Plot Summary Eric Draven and his girlfriend Shelly are stranded in the middle of nowhere when their car breaks down. Approached by a gang of drug-addled thugs, Eric is shot and paralyzed and can only lie helplessly as his beloved Shelly is raped and beaten to death in front of his eyes. They are left to die there on the side of the road. One year later, restless and ferociously angry Eric is brought back from the dead by a crow, who leads him into the living so that he can seek his revenge on Shelly's killers. Tortured by memories of his life with Shelly, Eric seeks out and annihilates each of the killers, one at a time. During this journey he meets and befriends a young girl, Sherri, who lives by her wits because her mother is too addicted to drugs to look after her. Eric does his best to take care of her while remaining dedicated to his mission of murder. This graphic novel tells a story not only of violence, but of redemption and true love.
Critical Analysis
James O'Barr's storyline is anguished and intensely personal, as he wrote this graphic novel to cope with the death of his own girlfriend, who was killed by a drunk driver. The fact that the characters and sentiments are close to him shine through in the power of the art and the story itself. Eric is a complicated and rich character. He is both unremittingly strong and vicious in his vengeance, and weak to the point of collapse in his grief over the life together that he and Shelly lost. His journey is not only about finding and killing the men who took their lives, but about coming to terms with what happened before he returns to the world of the dead. He relives memory after memory, some good, some bad, ultimately finding himself there at the death site again, watching as Shelly is killed and desecrated. The crow is with him at this point, telling him that he doesn't have to look, but Eric cannot look away - here in particular is his intensity as a man and as a supernatural figure demonstrated. Eric is killing murderers, but in doing so he becomes a murderer himself. He becomes almost demonic. This is the irony of his story. As for the artwork, it is gorgeous. Drawn completely in black and white, O'Barr moves back and forth between a frenzied, splashy but controlled ink aesthetic, and a delicate, ethereal pencil and shading aesthetic. The scale of the panels also changes according to the mood of the story, so that some pages are tiled to show progression, and some pages are taken up by one large moment. The Shelly memories are particularly haunting and pale. She is clearly the most carefully rendered work in this graphic novel. He also makes brilliant use of negative space in both black and white, so there are period of silence in the story according to Eric's mood. Peppered throughout the text are quotes and passages from a variety of sources, such as the bible, song lyrics, classic literature, and poetry, lending a timeless and highly intelligent air to this work. Overall, this work is a classic that influenced many graphic novels published after it. Seeing as it was originally conceptualized and drawn starting in 1981, it was clearly ahead of its time.
Reader's Notation
Eric and his beloved girlfriend Shelly are brutally beaten and left to die on the side of the road by a gang of thugs. After witnessing this, Eric is brought back from the dead by a crow to seek his revenge on their killers.
About the Author
James O'Barr was an orphan who grew up in the foster care system. He has long been interested in the arts. As a child he studied Renaissance sculpture, photography, and live models. In 1978 his fiance Beverly was killed by a drunk driver. In response, O'Barr joined the Marines to help cope with this loss. He also began drawing and writing what would be come The Crow. His story of revenge did not help him process her death, however, but made him increasingly angry and self-destructive.
The Crow, most notably, was made into a major motion picture starring Brandon Lee, who was tragically wounded and killed during the filming. It formed a cult following, in part due to this. The graphic novel was quite successful on its own, selling 750,000 copies worldwide. O'Barr was the second American to be given the Storyteller Award at the International Comic Festival. He continues to write and illustrate graphic novels today.
Genre
Graphic novel
Challenge Issues
Possible challenge issues in this book include profanity, violence, murder, death, rape, paranormal elements such as returning from the dead, and depictions of sex and nudity. In the event of a challenge, I would consult the challenge defense file prepared for this book. The challenge defense file would include: positive reviews from credible sources for the purpose of proving merit to the challenger; negative reviews in order to inform me on what might be challenged; a written explanation of my own rationale for including the book in the collection as well as a summary of the plot; the American Library Association Bill of Rights; a review of my branch’s selection policy; and, as a last resort, an explanation of the reconsideration policy for my library and an official reconsideration form.
Curriculum Ties
Art: pen and ink style, movement, contrast, and scale.
Booktalk
Eric, shot in the head, is forced to helplessly watch as his girlfriend is violated and viciously killed, before they are both left for dead. Even dead, however, he cannot forget what happened to them and is brought back to the land of the living to seek revenge. This graphic novel is beautiful, heartbreaking, and above all powerful, a story of love and what happens to it when it is ripped away.
Reading Level and Interest Age
Grades 10-12.
Grades 10-12.
Why I Included This Book
I loved both the movie and the graphic novel as a teenager. James O'Barr' intensity and passion are etched into the pages, into every stroke, making this a very affecting story for any age group. In particular, teens will respond to its fearlessness.
References
James O'Barr. (2011). Wikipedia.org. Retrieved from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/James_O%27Barr
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