The Crow


The Crow is a superhero comic book series created by James O'Barr revolving around the titular character of the same name. The series, which was originally created by O'Barr as a means of dealing with the death of his girlfriend at the hands of a drunk driver, was first published by Caliber Comics in 1989. It became an underground success, and was later adapted into a film of the same name in 1994. Three film sequels, a television series, and numerous books and comic books have also been subsequently produced.
The Crow has been translated into almost a dozen languages and has sold around 750,000 copies worldwide.

Publication history

Caliber Press

The Crow first appeared on the back cover of Deadworld #10 ; James O'Barr provided a back cover to the first comic book Caliber Press published, which contained an advertisement for the upcoming The Crow appearance in Caliber Presents #1.
The Crow's first in-story appearance was in Caliber Presents #1, in the story "Inertia", which serves as a prequel to the main series. O'Barr again provided a back cover for this issue.
The character's first limited series was The Crow #1–4. Four issues, titled "Pain", "Fear", "Irony", and "Despair," take readers through a series of vengeance tales as The Crow cuts and shoots through Tin-Tin, Tom-Tom, Top Dollar, Funboy and T-Bird, the gang members that attacked and killed him and his lover Shelly.
In A Caliber Christmas, Eric reflects back on happier times with Shelly in the story "Atmosphere."
Caliber Presents #15 contained a preview of the unpublished The Crow #5, titled "Death", that was meant to complete the original story arc.

Tundra Publishing

later reprinted Caliber's first four issues in two double-sized volumes and printed "Death" as the third volume.

Kitchen Sink Press

In 1993, Kitchen Sink Press collected The Crow into a graphic novel. A limited hardcover edition was also released by Graphitti Designs.
From 1996–1998, Kitchen Sink published five mini-series and a one-shot based on The Crow concept with a new avatar in each series.

London Night Studios

Following the Kitchen Sink series, London Night Studios published The Crow/Razor: Kill the Pain in 1998, which saw Eric Draven paired with Everette Hartsoe's bad girl character Razor.

Image Comics

In 1999, Image Comics released a new Crow comic series with yet another take on the Eric Draven story. It ran for ten issues, ending in November of that year.

Pocket Books

In 2002, Pocket Books re-released the original Crow graphic novel after several years out-of-print.

Gallery Books

O'Barr stated in a 2004 interview that an Author's Edition would contain at least "60 pages of new material that no one has ever seen. Half of that are pages that had to be removed for space reasons." O'Barr described the additions as including "more romance flashback scenes between Eric and Shelly," as well as sequences that would make the work "more visually interesting." On January 16, 2010, it was announced on O'Barr's official website that the Author's Edition of The Crow was indeed going to be released and that O'Barr was currently working on it. On April 7, 2011, O'Barr announced that The Crow: Special Edition would be released on July 28, 2011, from Gallery Books.

IDW Publishing

In July 2012, IDW Publishing published a new five-issue Crow series, The Crow: Death and Rebirth, written by novelist John Shirley and illustrated by Kevin Colden.
Four more IDW Crow series followed: The Crow: Skinning the Wolves, The Crow: Curare, The Crow: Pestilence and The Crow: Memento Mori.

Plot

The story revolves around an unfortunate young man named Eric. He and his fiancée, Shelly, are assaulted by a gang of street thugs after their car breaks down. Eric is shot in the head and is paralyzed, and can only watch as Shelly is savagely beaten, raped, and shot in the head. They are then left for dead on the side of the road. Eric later dies in the hospital operating room while Shelly is DOA.
He is resurrected by a crow and seeks vengeance on the murderers, methodically stalking and killing them. When not on the hunt, Eric stays in the house he shared with Shelly, spending most of his time there lost in memories of her. Her absence is torture for him; he is in emotional pain, even engaging in self-mutilation by cutting himself.
The crow acts as both a guide and goad for Eric, giving him information that helps him in his quest but also chastising him for dwelling on Shelly's death, seeing his pining as useless self-indulgence that distracts him from his purpose.

Characters

The Crow is ranked 37th in IGN's Top 100 Comic Book Heroes. In 2005, creator James O'Barr claimed that The Crow was:

Professional Wrestling

superstar Sting portrayed a character inspired by The Crow beginning in late 1996. As this character, Sting was involved in a major storyline with Hulk Hogan and the New World Order throughout 1997 and early 1998.

