The Crow: Shattered Lives & Broken Dreams

Crow Rating: 3 1/2 Crows

Author: James O'Barr & Ed Kramer (editors)

Published: Nov 1998, hardcover (368 pages) softcover fall 1999

Book Overview
This is an anthology of stories, poems, and drawings inspired by The Crow. James O'Barr and Ed Kramer (co-editor of "The Sandman" anthology) are the chief editors. O'Barr, along with some of today's best "dark" authors, such as Alan Dean Foster, Ramsey Campbell, Gene Wolfe, Storm Constantine, Nancy Collins, Andrew Vachss, and Chet Williamson, contributes a new short story. O'Barr also contributes some poetry , as well as two members of the music community, Iggy Pop and Henry Rollins. Each story is accompanied by original artwork, drawn by respected artists such as O'Barr, Ron Walotsky, Rob Prior, Tom Canty, Tim Bradstreet, Don Maitz, and Bob Eggleton. The reissued soft-cover edition has a different cover, as well as the addition of a few more poems and artwork than what the original hard-cover version has.

Personal Thoughts
I enjoyed the combination of story, art, and poetry into one volume with a common theme. I was a bit disappointed with O'Barr's new short story, "Spooky, Codeine and the Dead Man". It seemed to be too much like his Eric / Shelly story from his original comic. I had hoped for a totally different take on the original premise. A point that needs to be made is that the majority of the stories and poems are not of the "Crow" theme. They are stories and poems that spotlight the dark side of human nature. Some of the poems are a little hard to understand. However, they fit the foreboding aire of the book. Readers will recognize Chet Williamson's name from his work on other Crow books such as "Clash by Night" and the novelization of "The Crow: City Of Angels". Williamson's story is one of the few that follows the Crow premise, and as usual, he gives us a good story. I had mixed feelings about some of the artwork. But, you have a lot of different artists rendering different interpretations of a similar theme. Preference is up to each individual's particular taste. You will enjoy this anthology a lot if you do not expect the stories to follow the original Crow premise. Just sit back and enjoy reading stories by some of the best modern gothic authors who put their own spin on the love and tragedy theme.

Where to find this book
This novel is out of print. You can, however, find it though retailers who have access to warehouses that may contain out of print items (Barnes & Noble, Books-A-Million, Walden's, Hastings). You can also try Amazon.Com. They can conduct a search for out of print items. Another online place is eBay online auctions. Just go to www.ebay.com and do a search on "The Crow" from the book section.