When James O’Barr came up with the idea for The Crow in 1981, all he wanted it to achieve was emotional catharsis. He was a 21-year-old US Marine stationed in Berlin, still reeling from the death of his fiancée at the hands of a drunk driver a few years earlier while they were still in high school. He didn’t know if the comic he was writing and drawing would ever get published.
“It was just a way of getting it down on paper,” James told The Los Angeles Times in 1994, referring to the grief he still felt. “I had never done anything that personal before.”1
The first issue of The Crow wouldn’t be published for another eight years, but this story of an undead avenger seeking retribution against the men who killed him and his fiancée took on a life of its own, thanks in large part to the 1994 movie adaptation.
That film, directed by Alex Proyas and starring Brandon Lee as the title character, aka resurrected rock musician Eric Draven, became a cult hit. With the tagline ‘Real love is forever’, its aesthetic influenced countless rock, metal and goth artists, while a brilliant soundtrack featuring everyone from The Cure and Nine Inch Nails to Rage Against The Machine and Rollins Band helped reshape the way
