THE CROW PAGE 38

Andres Gallego
11-14-2010
Reviewing The Arts
“The Crow Page 38” by James O’Barr

A place of intense pain and anguish can produce truly moving art, and it is such the case with James O’Barr’s “The Crow.” The experience of seeing his work is a mental challenge as it asks you to almost take your emotional temperature in an odd way. “It wasn’t like she had an illness or something that was anticipated. Just one day out of the blue, someone decided to get drunk and drive down a side street at 70 miles an hour and suddenly she was just gone. I don’t know if I actually believed in a god, but if I did I really felt betrayed by him. Why make this beautiful perfect flower and just trample it? What was the meaning of that? I almost felt like I was being punished like I’d finally been shown this thing and allowed hold it for just a moment and then it was taken away as a bitter joke. I definitely lost my faith in human nature for awhile there.” Recalled comic book author O’Barr on the incident that triggered the creation of his cathartic graphic novel “The Crow.” O’Barr created this story about a man who returns from the dead to seek justice for the gang murder of his girlfriend and himself, after experiencing a state of intense pain with the loss of his fiancé’ and not knowing how to deal with it. The graphic novel is filled with many astounding panels, but the one that truly stands out is page 38. Page 38 is where you feel and smell O’Barr’s blood, sweat, and tears the vividly on. You can sense that this may have been the most difficult thing O’Barr had to draw because in this panel, a ghost figure and a crow are getting ready to take away Shelly from Eric in a grisly manner.

The female, Shelly, represents a pure spirit with her being bare and naked. “Shelly was a just a literal translation of Beverley. I just tried to capture her innocence. Eric was a vehicle for my emotions since I was never quite comfortable in drawing myself.” as O’Barr explains the intention he had in drawing these characters. The Crow and Skull Cowboy (only his gun is shown) are the manifestation of all the negativity and the darkness that can come from life. Most importantly on the panel, you can sense that Eric is O’Barr’s wanting of not wanting to lose that moment with a loved one. As if Eric is demanding for time to not move on and he desperately doesn’t want to lose that white light in his life. The gun in that sequence represents the cold power of life in that scene. A gun has so much potential power in the fact that the loud shots fired have taken lives, changed history, and causes insant fear. Looking deeper into the page, the page is a three act structure. The first act is that sense of euphoric sense of happiness you get in a wonderful relationship translated into the line “Here’s where you smile”. The second act, is that moment you do want that light in your life for the rest of your life and you make the inner pact in yourself to never let it go. That second act is translated to the line “Now the Eternal Love part.” Then the last act is the crow and the Skull Cowboy readying to take away this happiness in Eric’s life. That third act is translated into the line “Idiot.” What O’Barr is trying to say in the page is that happiness, while sublime, will never last. There is no such thing as eternal happiness. Looking at the page, the crow is the only thing that looks towards the camera. Although Eric is a manifestation of O’Barr’s emotions, The Crow is a manifestation of O’Barr’s bitterness and anger towards the world. The whole page is O’Barr himself is referring to the reader and him breaking the forth wall in a metaphorical sense.

Overall, this page is definitely rooted in a place of intense bitterness and anger towards the world and you can sense O’Barr’s distain for life and human nature in this panel. It captured his emotional state so vividly and better than any panel that O’Barr almost makes it impersonal with the framing of each of the characters on the page. These are his dreams and memories. You are outside and given only a peek into his world. While hard to feel anything positive has come from this page in the end, the page makes you feel that sense of loss that O’Barr had at that point in his life. Anybody can relate and recall a moment that they lost someone important in their life, and O’Barr hits that emotional nail straight on it’s head. While O’Barr’s artwork while disturbing, it’s personal and elegantly beautiful. Something that is seldom seen in today’s comics and graphic novels. Overall, O’Barr’s artwork is moving and emotionally charged with every line that it asks you to feel the intense pain that the author endured. With the experience of viewing this piece, you come to know O’Barr more personally without having to have met him.