Film

In 1994, a film based on the comic was released to theaters by Miramax Films. The film was both a critical and commercial success, earning $50,693,129 total gross during its 1994 United States theatrical release. A cult following, in part due to the accidental death of its star Brandon Lee on the film's set, has maintained the film's popularity, with a regular staple of movie memorabilia being found at retailers like Hot Topic. Three sequels have been made so far: ', starring Vincent Pérez, Mia Kirshner, Richard Brooks and Iggy Pop; ', starring Eric Mabius, Kirsten Dunst and Fred Ward; and , starring Edward Furlong, David Boreanaz and Tara Reid.
In the late 1990s, a sequel/reboot to The Crow entitled The Crow: 2037 was in the works; it would be set in the future. It was written and scheduled to be directed by Rob Zombie, but it was ultimately cancelled.
On December 14, 2008, Stephen Norrington announced in Variety that he planned to write and direct a "reinvention" of The Crow. Norrington distinguished between the original and his remake: "Whereas Proyas’ original was gloriously Gothic and stylized, the new movie will be realistic, hard-edged and mysterious, almost documentary-style." In 2009 Ryan Kavanaugh's Relativity Media was negotiating with Edward R. Pressman for both the film's rights and financing. In May 2013, actor Luke Evans accepted the role of Eric Draven, with F. Javier Gutiérrez set to direct. According to James O'Barr the movie is expected to be much more faithful to the comic including flashbacks, metaphors, horses, trains and barbed wire, making it not suitable for younger audiences. Director Javier Gutiérrez also confirmed that his intentions are to create literally a page-by-page adaptation of the movie. Filming was slated to start in the spring of 2015 but on July 31, 2015, The Hollywood Reporter reported that production on the reboot stalled because of Relativity Media's bankruptcy.
Corin Hardy was the next director to take on the film and O'Barr said in October 2017:
On May 31, 2018, it was announced that both director Hardy and star Jason Momoa had exited the project.

Television

A television series, , was based on the first movie with Mark Dacascos replacing Lee in the role of Eric Draven.

Novels and story collections

From 1996–2001, a number of novels based on the world and thematic concerns of The Crow were published, mostly by Harper. Authors of these novels included such notable names as Chet Williamson, David Bischoff, Poppy Z. Brite, S. P. Somtow, Norman Partridge, and A. A. Attanasio.
In 1998, O'Barr and editor Ed Kramer asked an array of fiction writers, poets, and artists—including Gene Wolfe, Alan Dean Foster, Charles de Lint, Jack Dann, Jane Yolen, Henry Rollins and Iggy Pop—to interpret this Gothic fiction phenomenon. The Crow: Shattered Lives and Broken Dreams was released by Random House on Halloween; and a year later, in a limited signed and numbered volume, by Donald M. Grant Publishing.

Video games

is a 1997 action video game for Sega Saturn, Sony PlayStation and Microsoft Windows. It is loosely based on the. The player assumes the role of the hero of the film, Ashe Corven. It received negative reviews. Ojom GmbH released a j2me game called simply The Crow.

Music

There have been five albums of music related to The Crow and its attendant films:
The Crow is an out-of-print collectible card game by Heartbreaker Press and Target Games. It is based on The Crow comics by James O'Barr and depicted images from the movie. It was released in November 1995 but initially had a release date of March 1995. It was one of three sets released by Heartbreaker Press and Target Games in November along with James Bond 007 and Kult. The game did not have starter decks, and instead it had a core set with 122 cards that included 10 foils that had artwork from the comic. The game was sold in booster packs of 15 cards, but no starter packs were available. A promo card called The Confident Crow was available by mail through proof-of-purchase order. An expansion titled Crow: City of Angels was announced for an October 1996 release but never materialized.
Players control Angel, Devil, and Neutral Bystander cards and then send them into combat with "opposing ersonalities". Action cards allow players to pump or hinder a Personality. Each Personality has an attack and defense value, as well as Virtue, which is equal to the highest value. Players play their Personality card and discard cards from their hands equal to the Virtue of the played card, and then they attack. If a player has a higher attack value than their opponent's defense value, the opponent is wounded. If a Personality would be wounded again, it is killed. A player wins by killing 25 Virtue worth of an opponent's Personalities.
Andy Butcher reviewed The Crow for Arcane magazine, rating it a 6 out of 10 overall. Butcher comments that "The Crow is a simple game that would serve as a good introduction to CCGs. There's just enough depth to give it some skill, and the game mechanics are elegant. Experienced players may find it limiting and lacking in lasting appeal."

Comics