The Crow Graphic Novel
Plot synopsis
The story revolves around a man named Eric. He and his fiancée, Shelly, are assaulted by a gang of street thugs after their car breaks down. Eric is shot in the head and is paralyzed, and can only watch as Shelly is savagely beaten and raped. She dies at the scene. Eric survives and is taken to a hospital, but while surgeons are trying to save him, the Crow comes to him and convinces him he needs to let go of his life. Only by dying can the Crow help him exact his revenge. One year later, Eric is resurrected by the Crow to seek out vengeance on the murderers, methodically stalking and killing them. When not on the hunt, Eric stays in the house he shared with Shelly. He spends most of his time there lost in memories of Shelly. Her absence is torture for him, and he stays in hideous emotional pain, even engaging in self-mutilation. However, this provides him no release, as he cannot feel physical pain and any injury he suffers heals rapidly, leaving him scarred but intact. The Crow acts as both guide and goad for Eric, giving him information that helps him in his quest but also chastising him for dwelling on Shelly's death, seeing his pining as useless self-indulgence that distracts him from his purpose.
Characters
The main character, Eric, is modeled after two musical influences on O'Barr's life. Firstly, Joy Division lead singer Ian Curtis, whose melancholic lyrics and spastic onstage dance movements inspired Eric's somber dialogue and pained convulsions when remembering his and Shelly's deaths. Secondly, Bauhaus lead singer Peter Murphy inspired his imposing physical presence, ghostly makeup, and sharp, high cheek bones. Additionally, the names of Officer Albrecht and Captain Hook are allusions to Joy Division members Bernard (Albrecht) Sumner and Peter Hook.
Other influences on The Crow range from the Gothic imagery of Arthur Rimbaud's poetry to the unrelenting bleakness of the Cure's early albums. All these characteristics were carried over to the movie.
Supporting Characters
* Sherri - A street urchin Eric befriends after his rebirth. (Re-named Sarah in the movie)
* T-Bird - The head of the gang that murders Eric and Shelly.
* Funboy - T-Bird's right-hand man, a morphine addict who is sleeping with Sherri's mother.
* Top Dollar - A low-level drug dealer.
* Tin-Tin - The first of T-Bird's gang to be eliminated by Eric.
* Tom Tom - One of T-Bird's soldiers, and one of Shelly's rapists.
* Gideon - A pawnbroker who is used by T-Bird's lackeys to fence Shelly's engagement ring.
* Officer Albrecht - A beat cop who confronts Eric outside Gideon's pawnshop.
* Captain Hook - The detective who originally handled Eric and Shelly's case. Eric sends him his regards through Albrecht.
Author's Edition
For a long time the author has been talking about The Crow Author's Edition, that would have more than 60 new pages of unseen material. Some of this material was excluded by mistake from the original book and some is completely new. However, since this book never came out, a petition has been started to finally bring it to print.
From many interviews gave by James O'Barr over the years we can surmise some things that will be included in the Author's Edition.
* There will be a lot more romantic flashback scenes between Eric and Shelly
* A sequence that is an entire shootout reflected upside down in a pool of blood on the street so none of the physical violence is actually seen
* The characters will have more depth; even the more subservient characters will now have whole pages of dialogue such as the little girl and the police officer.
* There is also supposed to be a scene where Shelly is trying to teach Eric to dance, but he just keeps falling
* Also there is a scene where Eric was going up stairs to Funboy's apartment and he finds some "bad guys" guarding Funboy's door
* Another Scene is Eric at a junkyard buying pieces to fix his car that has been broken for a year.
There are about 20 pages of brand new material created just for the Author's Edition and about 38 pages that were omitted from the original book due to page count and subject matter problems with the original publisher, as well as 6 new color paintings that were done as commissions for fans over the past few years.
Adaptations
In 1999, Image Comics released a new comic series of The Crow, based on the original comic book. It ran for ten issues, ending in November of that year.
Also in 1999, O'Barr and editor Ed Kramer asked an array of fiction writers, poets, and artists (including Gene Wolfe, Alan Dean Foster, Charles de Lint, Jack Dann, Jane Yolen, Henry Rollins, and Iggy Pop) to interpret this gothic fiction phenomenon. The Crow: Shattered Lives & Broken Dreams was released by Random House on Halloween, and a year later, in a limited signed and numbered volume, by Donald M. Grant Publishing.
