James O'Barr
James O'Barr is an accomplished artist and writer, best known for creating The Crow.
In 1978, O'Barr's fiancée, Beverly, was killed by a drunk driver, and he joined the Marines in an effort to cope with the loss. He was stationed in Germany and illustrated combat manuals for the military. While living in Berlin in 1981, O'Barr began work on The Crow as a means of dealing with his personal tragedy. O'Barr was further inspired by a Detroit newspaper account of the murder of a young couple over a $20 engagement ring. After his discharge from the Marines, O'Barr continued his painting and illustration as well as doing lots of odd jobs, including working for a Detroit body shop. The Crow sat on a shelf for seven years, but at last someone wanted to publish it: Gary Reed of Caliber Press. In The Crow, the protagonist and his fiancée are murdered by a gang of criminals. He then returns from the dead to hunt their killers.
O'Barr's own hope that his project would result in a personal catharsis went unfulfilled, he told an interviewer in 1994, saying, "[A]s I drew each page, it made me more self-destructive, if anything....There is pure anger on each page". The Crow has sold more than 750,000 copies worldwide.
The book was adapted into a successful film of the same name in 1994, but it resulted in further tragedy. Brandon Lee, who played the main character, was accidentally shot and killed during filming.
O'Barr was the second American to be awarded the "Storyteller Award" by the International Comic Festival held annually in Angoulême, France.
“Childhood is over when you know you’re gonna die.”
“Sarah: "Buildings burn, people die, but real love is forever...”
“Funboy: Pal, something is seriously wrong with you.The Crow: Atrocity has that effect on me.”
“It can't rain all the time.”
“Life is just a dream on the way to death.”
“Nothing is trivial.”
“People once believed that when someone dies, a crow carries their soul to the land of the dead. But sometimes, something so bad happens that a terrible sadness is carried with it and the soul can't rest. Then sometimes, just sometimes, the crow can bring that soul back to put the wrong things right.”
“We do not recognize our souls until they are in pain.”
“There are no boundries between good and evil where love is concerned.”
“It's not death if you refuse it...It is if you accept it.”
“Here dwells a snake, one thousand miles longCoiled, one thousand miles deepEyes like candy, it has eyes like candyHard and blue, but soft as kittens feetOut of sight or in the element of lightIt could be a devil, it could be an angelWith spiders inside a vision from hellIts spine is a vertical screamSlow as concrete, blurred as a dreamFueled by inertia, depth, radius, and velocity,Its soul--a twisted wreckage of despair and painAnd the spiders inside are just praying for rainKilling time killing timeAnd praying for rainOne thousand miles deep”
“ICH BENDÜRFNES JESUS CHRISTUS HANGELENKMEIN GEBEIN WEINENODLAND, KRIEGSBIET, LEBENWEISEGESCHWINDIGKEIT, HALBMESSER, ABSTEIGGNAPENSTOB”
“So the crow spirals down through a collapsed dream and the only sound it makes in like a concave scream.”
“When sorrow comes, they come not single spies, but in battalions. I've allies in heaven, Jack, i've commrades in hell...say hello for me...”
“Fear is for the enemy. Fear and bullets.”
“There is a man, playing a violin, and the strings are the nerves in his own arm...”