The Crow

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The Crow ("The Crow ") is a graphic novel by the American illustrator James O'Barr . James O'Barr began work in 1981 while he was stationed in Germany to deal with the accidental death of his fiancée and published the first 32-page issue of "The Crow" in February 1989 with Caliber Press . This issue was dedicated to Ian Curtis , the lead singer of the band Joy Division , who hanged himself on May 18, 1980 in Macclesfield near Manchester and whose death also gave a strong impetus for the creation of J. O'Barr's work.

The plot was designed for five individual issues, "Pain", "Fear", "Irony", "Despair" and "Death", whereby the last chapter "Death" should have twice the number of pages. However, due to financial difficulties at the publisher, more than 2 years should pass before the publication of “Death”. Finally, the entire series was re-released in 1991 by Tundra Publishing Ltd in 2 parts, "Pain & Fear" and "Irony & Despair", along with some new material, and in 1992 the final part "Death" was released.

action

The storyline of the anthology begins with Eric visiting a petty criminal named Mr. Jones to get information about T-Bird, Tom Tom, Top Dollar, Fun Boy and Tin Tin. Eric, who has painted a kind of harlequin grimace in the style of Alice Cooper , is injured with a knife by Mr. Jones, but shows himself unimpressed by the pain. From him he learns the address of Tom Tom. Eric's first victim is Tin Tin, whom he turns into after he shoots an old woman and then his two colleagues in the street on a whim. Eric is again unfazed by the pain when Tin Tin shoots him. It is learned that Tin Tin was part of the gang who ambushed and murdered Eric and his girlfriend Shelly a year ago on a cold October night while their car broke down. Eric shoots Tin Tin. Eric's next victim will be Top Dollar and his gang. Flashbacks and short sequences, which illustrate Eric's suffering, run through the entire first volume “Pain”. The crow motif only appears in a handful of places in Volume 1, always accompanied by the bird's request that Eric should “not look”.

Act 2 "Fear" begins with Eric's reckoning with Tom Tom, whom he attacks with a samurai sword immediately after he has stabbed a mentally disabled person. Eric learns from Tom Tom that T-Bird has transferred Shelly's engagement ring to Gideon's pawn shop. Eric murders the shopkeeper and finds the ring. When he has just finished distributing kerosene in the shop and fitting the container with an improvised fuse, he is arrested by a patrol officer. Eric asks the policeman to say “Greetings from the crow” to a certain Sgt. Hook and then simply lets him stand. When Sgt. Hook receives the greetings, he can apparently assign the name to Eric, because he goes to the filing cabinet and throws his files in the trash can.

Volume 3, "Irony", begins with a visit to Fun Boy. On the stairs in front of his apartment he meets a young girl named Sherri, whose mother is up at Fun Boy to get "medicine" for her boyfriend. Eric gives her Shelly's engagement ring.

Up at Fun Boy's apartment, Eric throws Sherri's mother out of bed and confronts Fun Boy. The crow tells him that Fun Boy took morphine. Eric takes 3 bottles of morphine and orders Fun Boy and the rest of the gang to wait at the gin mill at midnight. Back at home, Eric enters his old bedroom for the first time and squeezes the morphine. At midnight, Eric puts another dose of morphine down his throat and then kills everyone in the bar except Fun Boy, whom he orders T-Bird, the head of the gang, to take to the scene of the robbery.

Volume 4 “Despair” begins with a flashback that sheds light on the events of the past year. Eric and Shelly break down their car. T-Bird and his gang stop. When the gang gets intrusive towards Shelly, Eric defends himself and is shot twice in the back of the head by T-Bird. Eric doesn't die immediately, but has to watch his girlfriend raped and shot and finally Fun Boy desecrated the corpse. The crow all the time encourages him not to look. The act ends with a scene with Sgt. Hook at Eric's bedside. He expresses his condolences to the supposedly comatose Eric and leaves him his card. Eric wakes up briefly and says that the crow told him not to look. Eric then dies on the operating table, but seems to still hear what is being said after his death. At the moment of his death, he is approached by the crow who tells him that he cannot go now because he has "responsibilities".

