With confirmation of a movie ‘reboot’, http://www.pressman.com/coming_soon.asp.html, and an AUTHORS EDITION of the publication in the works, www.jamesobarr.net, it’s not hard to look back at the success and the failures of the franchise and the fans that came with it.

On February 1989, Kitchen Sink Press published The Crow from James O’Barr. The book was a cathartic piece of work that consisted of beautiful black and white illustration, poetry and song lyrics setting the mood for a dark story about love and revenge.

A few years later Brandon Lee and Alex Proyas approached O’barr not only as fans of the book, but as an interested party of adapting the comic into a major motion picture. On March 31, 1993 during the filming, Brandon Lee died on the set due to a prop gun malfuntion. With the majority of the film already finished and some slight editing, the movie was released on May 13, 1994. Even though the film wasn’t completely faithful to the graphic novel, it was successful due to Lee’s last on-screen performance.

Three sequels, an Image Comics revamp, one television series and several novels later, the franchise has proved the fans still want more, even though some have become cautious and overprotective with the failures that have occurred since the first sequel. Parts 3 and 4 managed to go straight to video without making much buzz. The television show, featuring Iron Chef’s Marc Dakaskos managed to last one season before cancelation. After reading about the confirmation about the reboot, I’ve come to the conclusion to be for it, as long as it’s faithful to James O’barr’s original publication.

Without The Crow, I would have never had such an appreciation for black and white comics, or bands like Joy Division or Bauhaus (O’barr’s musical influences). My first tattoo wouldn’t be the Crow symbol, but rather something I would regret not even a year afterwards. James O’barr is the reason I wanted to draw comics. His illustrations of Eric Draven drew me in when I first visited comic book stores. I knew it wasn’t my time to appreciate it then, but I’m glad I got to be sucked in to such an important and creative masterpiece.

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