Visual art / Literature
James O'Barr
born 1960 · comics artist, writer
Detroit comics artist who created The Crow, a dark revenge story shaped by personal loss and by a Detroit murder case, later a cult film.
- Born
Detroit, Michigan
age 66- Detroit years
- 1960s–1980s
- Field
- Visual art, Literature
01 / The Detroit story
The Detroit story
O'Barr grew up in Detroit and began The Crow while serving in the U.S. Marines, as a way of working through grief after his girlfriend was killed by a drunk driver. The story took further shape from a Detroit newspaper account of a young couple murdered over a $20 engagement ring. After his discharge he returned to Detroit, where he kept painting and illustrating while working a day job at an auto body shop. The Crow, a stark black-and-white tale of a murdered young man who returns from the dead to avenge himself and his fiancée in a decaying city, was first published in 1989 and became an underground hit. The 1994 film adaptation, set on the eve of Halloween in a city modeled on Detroit, became a cult classic, overshadowed by the accidental death of its star, Brandon Lee, during filming. The Crow has since spawned sequels, comics and a 2024 remake.
Highlights
- Created The Crow (first published 1989)
- Drew on a Detroit news story of a couple murdered over a $20 ring
- Worked at a Detroit auto body shop while developing the comic
- The Crow film (1994) became a cult classic