The 5th volume “Death” begins with the elegiac attunement to the showdown. Eric burns his memorabilia and his house, visits Sherri one last time, and inherits Sgt. Hook with his cat. He then kills Sherri's mother's friend. He asks Officer Albrecht, who had previously placed him in the pawn shop, to check on Sherri in the future. Meanwhile, the incredulous T-Bird is informed of the situation by Fun Boy. When he tries to give himself pressure in the kitchen, Fun Boy is surprised by the crow. Eric allows Fun Boy to die from a self-injected overdose. While watching Fun Boy die, he shoots two injections of morphine into his heart and scratches a crown of thorns in his chest with a hunting knife. Then he kills 15 people from T-Birds gang in the Gin Mill. Following this, Eric poses T-Bird and his gang outdoors. He is riddled with bullets, but cannot be stopped. T-Bird is able to escape briefly, but is followed by Eric and when he passes the location of the attack, is pushed off the road by a crow flying past. Eric then kills him with a hammer. The tape ends with a scene in the cemetery and memories of Shelly.

publication

In 1993 Kitchen Sink Press published the 3 separate issues as a 244-page anthology with some previously unpublished material, such as B. an 8-page color picture gallery. The current English edition is published by Pocket Books . In 2011 Gallery Books published a special edition, again with previously unpublished material, including new story pages.

In 1994 the Kitchen Sink Press anthology was published parallel to the film " The Crow - Die Rache der Krähe " in German by the publisher Kult Editions .

When the film was launched in 1994 and 1996, versions of the original film were also published as novels.

In 1996 Kitchen Sink Press published the 3-part sequels The Crow: Dead Time , The Crow: Flesh and Blood and The Crow: Wild Justice , which were only related by the motif , as well as a miniseries for the cinema sequel The Crow - City of Angels . While J.O'Barr was still responsible for the story and the cover for Dead Time, it was only the cover artwork for Flesh and Blood. At Wild Justice, his name only appears on the cover and in the copyright. In the City of Angels miniseries, it's just a note in the credits.

1997-1998 appeared at Kitchen Sink Press the four-part miniseries The Crow: Waking Nightmares . Shortly thereafter, the publisher went bankrupt.

In 1998, The Ballantine Publishing Group published the short story collection The Crow: Shattered Lies and Broken Dream , including a 7-page short story and some illustrations by J.O'Barr.

In 1999, Image Comics released a new 10-part comic series based on the original story.

Movies

Several film adaptations were made based on the comic book. The first movie from 1994 is the implementation of the plot from the original comic. The three mutually independent sequels are only based on the idea. In 1998 a short-lived television series started that took up the history of comics and modified it for a series.

In 2000 there was also a little noticed and probably unlicensed new edition of the 1994 version called " Wings of the Crow ". It is noteworthy that the main character here is female.

We are currently working on a remake of the 1994 classic by Alex Proyas . Stephen Norrington was initially acted as a director. But he has meanwhile been replaced by Juan Carlos Fresnadillo , who also had to leave the project for scheduling reasons. At the moment, F. Javier Gutiérrez is negotiating to take over the directing position. However, screenwriters Alex Tse and Bradley Cooper , who is said to play the leading role of Eric Draven, are still firmly involved in the remake .

Merchandise

The first two films in particular flooded the market with an almost unmanageable amount of merchandising items. In addition to a large number of posters and T-shirts, there are among other things trading cards for the film, a trading card game, statues, bookends, zippos, sweatbands, air fresheners, key rings, lunch boxes (with thermos) and a game for the Playstation 1.

swell

  • No. 3 Starlog Movie Magazine Presents: The Crow: City of Angels, Bad Bird Productions Inc, 1996, New York, pp. 56, 57
  1. ↑ Archived copy ( Memento of the original from December 18, 2008 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / www.variety.com
  2. ^ The Crow Lands on a Director
  3. ↑ thecrowsloft.com ( Memento of the original from December 23, 2008 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was automatically inserted and not yet checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / www.thecrowsloft.com

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