The Crow by James O'Barr

That's wonderful!!! This is one of the best O'Barr Crows I have seen. Awesome pick up!!!!

Really love the atmosphere in this image -- especially the rain effects and how that orange neon sign is like a beacon amidst all the black and white.  Very cool splash of color that draws the eye.  

Beautiful CROW piece, congrats!   So many amazing pieces, keep 'em coming!

So cool!!!

28 years...I think something creaked just reading that. Yikes! The piece totally reminds me of that scene. It's been some years since I saw the Crow last. Might have to show it to the kid. :) Yeah, I really like how he rendered the rain plinking on Draven. His light source shading and highlights are very nice. I dig the new artist focus. Congrats! 

When I was posting the piece I decided to look up when Lee passed, and initially I did my math wrong.  I was like "18 years...wait...no...28 years?!"  Had the same reaction as you.  I'm sure I'll show the Crow to my boy at some point too...but probably not for a bit - he'll be just 5 years old next month.  Probably still a tad violent :)  Though we did dress him up, due to his long hair, as Eric Draven for his second Halloween!  Glad you like the new artist focus, J - I think I'll have at least a few more.  Thanks for the comments, all!

Very cool!

Love the movies and the comics are a classic! As you have done a thorough job of describing what's so cool about this drawing.. all I can think of is you missed talking about nipples. Yup! He has some sweet circle niples.  Huge Congrats!

Wait. I just took another look and while I stil like the nipples.. they are not perfect circles. So what I can add is to point out that its great that you got another piece by an artist with the same first name as last time you made a post on CAF. Not sure if you got any by a "Jim" .. but I know a lot of guys called James go by the name Jim. So you may be rich in quantity of Jim/James pieces if you take a closer look.  Congrats again on this sweet pick up! 

Maybe more ovals than circles?  :)  And yes, I've got 5 Jims and 2 James for a total of 7!  At least one more coming, too.  So that'll be 8.  I may get to double digits yet!  Thanks, for the comments, duke!

Great Piece K! I love The Crow! I Wish Brandon was still around to make his mark like his father, he was so talented. 

Great atmospheric piece indeed! Really captures the mood and vibe of the Crow.

You know it's funny, I never read a single Crow comic because my store never carried it, so my introduction was also the first film, yet I love looking at Crow art pieces when they turn up. This one is very lovely, by the way. Speaking of lovely, James and I met through my page on Facebook many years ago because I mainly used it to promote my love of vintage, mid 20th century illustration and he used to click the "like" button on everything I posted. He uses an alias though, so I never knew it was the guy who had created The Crow until years later. One day I posted on my page that I'd be setting up at my local comic con (selling prints of vintage illustration) and James told me he was an invited guest atthat show and suggested we meet up. We exchanged booth numbers and I expected to be the one to go see him. It turned out that I was super busy and couldn't get away from my booth, but the next thing I know, James is standing beside my booth waiting to introduce himself. I stepped out of the booth and we ended up having a great chat right there. I found him to be a really down to earth, great dude. I've since learned the sad story of what inspired him to create The Crow, and now I want to read the entire saga. But first it would need to be collected completely. Anyway, sorry for taking so much time to tell this story Kahlil, but your lovely piece inspired me to tell my little tale about James!

Hey man, no problem regarding taking some time/space up here - glad you did!  Always like hearing about interactions with artists, especially good ones.  I also found him to be very pleasant and forthcoming and grateful that fans wanted to talk with him.  Very cool that he went out of his way to visit with you!  Getting the whole story in collected format is definitely a good idea...here's hoping to see that done at some point.  Thanks, Ruben!

The original James o'barr crow is in fact available as a tpb.  There are a bunch more by other creators. They ate out there to be found.

Like Ruben, I'd love to see a collected The Crow TPB as well. Congrats on this really amazing piece! 

Very nice Crow sketch! Jim is great to chat with at cons too. Congrats!

Beautiful Crow rendition!!!

Love this and absolutely love James O'Barr's art. The pages from the original story pop up rarely and far inbetween but I love how he puts so much into his commissions/sketch work. The original book and story behind it really grips me and it seems James just gets better with time. Thank you for sharing this.

Thanks for the kind words, T. When I got this, I wasn't actually looking for a Crow or O'Barr piece, published or unpublished. But as soon as I saw it in his portfolio it immediately resonated. And similarly to how the book and story grips you it made me develop a greater appreciation for James and his magnum opus. Thanks, again!

Congrats on acquiring such a wonderful, wonderful image of one of Comicdom's greatest characters: The Crow. IMHO, O'Barr's Graphic Novel stands above all others as the Greatest Ever. The passion, the love, and the pain surrounding the life and death of his fiancee, Beverly, is evident in the raw emotion James' portrays in his work. This piece is no different. Congrats again on being able to call this beauty your own. 

Thanks a lot for the kind words, Mike - they make me appreciate this piece even more, especially coming from such a big fan of O'Barr's masterwork. And congrats to you as well on the great pieces in your gallery featuring Eric Draven!