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Andrew Rawson


Last Updated: 3/20/2009

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Gender: Male
Status: In a Relationship
Age: 27
Sign: Pisces

City: Milwaukee
State: Wisconsin
Country: US
Signup Date: 12/7/2006

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Saturday, March 07, 2009 

Category: Movies, TV, Celebrities


This film has faced a lot of controversy throughout its production:
Paramount Pictures originally licensed the film, only to drop it later
like a bad habit, various critics and other publications have slandered
it, Alan Moore has hated every film adaptation of his works, and
various fans of the novel have been uproarious about it considering the
track record of comics films over the last two decades. I avoided the
hype as much as possible before seeing the film for myself, using only
the novel itself as my measuring stick for the success of the film. (I
Googled reviews and articles prior to writing this to see how things
were going for the film during its production and upcoming release)

When
it comes to comics-to-film adaptation, I am no exception to the rule of
stickler comics fans. I want to enjoy a film, but at the same time I
want to remember why I fell in love with the story to begin with, so I
tend to expect a damn close translation from book to film first off.
Only once that has been appeased can I begin to appreciate other
elements of the film. I must say despite the constant output of comics
movies (with only a few exceptions in recent years) I was most
impressed with the outcome of the Watchmen movie.

First,
I have to give kudos to the casting director. The actors that portrayed
the characters actually bared a striking resemblance to the characters
they were portraying. Hollywood did a good job with preserving the
outfits of said characters, too, unlike the typical revamped and over
dramatized wardrobe re-do's that typically inhabit a comics-to-film
adaptation. The only exception to that being that they made Silk
Spectre's outfit a bit more skin-tight than it was in the book, but no
complaints here.

Then there is the absolutely most important
element in any film or book: the story. There were very few rewrites
made in the film version of the story and only minor plot points were
rearranged in the film, which is something I felt was necessary since
so much time is spent in the novel with each of the supporting
characters that to replicate it for the film would result in a running
time exceeding three hours. The dialog was even preserved word for word
for most of the film, making quoting your favorite lines from the Watchmen
so much easier when seeing them alive and in motion on the screen in
front of you. For me it was very much like watching the book alive in
front of me.

The action was well balanced and kept very true to
the novel as well. This is something else I fear when watching a
Hollywood remake of my favorite comics: the potential for hyped action
sequences. Watchmen maintained its believability on screen when watching these exceptional people performing their civil duties.

Rorshach
- by far my favorite Watchmen. This was also true in the film. I don't
know if any of these actors were fans of the book, or researched it
prior to production (or if DC made sure it was done right) but these
characters were portrayed beautifully and I loved watching Rorshach's
shifting face on screen as he took vengeance against the scum of the
streets (and prisons) of New York. There were two parts of the book I
wanted to see in the film, one of them made it. The first was the scene
in Moloch's apartment when Rorshach jumps out of the fridge and attacks
him, the other was the prison canteen scene when he attacks another
inmate with a fry-basket of hot fat. The fridge scene unfortunately was
cut, but the prison scene was not and it was so fun to watch.

The
explosion that wipes out half of New York was revamped for the film,
but considering how much of the plot was devoted to Veidt creating a
monster and mastering teleportation to create that cataclysm, it was
probably for the better that it was done in the manner it was for the
film.

I will have to say that this is probably one of the best comics-to-film works I've seen since The Crow. It doesn't surpass it, but it definitely comes close to equalling it in its triumphs. I highly recommend seeing Watchmen, even if you've never read the book. I took my girlfriend with me to see it, she has no pre-existing knowledge of Watchmen beyond what I've subjected her to and she also enjoyed the film.

Hail Watchmen!



Currently reading:
Watchmen
By Alan Moore
Release date: 1995-04-01
9:28 PM 
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Sunday, January 18, 2009 

Current mood:  accomplished
Category: Art and Photography
Hello all!

I have been spending a lot of time between classes and homework studying more extensively on comics theory and anatomy to make Draven the project it truly deserves to be.

