough), but some other, more unique things are in the works for Quentin Tarantino‘s newest film. Unique for this director, at the very least.

What we refer to is not just an online mini-game, but also an adaptation being carried out by Vertigo Comics, the adult-skewed line who, in this instance, have used the writer-director’s original screenplay for their three-issue project. While you might think that template will only lead to some cartoon stills of a movie you’ll have either already seen or, otherwise, will end up seeing, here’s the kicker: Vertigo are using the first script Tarantino sent out, which means this incarnation will (likely) deviate from his final result in some interesting, unexpected ways. (E.g., excised characters and whatever scenes they found themselves in.)

To preview that, Moviefone have been handed the first five pages of issue one. To see the first three of those five, take a look below:

Here are some shots of the actual film, these being from the set we brought you last night (via CBM):

Django Unchained will open on December 25th.

Is this first look a nice sign of what’s to come?