The Crow: Special Edition [Special Edition] [Paperback]

being a fan of the movie and the original oomic, this edition is beautifull set up the white cover, and a lot of extra pages which brings more depth to the story.
its good for old and new fans, i think its a beautiful but violent comic, it portrays the tortured charactor of eric dravern, with loads of poetic verses which is strange to find in such a violent story. but it makes it more dramatic and though provoking. to anyone new to the crow. the comic came out of grief, the artist/creater jo o'barr wife was killed, and the crow was born,
so do you really need to buy it if you own the original version?
i kind of struggled with that, is it worth it paying cash for something you already have? in my opinion yes. this is what it was meant to be like, but got cut for various reasons length money. so this new version is actually what the comic should have been when it was first published.
i really love this comic i would go on tour just to promote it :)
buy it.... read it.... love it.....

You will find 16 five star reviews of the original graphic novel on amazon uk; many gushing over the emotional impact of this work. They will all apply to this "special" edition equally so I won't discuss the story here. This edition has some new segments the author insists were always intended for the original publication but omitted for technical reasons, so represents the "fuller work" in an important sense.

If you want to build a library of landmark graphic novels "The Crow" certainly belongs in it alongside Sandman and Watchmen; and this is a nice enough edition, well printed on glossy stock. A little pricey for a softcover but worth it I think.

Dramatically, the book dosn't do that much for me - perhaps because I lack the requisite goth genes. I think this is one of the very few (the only??) case where the movie is better than the original comic. But I can appreciate the technique and pacing involved here. Unlike much in the graphic novel genre, this is indeed Art. The drawing is both strong and stylistically varied , but always comfortingly old school. To quote from the author's intro : "Everything in here is ink on paper. Even the lettering is hand done on the orginal art. The new pages were completed in the same manner, using twenty-year-old leftover supplies from the original book. Jack White once said 'Technology destroys art', and I agree; you're not learning your craft when a computer does it for you. I do have a computer by the way - its over there in the corner under those stacks of books and artwork, with Post-It notes stick on its dusty screen. A large cache of spiders is nesting in it, so its not a total loss." . This nicely sums up the nature of the appeal this book has for me.

If you've always wanted to see Charles Bronson's violent revenge fantasy Death Wish recast with Peter Murphy of Bauhaus, with about 25% of the panels traced from 1980s women's magazines (especially Cosmo & Vogue), there is something raw, authentic and cathartic in James O'Barr's The Crow.

What fascinates me is James O'Barr's ever-changing personal mythology:

* At a comicbook convention in 1990 or so, O'Barr told a group of convention-goers that we should check out his book, which deals with his difficult emotions following his girlfriend Beverly being murdered by a street gang during a mugging. Following the book being made into a succesful film, O'Barr now says in interviews that Beverly was his fiancé (upgraded from girlfriend), she was killed by a drunk driver, and he got the idea of the murderous street gang from a Detroit newspaper account of the murder of a young couple over a $20 engagement ring. Hmmm.

* In the introduction to the 1993 Crow trade paperback, John Bergin writes: "I have sat next to my friend James through many comic book conventions and I've listened to his half-truth answers to questions like 'Where did you get the idea for the crow?,' and 'Why did you do this story?'"

* O'Barr claims the new "lost sequences" artwork in 2011's The Crow: Special Edition were faithfully recreated from work he did in the 1980s, but the new work is clearly done at his modern skill level, not the mostly-tracing-magazines skill level from that time.

O'Barr says he grew up as an orphan in the unforgiving Detroit foster care system. The Crow: The Story Behind the Film by Bridget Baiss hints at abuse from the family that adopted him at age seven. Given the obvious emotional challenge of such a childhood, and noticing how often the details of O'Barr's personal mythology keep changing, I have to wonder if the latest version of his origin story is any more real than the previous "half-truth" versions. Does anyone know Beverly's last name, or where her obituary can be found? Is there *really* an obituary out there somewhere reading "Beverly ______ was killed by a drunk driver, but is survived by fiancé James O'Barr"?

I get particularly grumpy when I discover that someone has sales-pitched me with claims they know aren't true. When I expressed grumpiness at O'Barr's shifting claims to a friend, and even compared him to the infamous James Frey of A Million Little Pieces, she reminded me that I'm not reading a book about O'Barr's personal life, I'm reading The Crow. Do I think The Crow is a worthwhile read, or not? And I do. If violent revenge is your cup of tea (and what teenager doesn't harbor such dark fantasies at some time or another?), O'Barr has obviously struck a nerve.

In 'The Crow: The Story Behind the Film' O'Barr talks about seeing Peter Murphy and Bauhaus play live when he was stationed in Berlin, so Murphy was among the strongest influences visually -- a factoid of particular interest for comics fans, as Neil Gaiman revealed that Peter Murphy was also the main visual influence for 90s comicbook hit Sandman. If you're curious to see the original women's magazines photos that O'Barr apparently traced, drag-and-drop .jpgs of the individual panels (especially of pretty girls) into Google's image search feature.

James O'Barr has been working for many years on a full-color painted 300-page graphic novel about cowboys called 'Sundown,' which you can find on the web. His art is still very crude compared to almost everyone working in comics, but there is something raw, authentic and potent about it. If O'Barr feels the need to "improve" certain details of his difficult but ultimately rags-to-riches life story, I suppose that's his personal business. Count me as a faithful reader.