Three sequels to the movie have been made so far: The Crow: City of Angels (1996), starring Vincent Perez (as the titular character), Mia Kirshner, Richard Brooks and Iggy Pop; The Crow: Salvation (2000), starring Eric Mabius (as the titular character), Kirsten Dunst, and Fred Ward; and The Crow: Wicked Prayer (2005), starring Edward Furlong (as the titular character), David Boreanaz, and Tara Reid. All of the sequels have been critical and commercial flops; the latter two movies have been relegated to direct to video release. The TV series The Crow: Stairway to Heaven (1998), was based on the first movie.
Changes from the comic book
* Eric is given the last name Draven (possibly drawn from a scene in the comic revealing Eric's last initial as either 'C' or 'D', though it is also possible that it is a pun on the words, "The Raven" by Edgar Allan Poe, from which he also recites a few lines, or Eric de Raven) and is portrayed by Lee as a rock guitarist, while Shelly is portrayed as an artist and a lawyer. In the comic, Eric's surname is never stated, nor is his (or Shelly's) career life before his rebirth.
* The two are murdered in their home during the violence and chaos of Devil's Night, the day before their wedding on Halloween. In the comic, the chain of events leading to Eric's rebirth as The Crow occurs when his car breaks down off of the highway, and the gang (Who were stoned at the time) attack Eric and rape Shelly.
* The gang of criminals responsible for Eric and Shelly's death were working for a larger crime syndicate which ordered Shelly's death in retaliation for fighting tenant eviction in a neighborhood it controlled; whereas in the comic, the encounter happened on the highway, and Eric and Shelly are attacked by the gang after they come across them while they're stoned.
* In the comic, Sarah (Sherri in the comic), played by Rochelle Davis, is a street urchin Eric doesn't meet until after his rebirth, and only features twice; once, when Eric found her outside of Funboys' house and gives her Shelly's engagement ring (which he also does in the live-action film), and the second time when he returns to her to say goodbye because of a promise he made to her. For the film the character was recast as his and Shelley's best friend and surrogate daughter, and has a considerably more important role than in the comic. Also of note, Sarah's mother is called Darla in the film, while Funboy adresses her as SANDY in the comic book. By the end of the comic book, Eric leaves Albrecht a personal request that he look after Sherri; whereas the movie Albrecht befriends SARAH following Eric and Shelly's death.
* Top Dollar, played by Michael Wincott, went from a low-level drug dealer to a powerful crime lord who un-officially runs the city, and has T-Bird's gang perform serivices for him. Also, in the comic, Top Dollar is one of the first to be killed by Eric, and the true leader of the gang is obviously T-Bird. Interestingly enough, many have noticed that Top Dollar's appearance in the film closely resemble's T-Bird's in the comic (and vice-versa). The biggest change in the appearance of the two characters is that they are both obviously African American (or perhaps Latino) in the comic yet Caucasian in the film.
* Officer Albrecht, played by Ernie Hudson, actually appears to be a combination of two characters from the comic. The first, also named "Officer Albrecht," is simply a young, Caucasian beat cop who stumbles upon Eric right after he kills Gideon and is told, "Go away boy. You want none of this." This is the only appearance of the comic "Albrecht." However, Captain Hook (an upper level officer who hates his name) shares a lot more in common with the film version of Albrecht. Hook bears a much stronger resemblance to Ernie Hudson of the film and is also African American. The Hook of the comic is also the officer who's assigned Eric and Shelly's case and waits with them as they die in the hospital (coming in to apologize to a brain-dead Eric before he goes back into surgery). Also as in the film, Hook becomes aware of Eric upon his return and attempts, unsuccessfully, to keep tabs on him. Eric, before heading off to finish his vendetta towards the end of the comic, leaves a note for Hook asking him to take care of his cat Gabriel and informing him that "He [the cat], it seems, is a she. Expect kittens in about six weeks." Hook is last seen walking home with Gabriel and muttering, "I hate cats. Shit." Despite the large amount of similarities between the film Albrecht and the comic Hook, there is the important distinction that the Hook never becomes Eric's ally in the comic and, in fact, the two never meet face to face after Eric's death (despite being well aware of each other).
* Eric and Shelly's murderers went from being just a gang of vicious thugs who committed the murders for fun to members of a crime syndicate that unofficially runs the city.
* In the comic, Gabriel the cat originally belonged to an old lady whom Tin Tin murders at the beginning of the story, and Eric later adopts as an anniversary gift to Shelly ("You always said you wanted a cat"). In the movie, Gabriel already belongs to Eric and Shelly. Also, in the film, Gabriel continued to live in the (Now condemned) home of Eric and Shelly, and is presumably left to Sarah and Albrecht at the end of the film; in the comic, Eric leaves Gabriel to Capt. Hook after he burns down his home, with a note revealing that Gabriel was actually a female, and expecting kittens.
