The Crow

Rating:
Summary: Sometimes love is stronger than death.
Review: Forget the movie. You must read the comic that inspired it. Eric is a man who was killed while his girlfriend is raped and murdered. Not in that order, either. It seems that such an injustice cannot live on, and Eric returns from the dead angry, heartbroken, violent and invincible. He takes savage revenge on those who tore his life apart, all the while reliving, through flashbacks, the good times he had with his true love, which both angers and motivates him. A love story and a violent bloodbath of revenge. I do not know what happened to O'barr to inspire this, but it is one of the most finely drawn comics, and heartbreaking stories ever. It gives us the hope that perhaps death is not final, and that God does correct the wrongs in life, in the form of a crow.

Rating:
Summary: Feel the pain ooze off the paper.
Review: This book is amazing. This is the first graphic novel that is both emotionally disturbing and fixating. The pain O'Barr must have been going through, must be emense and it translates well on the paper- The pain simply oozes off the papers.

This graphic novel is a must for those who like the darker side of life, and those who like a good story. It's poetic, sad, funny (in brief moments) violent and disturbing. All the hallmarks of a classic. (You could go as far as to say it is Hamlet for a messed up generation, but I'm not.)

All in all, a great read. This graphic novel has to be up there in the graphic novel top ten list (which would also include sin city, Batman: The Dark Knight Returns and others.)

Rating:
Summary: Worth The Money
Review: Well, it was a few months ago when i ordered this book off Amazon, having heard so many good things about it. I am not heavily into comcis and graphic novels, but read the odd one now and again. And for those of you who seem to think this book is for teenage goths, I am just a normal teenage lad who was looking for something to read which was a bit more involving than the mainstream rubbish you seem to get these days.

And all I can say is 'wow'. The art is possibly the best I've ever seen (even if I was kind of suprised by Eric's somewhat femine appearance at times), and the writing is equally impressive. OK, so the gore is a bit over the top and perhaps un-needed, but if you look beneath it all you can see a very tragic story.

I am not even goin to mention James O'Barr and whatever it was that happened to him and inspired him to make this book, because it has no relation to the pure quality of it all.

An excellent read, and not just for goths!