I started working some character sheets this weekend, since classes were canceled Thursday and Friday and I am feeling really good about this! I want to get character sheets done for a few more supporting characters and then I will be ready to post them!

The series will be revamped (no pun intended) and ready for online view sometime late '09 to early '10. I am going back to Dixon, IL (my old hometown) to take some reference photos for backgrounds and scenery over summer break (maybe even spring break) and then I will be able to start throwing the art together again!

I've been anxious to get back to this project, but also utterly busy with art school. This is going to be great and I can't wait to show you all how awesome the new character models look!

Until next time

Stay Evil

~D
Currently reading:
Anatomy for the Artist
By Sarah Simblet
2:52 PM 
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Monday, December 29, 2008 

Current mood:  happy
Category: Art and Photography

I'm with the family over winter break from school and I just wanted to drop a line to share some of the awesome stuff I received for Christmas, and it's comics related!

How To Draw Noir Comics - 2007 - Shawn Martinbrough

This is an excellent contribution to the noir genre of comics. Many of the "how-to's" floating around offer general information about how the comics industry works, or offer specifics on how certain companies (i.e. Marvel) expect their artists to do the work. Very little is offered on the noir genre of comics and this book makes an excellent addition to the library of anyone who loves comics, specifically noir. I personally love noir comics and the noir genre in general. It's one of my favorite genres to draw, so this book will definitely get some miles as long as it's on my shelf.

Shawn Martinbrough himself as a track record with DC, Marvel, Dark Horse and Vintage comics (to name a few). As an experienced artist, he has gained quite a bit of knowledge to be shared in this book (and hopefully more to come)!

More info on this title is available at the publisher's website: Watson-Guptill.com.

And for the MySpacers, there is also the "How To Draw Noir Comics" MySpace

Next on the list:

How To Draw and Sell Comic Strips - 1987-2004 - Alan McKenzie

This is the third edition of this book "How To Draw and Sell Comic Strips" by Alan McKenzie. I've previously read the second edition (1997) and thumbing through this recent edition, I can see that Mr. McKenzie had a lot more to add in over the seven years between editions! This book has it all: the creative process, comics theory, tools of the trade, how to get published, how to self publish and even a recent chapter addition on webcomics! This book is well worth its value and has much to offer. A definite must for comics fans.

This book can be found at most major bookstores and various online sites, such as Barnes and Noble.com

The third and final installment in my comics joy this year:

Making Comics - 2006 - Scott McCloud

Scott McCloud is definitely a guru when it comes to comics. He's been hailed by guys like Frank Miller as "probably the smartest guy in comics". This is one of three books Scott McCloud has authored on comics theory, the other two being Understanding Comics and Reinventing Comics. My favorite thing about Scott McCloud's approach is that he treats his books as comics, not "how-to" manuals. Each page is littered with illustrations of himself as a cartoon walking you through an adventure in comics theory. It would only make sense, right? If your subject is comics related, why not narrate it the same? Genius! Kudos to Scott for his approach, because he's the only author I've seen that narrates an entire book in comics format.

Scott has also been accredited for creating the "24-hour comic", a method for breaking writer's block that challenges the creator to make a full 24-page narrative in one day. This has since evolved into "24-hour Comic Day", a day when artists of all ages across the nation (and maybe even the world?) spend one day devoted to the creation of a 24 page comic. Also, Scott was the principal author of the Creator's Bill of Rights (1988) a document with the stated aim of protecting the rights of comic book creators and help aid against the exploitation of comics artists and writers by corporate work-for-hire practices. Needless to say, he's been a very busy man.

More info on Scott and Making Comics at: Scott McCloud.com

So that's all I have to share for today. These books are going to keep me busy for some time. If you love comics for any reason, check these books out! They could even be available at your library, that's where I find a lot of my reading on comics theory!

