Not unreasonably, James O’Barr has been taking a break from the comics industry, about a two-decade-long one. If you’re only familiar with the character through the somewhat overrated ’90s movie starring Brandon Lee, O’Barr largely wrote the original comic to deal with the death of his fiancee in a car crash.
And it shows. The original book is a mess, in a lot of ways, and probably one of the most vivid demonstrations of rage and grief in comics because it was literally O’Barr working through his emotional problems on the page.
Then he sold the rights, it became a huge hit and O’Barr suddenly was rich off his fiancee’s death. By all accounts, it didn’t do wonders for his state of mind.
Nonetheless, after twenty years away, he’s back. And he’s bringing a new Crow series to IDW.
IDW is currently running a fairly mediocre Crow miniseries, but this new one is worth looking at for two reasons. One, it marks the first time O’Barr’s come back to his character in a while.
Two, it’s set during the Holocaust, and called Skinning The Wolves.
Well, you certainly can’t argue he’s got a lack of ambition. It’ll be interesting to see how O’Barr balances his character, who’s essentially the manifestation of an insane rage fantasy, into one of the worst moments in human history. It’ll get started in December.
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Overrated is obviously in the eye of the beholder. I still watch The Crow about once a year and enjoy it.
I never got into the Crow comics. I have nothing against them, I just never picked one up and gave it a read. I can go as emo as the next middle-aged guy with a full-time job in an office.
I have nothing against the movie, but it’s a product of its time: a mid-budget action movie with a decent sense of style. It’s certainly not bad, and it’s well made, but its reputation in some circles as a classic baffles me.
The Crow murdering Nazis? Shut up and take my money.
Seconded
Someone please tell me how the Crow, the movie was ever highly enough regarded to become overrated.
Dan I agree with you at times, but that just seems like a cheapshot and a douchey throwaway line.
No, it’s sincere. I really do think the movie is overrated. I don’t think it’s BAD, but I think that its reputation has more to do with the behind-the-scenes tragedy and good timing than the actual quality of the work.
It’s especially vivid when you read the comic; I don’t blame the creative side of things, but there were some real missed opportunities.
I actually think the movie is pretty good, or at least good enough that I am positive I wouldn’t care for the damn remake that is being produced.
I saw O’Barr at a panel a few years ago the last Wizard World Dallas. He was still depressed as hell about the death of his fiance and just all around didn’t seem like he wanted to be there or talk about The Crow at all. I’m actually really surprised he’s coming back to do more of it.
Back in 1994 I organized a meet-up at the SDCC with some mutual fans of an old pulp character. I don’t believe any of us had met before, but had corresponded here and there. Doesn’t matter – what matters is after the con we went to one guy’s house for a BBQ and and more mutual fandom BS – made friends, blah, blah blah. Cutting to the goddamned chase (can you tell I’m just trying to distance myself from the guy?), one of his friends came (this bruiser in a Raiders jersey) over and began bragging about how he had basically harassed O’Barr at the con that day – and had it on video. Apparently he didn’t like O’Barr’s answers to his questions – he spoke too quietly, gave short answers, whatever, so the guy said “I started goofin’ on him! I asked him, ‘Why a crow? Why not a bunny?’” (apparently O’Barr had said that was a “good question – it almost was a rabbit”). I knew something about O’Barr’s misfortune, although I don’t think I had seen the movie or read the comic at the time. What killed me was him saying, “So I asked him, ‘Don’t you feel bad about Brandon’s death? I mean, if you hadn’t wrote the book, then Brandon would still be alive!’ ”
It was then that I made my excuses to go. Wished I had called the guy a flaming pile of dog shit, but I just wanted to go. And I sure as hell didn’t want to see the video. I left them arguing over the Chargers and Raiders.
Still pisses me off to this day – partly because of myself not saying anything.
To be honest there really was nothing you could do. The guy clearly thought he was justified in his harassment of O’Barr simply because an actor died from a stupid mistake while doing his job: acting. You speaking up would’ve only made the guy stop for maybe a moment, but then go back to enjoying the idea that he got harass someone who put himself out there, a pretty easy thing to do when one never ventures out themselves.
Funniest thing I ever saw at a convention was Frank Cho signing a copy of his art book for O’Barr, who was sitting in the booth next to him, and because it was Frank Cho style he drew a word balloon coming out of the cover girl’s ass.