* Shelby the Giant's character was recreated in the film as a man named Grange, who serves a rather different purpose. In the comic, Eric cuts off three of his fingers to gain information about the gang members, and forces him to swallow them after he refuses to talk; he is subsequently killed with a shotgun by Eric near the end of the comic series. In the film, as Grange, he serves as Top Dollar's second-hand, and is shot down by Albrecht in the church.
* In the comic, Eric has a very thin scar that runs from the bottom of his left eye to the other side of his nose. We are eventually told that this was created when T-Bird shot him in the back of the head. While a small (and occasionally missed) detail, this lets readers of the comic tell when they are looking at the dead Eric when he's not wearing make-up (as the comic uses a lot of flash-backs and non-linear story-telling).
* In the film, Eric apparently feels pain when he's shot and often recoils before composing himself. In the comic book, Eric never seems to notice being shot and, in fact, welcomes it and often mutilates himself in a variety of ways. The Eric of the comic also never becomes mortal again the way his film counter-part does.
* The film, especially with Brandon's Lee's charming performance, tends to make Eric seem more likable and less frightening.
* In the comic Eric constantly repeats that the Crow told him not to look while the gang raped and murdered Shelly. It is implied that if he hadn't watched, he may not have been so traumatized and needed to return for vengeance. Before the last showdown in the comic, T-Bird asks Eric if he has any last words before being gunned down to which Eric replies, "the crow said don't look!"
* In the film, along with the subsequent sequels, the Crow that follows Eric never says a word, but acts as Eric's "second eyes" helping him to scope out T-Bird's crew. In all of The Crow comic series, the magical Crow is clearly able to communicate with the protagonist, guiding them along the way as well as serving as a goad to keep them on track.
In the film, we actually see Eric applying his Crow face make-up; this is never shown in the comic series though we do often see the now-dead Eric (with scar) walking around the home he shared with Shelly without make-up (we don't know if he applies it or if it just appears and disappears at will). (although in several of the other spin-off series, such as The Crow: Flesh and Blood, the protagonist is shown putting on make-up). Also, in the film, Eric's Crow face make-up has a white undercoating. Many of the colorized pictures of Eric in the comics only shows the black markings, while the pale undertone is just Eric's natural complexion.
* In the film, Eric frequently uses firearms for the majority of his killings, the majority of which is a large cache of ("legitimate of course") weaponry he confiscated from Gideon's pawn shop. Although Eric does use guns throughout the comic several times, he seems more than capable of finishing off T-Bird's lackeys without (some times crushing their chests with his hands or smashing their heads into a brick wall). In general, Eric's methods of execution are a lot more graphic in the comic.
* In the comic, Eric kills Gideon by shooting him several times ("So much for the single bullet theory") before burning down the pawn shop. In the film, he allows Gideon to survive the encounter in order to relate a message to T-Bird's crew; in the comic, he actually has Funboy do this in return for the promise of a painless death.
* A character specific to the film is Top-Dollar's psychotic "sister"/lover, who is murdered by the actual Crow when it plucks out her eyes, causing her to fall down from the top of the church.
* Eric's main outlet in the film is a song he wrote for Shelly that he plays on an electric guitar he takes from Gideon's pawn shop. In the comic, Eric performs acts of self-mutilation as an outlet for his frustration.
* Tom-Tom is omitted, and is replaced by the character Skank. In the comic book, Skank was a cohort of Tom-Tom (One of Shelley's murderers) who got his head severed by Eric with a katana sword ("Have you ever seen Seven Samurai?").
* The film climaxes when Eric and Top Dollar have a sword fight on the roof of an old church. Top Dollar throws Sarah (Sherri in the comics) off the roof to distract Eric (who lunges to save her) and then stabs Eric in the back. Just before Top Dollar finishes off the now-mortal Eric, Eric gives him the 30-hours of pain Shelly suffered while dying in the hospital. All this pain all at once hits Top Dollar hard and causes him to fall to his death. The climax of the comic is rather different. Never having lost his immortality, Eric dispatches all of T-Bird's lackeys easily with his bare hands. T-Bird attempts to flee via car but spins out of control and crashes right where the gang murdered Eric and Shelly a year ago. Eric slowly walks up to him holding hammer. Eric asks T-Bird "How many angels can dance on the head of a pin?" and, when T-bird says he doesn't know, squeezes the hammer and replies, "It depends on the tune." The reader doesn't get to see how Eric presumably mangles T-Bird with the hammer. Both the comic and film then conclude with Eric returning to his grave and apparently reuniting with Shelly.