~D

Currently reading:
Making Comics: Storytelling Secrets of Comics, Manga and Graphic Novels
By Scott Mccloud
Release date: 2006-09-05
1:17 PM 
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Friday, December 19, 2008 

Category: Movies, TV, Celebrities

I just read on CrowFansOnline that there is talk of Stephen Norrington remaking the orignial 1994 release of The Crow.

Norrington remaking The Crow

To which I can only reply: wtf? Seriously, if it ain't broke then don't fix it. The original film starring Brandon Lee is still hailed as the most accurate comics-to-film adaptation of its time. The film is a masterpiece that has withstood the test of time. It has been proven time and time again that the original film cannot be touched. Each sequel that has been inspired by the film has turned into a soggy turd sandwich and the short-lived television series has been long forgotten by most.

Lee had a passion for the part that was unmatched and that certainly showed in his performance. He dropped weight, grew his hair out and fought alongside O'Barr to keep the film from turning into anything less than what it deserved to be. Good luck finding that in one of today's actors, Norrington.

Norrington was the director of the Blade film series as well as The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen. I enjoyed Blade and while I have not seen League, I know that even Norrington wasn't proud of that piece. I just don't feel good about Hollywood attempting to remake a film that was done right the first time, regardless of who they get to step onto the project.

O'Barr often opens these concepts to opinion of the fans, as he does enjoy their feedback and has taken it into consideration in the past, however I feel that no matter how many voices give a "nay" to this project, in the end it will be entirely up to Norrington if the film is made or not. I can assure you of one thing, though, and that is that I will not be seeing it when it is released.

 

~D

9:33 AM 
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Friday, December 19, 2008 

Category: Movies, TV, Celebrities

I know I've been away for some time, but I did mention this was going to be a "spare time" blog and having just come out of first semester finals, there wasn't much to be had.

But I'm on my winter break from school and took some time to catch up on a couple of comics films that I'd missed out on when they initially released.

Iron Man - 2008

This film was a huge success and I can surely see why. It was a very entertaining story with a lot of stimulating visual effects and I have to give Robert Downey, Jr. credit for his role as Tony Stark. However, I am a comics nerd and I must say this story was a chaotic frankensteining of the Iron Man timeline.

I should come to expect such things by now, as I have yet to see a comic film (especially of a Marvel adaptation) that does not exhibit timeline inconsistencies. I call this the "X-men syndrome". I call it that because, well, that's where it all started. When X-men was optioned to become a major motion picture, comics-to-film adaptation took a huge dive. Of course, there have been other films pre-dating X-men that weren't great but a lot of them were good. Micheal Keaton was Batman, Christopher Reeve was Superman and Brandon Lee was Eric Draven (which is still known as the best comic-to-film adaptation of its time with 1989's Batman at a close second).

While I could go on for some time about the flaws and inconsistencies of this film, I am going to have to give the film makers credit. Despite its flaws, Iron Man has given me hope for the comics/film industry because while it is far from a perfect adaptation it's better than what I've seen in previous comics films. I give Iron Man three and a half out of five stars.


The Incredible Hulk - 2008


I took my sweet time getting around to see this one, not necessarily because I was busy (and I was) but mostly because I was highly disappointed with the previous release (2003). For those who don't remember it (feel fortunate) it was a horrible mess of cgi and bad scripting. Marvel had a big mess to clean up after that one and they did.

The new release of The Incredible Hulk stars Edward Norton as Bruce Banner with Tim Roth and William Hurt playing supporting roles as Emil Blonsky (The Abomination) and General Ross, respectively. With this adaptation, the film makers used the opening credits to explain the origin of the Hulk and thus allowing the story to start with Banner already affected by the gamma radiation. This was a much different approach from typical superhero/comic films as we generally are exposed to that as part of the storyline during the film.

