What do you think?
Rate this book
The Crow (Kitchen Sink Press)
The Crow: A Cycle of Shattered Lives
45 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 1998
131 people want to read
About the author
James O'Barr
109 books394 followersJames O'Barr is an accomplished artist and writer, best known for creating The Crow.
In 1978, O'Barr's fiancée, Beverly, was killed by a drunk driver, and he joined the Marines in an effort to cope with the loss. He was stationed in Germany and illustrated combat manuals for the military. While living in Berlin in 1981, O'Barr began work on The Crow as a means of dealing with his personal tragedy. O'Barr was further inspired by a Detroit newspaper account of the murder of a young couple over a $20 engagement ring. After his discharge from the Marines, O'Barr continued his painting and illustration as well as doing lots of odd jobs, including working for a Detroit body shop. The Crow sat on a shelf for seven years, but at last someone wanted to publish it: Gary Reed of Caliber Press. In The Crow, the protagonist and his fiancée are murdered by a gang of criminals. He then returns from the dead to hunt their killers.
O'Barr's own hope that his project would result in a personal catharsis went unfulfilled, he told an interviewer in 1994, saying, "[A]s I drew each page, it made me more self-destructive, if anything....There is pure anger on each page". The Crow has sold more than 750,000 copies worldwide.
The book was adapted into a successful film of the same name in 1994, but it resulted in further tragedy. Brandon Lee, who played the main character, was accidentally shot and killed during filming.
O'Barr was the second American to be awarded the "Storyteller Award" by the International Comic Festival held annually in Angoulême, France.
In 1978, O'Barr's fiancée, Beverly, was killed by a drunk driver, and he joined the Marines in an effort to cope with the loss. He was stationed in Germany and illustrated combat manuals for the military. While living in Berlin in 1981, O'Barr began work on The Crow as a means of dealing with his personal tragedy. O'Barr was further inspired by a Detroit newspaper account of the murder of a young couple over a $20 engagement ring. After his discharge from the Marines, O'Barr continued his painting and illustration as well as doing lots of odd jobs, including working for a Detroit body shop. The Crow sat on a shelf for seven years, but at last someone wanted to publish it: Gary Reed of Caliber Press. In The Crow, the protagonist and his fiancée are murdered by a gang of criminals. He then returns from the dead to hunt their killers.
O'Barr's own hope that his project would result in a personal catharsis went unfulfilled, he told an interviewer in 1994, saying, "[A]s I drew each page, it made me more self-destructive, if anything....There is pure anger on each page". The Crow has sold more than 750,000 copies worldwide.
The book was adapted into a successful film of the same name in 1994, but it resulted in further tragedy. Brandon Lee, who played the main character, was accidentally shot and killed during filming.
O'Barr was the second American to be awarded the "Storyteller Award" by the International Comic Festival held annually in Angoulême, France.
Ratings & Reviews
Friends & Following
Create a free account to discover what your friends think of this book!
Community Reviews
Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews
July 22, 2024
It is interesting to get extra little snippets of some of the crows lives but unfortunately none of them were really engaging.
October 20, 2020
The story takes place in an alternate reality that looks something like an even more extreme, grim and merciless version of Batman’s Arkham Asylum. Despite the cruel and unforgiving society they live in, Eric Draven and his fiancé Shelly fall madly in love and find comfort in each other’s arms. Eric and Shelly go for a peaceful, romantic drive down the open road one fine day, enjoying each other’s company when their car is suddenly pulled over by a violent gang of thugs. They drag the two out of the car and they force Eric to watch them torture his girlfriend to death before shooting him in the back of the head. Just like that, the two lovers are dead. On the anniversary of their deaths, Eric resurrects from the grave as a vengeful spirit and takes on the mantle of a supernatural avenger, tracking down the thugs that killed him and his bride-to-be one by one and slaughtering them without mercy.
The story begins with Eric violently interrogating a man named Mr. Jones, a thug with connections to the criminals that murdered him and Shelly. Here we get a taste of the protagonist’s cruelty and lust for vengeance. He’s not the sweet and compassionate man he used to be. He’s cruel, sadistic and enjoys the suffering of the people that wronged him. He’s no hero of justice and he doesn’t quite fit the definition of vigilante hero either, he’s just a heartbroken man fixated on personal revenge and he’s willing to throw away his humanity to get what he wants. The Crow does a great job of showing just how tragic and depressing revenge truly is. It’s not glorified or beautiful, but it can be dangerously satisfying, and that addiction to the pain can destroy a person from the inside.
