2001 An “Interesting” Year For The Crow
Well, here we are at 2002. First of all, thank you to everyone who continually visits A Boy & His Bird. I always brag that we have the most dedicated fans on the net. We received two awards this year, “Golden Web Award” and the “SciFi site of the week”. We appreciated the recognition and again, attribute our success to those who visit us and push us to do better. We are entering our 6th year of providing Crow news on the web. The time just seems to be flying by.
After all the fury of previous years, 2001 was pretty much a quiet year in the Crow world.
We have a lot coming in the year 2002. Here is a break down of what went on in the specific areas of The Crow during 2001 and the projects coming up:
Comics
There has been no new Crow comics put out since the Image Crow series finished up in 2000. Recently, Comics Continuum received word that a new Crow comic series is close to being announced. The distributor and the initial story arc will be made known then. If everything goes well with the initial story arc, the new distributor could start picking up where Kitchen Sink Press left off.
DVD/ Crow Movies
Fans finally got the release of Salvation on DVD in March 2001, along with the boxed set. However, the boxed set came with a major cloud hanging over it. Due to last minute circumstances that were out of the control of many involved in the distribution of the boxed set, key supplementals were left off. A 90 minute making of feature entitled “The Crow Chronicles”, as well as further footage included on the official “making of” feature and never before seen stills were all left off the first movie's DVD. This seemed to take the wind out of the boxed set's sails. Not to mention, the suggested retail price of $89.99 was too much for many fans. Most retailers offered the boxed set for a cheaper price, $69.99, but still, the damage was done. Then David Schow, accusing certain persons of sabotaging the release, put out a scathing article. What was to be a joyous occasion for fans turned into a mudslinging disappointment.
Ideas for Crow 4 are still being tossed around, with hope that we will get word this year of a firm story premise and start up date. The last word we had was the premise ideas being strongly considered are a female led storyline and a premise based one of the Harper/Prism Crow novels. As visitors to our site have known since March 2001, Pressman decided not to go with the Lazarus premise for Crow 4. It still lives, as a project starring DMX, but it WILL NOT be a Crow movie.
Again, we fielded questions in regard to Rob Zombie's Crow script “The Crow: 2037”. Pressman again released a statement this year that the script will not be made into a Crow feature. However, they felt the story and script are strong and have held on to it as a possible project to work on outside the Crow premise.
Animated Series
Kevin Eastman's group has optioned the rights to do this. It is in very early pre-story and pre-production stages. Hopefully word will come out this year on a status. You can read the article here that mentions the proposed Crow project as well as everything else that Eastman's group is working on.
Merchandise
As always, throughout the year we kept you up on the latest merchandise releases (which were not many). Late in 2001, Dynamic Forces announced their merchandise contract to release new Crow products in the year 2002. They will start off with a Brandon Lee bust and later in the year will have everything from trading cards, to lithographs of all the Crow characters that have been created over the years. This is a welcome development given the fact that since Kitchen Sink Press went out of the comic business; new merchandise has only been trickling out.
Novels
The latest Crow novel was released in mid 2001. Entitled Hellbound, it ushered in a totally new perspective on the Crow mythos. With the release of Hellbound Harper/Prism completed their contract of Crow novels. No new distribution agreements have been announced for further written novels. Read the article on Hellbound and Harper at Cinescape.
The Crow: Stairway To Heaven & Further TV Incarnations
Back in June, 2001, Mark Dacascos made it be known that he has no intentions of ever going back to the Eric Draven character on a weekly series basis. This puts to rest any chances of STH coming back with Draven. Mark did say he would participate in a 2-hour finale movie, if one were ever created. He feels that the shows fans and the characters deserve closure.
The news of Mark not wanting to do the series anymore does not totally put to rest the idea of a live-action weekly Crow series. Other premises continue to be looked at with no leading storyline contenders to report. This is not something that is currently on the burner, but as with anything, it could heat up at a moments notice.
James O'Barr
James pretty much stuck to the convention circuit in 2001. He put out no new product. His latest distributor, Peregrine, did release some old drawings of his in a compilation book entitled “Savages”. These are early works of James' in the sword and sorcery vain. As always, James has promised fans that a re-worked version of the original Crow comics are in the works, along with a new Crow story entitled “Oktober” and a non-Crow creation entitled “Gothik”. All of these continue to be rumored and no firm official dates on when we will see them.
Crow Fan-Fiction
As always, fans are staying active creating wonderful fan-fiction. Two of the more high profile creations are the C3 online comics and the recent Crow-een 2k1 contest. With the coming year, I expect more fan inspired work in the vain of C3 to come out. The fan-base is one of the more creative ones around and we like to show our love for the genre with stories and creations of our own. We continue to highlight those creations on A Boy & His Bird, so continue to send us updates on your work and we will give them a fitting stage.
In memory of……
This year saw another young actor from a Crow movie pass away. Thuy Trang, who played Kali in “The Crow: City of Angels”, passed away during the Memorial Day 2001 weekend in a car accident. Thuy was widely known as Trini, the original Yellow Ranger from the “Power Rangers” first two seasons. Thuy is the second actor from COA to pass away. Ian Dury, who played Noah, passed away in 2000 due to liver cancer.
In closing...
Well, that is about it in a nutshell. We are gearing up for a very productive year. I look forward to it. To see the complete year in review, check out our news archive for the year 2001. As always, we remain your continuing source of Crow news on the net.
Come what may…..take care.