While this film is also full of storyline inconsistencies, it was not as highly noticeable as it is with most comics films. The Abomination was actually an early villain in the Hulk series and being as we start off 158 days without incident since Banner's becoming the Hulk, it is a very close timeline compared to most. The effects that were used in this adaptation were not nearly as cheesy and over-exaggerated as they were in the 2003 release and actually made the Hulk transformation far more believable than in the previous film. We also saw hinting towards the creation of Leader, another villian from the Hulk series and there is word of a sequel. With the production team that led this Hulk film, I have faith that the next one could also be a strong film. At the very end we see Robert Downey, Jr. reprise his role as Tony Stark in a cameo informing General Ross that "we" are thinking of forming a team, which could be an allusion to The Avengers or possibly some other idea they intend to use with just Iron Man and The Hulk.

I've read that there is going to be a film for The Avengers due for release in 2011 and a possible Hulk sequel in production in 2012, however it is unknown if Norton himself will reprise the role of Bruce Banner.

I have to give much kudos to Marvel for their bounce-back from the previous Hulk release and give this film four out of five stars.

~D

9:29 AM 
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Sunday, October 19, 2008 
It's that time of the week again, folks!

This week it's one of my favorite single issue series.

Spawn (1992) - Todd McFarlane



Spawn was one of the original series to come out of Image Comics in it's earliest conception. The time period was a weak one for comics and comics publishers, so for Todd and his colleagues to take a plunge into founding a new company was definitely a bold move.

Spawn is a character endowed with many abilities: Superhuman strength, speed, durability and endurance; immortality, flight, various magical abilities, teleportation, shape shifting, regenerative healing factor, necroplasmic energy blasts, ressurection and empathy. He wears a symbiotic suit that has evolutionary capabilities. Spawn is a not-so-typical "Heaven vs. Hell" series that began as a super-hero tale and later evolved into an anti-hero series, which is more suited I think for a character like Spawn. Other aliases he has been referred to in the series are The One and Hellspawn. Although, in a previous life he was known as Al Simmons.

Al Simmons was a CIA agent, killed by his employer because he was witness to the corruption within the system. He is sent to Hell upon his death, where he meets the devil of this series, Malebogia. He makes a pact with Malebogia so that he can return to Earth to see his wife again. In signing this deal, he becomes what is known as a Hellspawn, one of the generals of Hell's army. He is returned to Earth with a babysitter of sorts known as the Clown (aka Violator). He attempts to see his wife one last time and discovers that she has remarried and has a child. Though it seems like only a matter of moments or days passed in his transition, Simmons has been dead for five years at this point.

Over time, Spawn meets many different characters and battles many criminals as well as supernatural entities. While he may be attempting to regain his humanity, he is still marked by the gifts he received from Malebogia. This of course brings the wrath of Heaven's forces down on him and his renegade status causes him to battle Hell's minions as well.

The first metamorphosis occurs after a near death battle with the Redeemer. At this point, the suit changes from red with a smooth cape to the more widely known black and white costume with a raggedy cape and free moving chains. Eventually, amongst the other demons he battles, he discovers the true identity of the Clown as the Violator, one of Hell's most powerful forces and one of five Hell-born demons.

The series has inspired many spin-offs; including Angela, Curse of the Spawn, Sam and Twitch and the Japanese Manga Shadows of Spawn. It was also adapted into a feature film in 1997 and an HBO animated series, lasting from 1997 to 1999. It remains one of the top 10 selling titles in the U.S. and there is rumor that McFarlane will be returning to the production process as a writer. It has also been said that if he gets a feel for it again, he may also illustrate the series again. Spawn was also recently condensed into trade paperback form, consisting of at least five volumes that I know of, with Vol. 1 already becoming a hard to find, out of print gem.

Spawn gets 4 1/2 stars out of five from me.

Stay Evil,

~D
Currently reading:
Spawn Collection, Vol. 1
By Todd McFarlane
4:11 PM 
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Monday, October 13, 2008 

Category: Art and Photography
It's time for the next review.

The Punisher (1974-) - Marvel Comics



The Punisher is one of my all time favorite single issue series. In the world of hit or miss story lines at Marvel, Punisher seemed to maintain a pretty strong hold, in my opinion. He started out as a villain in The Amazing Spiderman and was eventually spawned off into his own series in the 80's

In the early 1980s, artist Mike Zeck and writer Steven Grant proposed creating a Punisher series. Marvel published a miniseries whose premiere (Jan. 1986) was bannered on the cover as the first of four. After this first issue immediately sold out, Marvel expanded the miniseries to five issues (as then bannered on the cover of 2) and began active promotion.

An ongoing series, also titled The Punisher, premiered the next year. Initially by writer Mike Baron and artist Klaus Janson, it eventually ran 104 issues (July 1987 - July 1995) and spun off two additional ongoing series — The Punisher War Journal (vol.1) (80 issues, Nov. 1988 - July 1995) and The Punisher War Zone (41 issues, March 1992 - July 1995), as well as the black-and-white comics magazine, The Punisher Magazine (16 issues, Nov. 1989 - Sept. 1990), and The Punisher Armory (10 issues, no cover dates, starting 1990), a fictional diary detailing "His thoughts! His feelings! His weapons!" (as stated on the cover of 1). The Punisher also appeared in numerous one-shots and miniseries, and made frequent guest appearances in other Marvel comics, ranging from superhero series to the Vietnam War-era comic The 'Nam.

The series suffered a decline in sales in 1995 and Marvel pulled the plug, the series eventually ended with Castle committing suicide, the only real end for a man like The Punisher.

He was later resurrected in a limited miniseries ran under the Marvel Knights series as a supernatural being that was a pawn between angels and demons.

Frank Castle was a man with established military background. One day, his family is killed and those responsible believed Castle to be dead as well. They were wrong. Castle then became the character known as The Punisher, an antihero who considered killing, kidnapping, extortion, coercion, threats of violence and torture to be acceptable crime-fighting tactics. He was not blessed with any superpowers, he was just an ex-Marine with a vengeance streak and a thirst for vigilantism. He has encountered some Marvel superheroes over time (Daredevil, Spiderman, Wolverine, Captain America, Ghost Rider, etc) although in most cases, whether or not he bests them, he leaves substantial collateral damage in his wake. His homicidal tendencies leave few of his antagonists to return for later series.

The Punisher has also made appearances in the Marvel Civil War series, although his time line was never altered like most of the other characters.

I remember once, there was a question of the Satanic aspects of The Punisher on a message board I frequent (yes, if you were unaware, I am a practicing Satanist. Let's save that for another time). So here is my response to that discussion:

"Ok, I think that Frank Castle does display some Satanic traits, and I'll tell you why. Frank Castle is a vigilante, who instead of turning his cheek and rolling over dead, decides to extract revenge on those who killed his family and attempted to do the same to him. We can overlook the whole legality behind vigilantism because it's a comic book, a fairy tale if you will.

While he does seem to be rather grumpy, I have seen him show compassion for those worthy of it. He doesn't hate everybody, just those worthy of his hate, such as scumbag criminals. This also in a sense promotes responsibility to the responsible because he is holding those criminals accountable for their actions. Considering this is all he really has to live for, that could be perceived as vital existance, but that could be pushing it.

He definitely treats man as an animal, rather than something superior. In fact, I'd go as far as to say he treats most who cross his path as less than an animal. Which is fine by me.

On the other side, he is manic-depressive and tends to dwell on his troubles and misery. He carries the death of his family on his shoulders and allows it to control him to a level of OCD. He doesn't seem to really enjoy his life. At the same time, he uses that to fuel his new calling as a vigilante. So it's really a matter of perspective.

I could go on and on, but I think I'll leave it at that for now."

Overall, I would have to give The Punisher a four star rating. It was good while it lasted, but I think Marvel may have pushed it a bit.

Until next time,

Stay Evil,

~D
Currently reading:
Essential Punisher, Vol. 1 (Marvel Essentials)
By Gerry Conway
1:06 PM 
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Monday, October 06, 2008 
This week, we are going to change the format.

I've decided to post a review about a webcomic, rather than a printed comic.

Battles Without Living Witnesses - (current) Jason Thibault



This is a webcomic series written and created by Jason Thibault of Optimum Wound Comics. The series is a "life on the streets" tale about a low-rent hitman who is caught in the middle of a war. An associate of his, Chongo, makes the mistake of taking out the female interest of a big-time gang leader. This causes said gang to go on a manhunt looking for every person associated with Chongo, including our protagonist. Eventually the police are dragged into the story as well and it becomes an all out battle to survive.

Jason's approach to animating the series is very interesting. He uses mixed media incorporating photo and hand drawn ink work. His ink work is fantastic and on the level of photographic in and of itself. He also provides commentaries at the bottom of every page, offering a sort of "behind the scenes" look at how he came to compose each frame and what he was attempting to accomplish in said ink work. It is a phenomenally composed webcomic, to say the least.

The first twenty four pages of this current running series are available for view at Webcomics Nation.

This series also warrants a five star rank, in my opinion.

Be sure to check out some of the other available series from Optimum Wound Comics, which are linked at their WCN main page.

Until next time,

Stay Evil,

~D
11:55 PM 
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Friday, September 26, 2008 

Current mood:  devious
Greetings!

It's that time of the week again, where I will be reviewing another favorite comic. This week's pick is another graphic novel favorite of mine.

Johnny The Homicidal Maniac (1995) - Jhonen Vasquez




Johnny The Homicidal Maniac, often abbreviated JTHM, is another noir style comic that I have enjoyed numerous times over the years. In it's early days, it was published as a strip in the magazine Carpe Noctem and then was later picked up by Slave Labor Graphics as a seven issue series. The series ended up having two spin-offs Squee and I Feel Sick. Eventually it became a trade paperback titled JTHM: Director's Cut(cover image).

My favorite way to describe the series is like a demented rendition of Dante's Inferno. In the tale, Johnny lives a twisted life, eventually dies and then wanders between both heaven and hell. Eventually he returns to earth in the closing chapter.

Johnny C., or NNY as he prefers, is an insomniac deranged killer who elaborately kills anyone who irritates him and drains their blood to paint a wall in his house in order to prevent a monster from escaping. (It's strange, I know, but trust me you'll love it.) Johnny will even kill anyone he perceives to be innocent to appease this wall. Despite the amount of people Johnny has killed, many witnessed by the public eye, he seems to elude any attention from authority figures. He's seemingly non-existant. This leads Johnny to believe than an outside force is intervening with his life. Johnny's primary goal is to become devoid of all human emotion.

Strangely enough, while most "Director's Cut" anything seem to add things that were left out, this series was actually cut down in the director's cut. The story is still the same, save for one line I've caught. In Part 7, when NNY is arguing with Reverend Meat, the original line "Kill my stomach if I'm hungry!" was replaced with "Then I'll forget my stomach if I'm hungry!" In the original book, the text was edited out entirely, leaving only a white block where the dialog was. This has since been fixed, and the edited line appears in subsequent printings of the book.

Also removed were some of the intermission cartoons. The single issue series featured Happy Noodle Boy, Wobbly-Headed Bob and True Tales of Human Drama. However, in the Director's Cut we are left with simply Happy Noodle Boy.

Vasquez is also cleverly known for hiding things in his comics. The Johnny series cannot be read once and have everything seen. There are many hidden contents within the pages of NNY. For example, in each frame where Johnny's shirt can be seen, the image changes. The background scenery has hidden messages, such as on boxes on shelves, posters, and other people's clothing. Vasquez also likes to put his own commentaries into his work, almost like a film director. Vasquez has always been intrigued by the film process and loves to emulate it in his own work.

With the Johnny series, Vasquez also touched on something important in life; destruction through imagery. Imagine a time in your life when someone really pissed you off. Now, go back to that moment and change something, this time you have a knife, the roles are reversed and you can destroy that which has tormented you. Essentially, that was the purpose Johnny served for Vasquez. He created a central character as a representation of his self and used it to destroy the things/people in life that really pissed him off (It's okay when it's make-believe! :D).

I've read this book countless times and piss myself laughing just about every time I read it. Johnny gets six out of five stars. :D

The JTHM: Director's Cut can be purchased here.


Until next time,

Stay Evil,

~D

I've read this book countless times and damn near piss myself laughing every time.
Currently reading:
Johnny The Homicidal Maniac: Director's Cut
By Jhonen Vasquez
1:13 PM 
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Saturday, September 20, 2008 

Current mood:  awake
I figure since I don't have much time for updating the series, I'll take a little time between homework projects to submit a weekly comics blurb. There is no particular goal with this, I just want to take the time to give my personal review of some of the books that have inspired me over the years and, if I have time, review some stuff I get a chance to read these days.

We'll start off this thing with an obvious choice.

The Crow (1989) - James O'Barr



The Crow was a series created by James O'Barr, originally written to help him through the death of his girlfriend. The series was originally published as a single issue series by Caliber Publishing. The series didn't reach it's completion until Tundra released the final issue in 1992. Kitchen Sink Comics then picked up the project and re-released it in it's more widely known graphic novel format.

The series became a huge success and was later spawned into four additional series, published also by Kitchen Sink. It was also optioned by Dimension films and became a major motion picture adaptation starring Brandon Lee, Ernie Hudson and Micheal Wincott to name a few. Lee unfortunately gave his life in the process of making the film, but nevertheless left us with some fantastic footage.

Years later the story became a long series of sequels. I believe a sixth film adaptation is in production. It also spawned a lame excuse of a television series, which became the inspiration for the third film. I don't recommend watching any of the sequels with exception to "The Crow: City of Angels." The film wasn't great, but did have it's moments.

Somewhere in the midst of the movie mania, Image Comics optioned to do a re-creation of The Crow in a two part graphic novel featuring fantastic artwork by Todd McFarlane. In tradition to the previous series, McFarlane released his rendition as a ten part single issue series in addition to the two graphic novels (Pt 1 & Pt 2).

The plot in the series was about a man named Eric Draven, a rocker who had everything in line in his life. Then one day, a gang of thugs and dealers crosses paths with himself and his fiancee, Shelly Webster. The two are killed as a result and left for dead by the highway. Roughly one year later, Eric's soul is resurrected by a crow and he is brought back to life with one purpose: revenge. Eric is allowed to walk the earth and hunt down those who wronged himself and his fiancee. The perks to his resurrection are that he cannot be harmed in any way physically and he has all the time in the world to kill his enemies. The only Achilles heel to his gift is the crow, it is his link to the land of the living. Nobody seems to learn this in the comic, despite the knowledge of it in the film adaptation.

The story grows into an explosive revenge tale. O'Barr's fantastic artwork gives great visual to a great story. The central character is meant to be an embodiment of O'Barr and his feelings at the loss of his own love and he uses that to fuel a phenomenal tale filled with graphic violence and sadistic humor.

The book is also filled with numerous allusions to music that inspired O'Barr as he was creating the tale. There are bits of lyrical content from various songs by Joy Division and The Cure. The structure of Eric Draven's character is laced with references to some of those bands as well. Some examples would be Joy Division's Ian Curtis, Bauhaus' own Peter Murphy and Iggy Pop. Some of the supporting characters are equally laced with allusions to the music that inspired this production.

The book was re-released over recent years with an additional 60 pages of artwork and a new cover. Most of the reinserted pages are story that was edited for space and additional romantic flashbacks between Eric and Shelly.

The Crow Graphic Novel can be purchased here.

I would definitely have to give this series, in all of its forms, a five star rank.


Next week, we'll look into another one of my personal favorite graphic novels.

Until then...

Stay Evil,

~D
Currently watching:
The Crow (Miramax/Dimension Collector’s Series)
Release date: 2001-03-20
1:14 PM 
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