That’s the gist of the plot. A man resurrects from the dead and hunts down the men that killed him and his girlfriend. It’s a very simplistic revenge story with a unique gothic-horror aesthetic. Eric often goes into insane ramblings where he randomly babbles out dark poetry and edgy quotes like Edgar Allan Poe hopped up on drugs, vengeance and a rockstar charisma. Speaking of Poe, this story is pretty much what you would get if John Wick was written by Edgar Allan Poe. The villains are fairly one-dimensional, but it suits the mood of the story. This is about a broken man lashing out at the world because he's unable to contain his grief. It captures how one truly feels toward people that steal everything that was once precious away from you. There's no mercy or sympathy, there’s no attempt to see eye to eye or try to understand why they did what they did, there’s only a spiral of despair, rage and a self-consuming lust to give them the punishment they deserve
The story feels more personal and intimate when you read it knowing that it’s loosely based on the author’s own experience and feelings of losing his significant other. You can feel his rage and despair pouring out from the writing and the bleak black and white pages smothered with rain, blood and grime. It also has an extremely good movie adaption featuring the late Brandon Lee, the son of Bruce Lee. It’s rich with a gothic atmosphere and has that nostalgic 1980’s action hero that throws out cool one liners vibe. I heard it was recently released on Netflix and I would definitely recommend giving it a watch.
The original comic is a short and sweet self contained story, but there are quite a few spinoff stories where James collaborated with other authors to show off the dark avenger in action once more. In most of these stories, Eric resurrects other unfortunate souls that died tragic deaths and gives them the opportunity to avenge themselves like he once did. None of these stories are quite as good as the original in my opinion, but I thought they were worth mentioning for people that really want to see more from this cool character.
***
My Social Media
My YouTube Channel: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCPPs...
My Instagram Account: https://www.instagram.com/michael_sor...
My Wattpad Account: https://www.wattpad.com/user/Michael-...
My Twitter Account: https://twitter.com/SorbelloHorror
My Facebook Account: https://www.facebook.com/michael.sorb...
The story begins with Eric violently interrogating a man named Mr. Jones, a thug with connections to the criminals that murdered him and Shelly. Here we get a taste of the protagonist’s cruelty and lust for vengeance. He’s not the sweet and compassionate man he used to be. He’s cruel, sadistic and enjoys the suffering of the people that wronged him. He’s no hero of justice and he doesn’t quite fit the definition of vigilante hero either, he’s just a heartbroken man fixated on personal revenge and he’s willing to throw away his humanity to get what he wants. The Crow does a great job of showing just how tragic and depressing revenge truly is. It’s not glorified or beautiful, but it can be dangerously satisfying, and that addiction to the pain can destroy a person from the inside.
That’s the gist of the plot. A man resurrects from the dead and hunts down the men that killed him and his girlfriend. It’s a very simplistic revenge story with a unique gothic-horror aesthetic. Eric often goes into insane ramblings where he randomly babbles out dark poetry and edgy quotes like Edgar Allan Poe hopped up on drugs, vengeance and a rockstar charisma. Speaking of Poe, this story is pretty much what you would get if John Wick was written by Edgar Allan Poe. The villains are fairly one-dimensional, but it suits the mood of the story. This is about a broken man lashing out at the world because he's unable to contain his grief. It captures how one truly feels toward people that steal everything that was once precious away from you. There's no mercy or sympathy, there’s no attempt to see eye to eye or try to understand why they did what they did, there’s only a spiral of despair, rage and a self-consuming lust to give them the punishment they deserve
The story feels more personal and intimate when you read it knowing that it’s loosely based on the author’s own experience and feelings of losing his significant other. You can feel his rage and despair pouring out from the writing and the bleak black and white pages smothered with rain, blood and grime. It also has an extremely good movie adaption featuring the late Brandon Lee, the son of Bruce Lee. It’s rich with a gothic atmosphere and has that nostalgic 1980’s action hero that throws out cool one liners vibe. I heard it was recently released on Netflix and I would definitely recommend giving it a watch.
The original comic is a short and sweet self contained story, but there are quite a few spinoff stories where James collaborated with other authors to show off the dark avenger in action once more. In most of these stories, Eric resurrects other unfortunate souls that died tragic deaths and gives them the opportunity to avenge themselves like he once did. None of these stories are quite as good as the original in my opinion, but I thought they were worth mentioning for people that really want to see more from this cool character.
***
My Social Media
My YouTube Channel: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCPPs...
My Instagram Account: https://www.instagram.com/michael_sor...
My Wattpad Account: https://www.wattpad.com/user/Michael-...
My Twitter Account: https://twitter.com/SorbelloHorror
My Facebook Account: https://www.facebook.com/michael.sorb...
Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews