Not unreasonably, James O’Barr has been taking a break from the comics industry, about a two-decade-long one. If you’re only familiar with the character through the somewhat overrated ’90s movie starring Brandon Lee, O’Barr largely wrote the original comic to deal with the death of his fiancee in a car crash.
And it shows. The original book is a mess, in a lot of ways, and probably one of the most vivid demonstrations of rage and grief in comics because it was literally O’Barr working through his emotional problems on the page.
Then he sold the rights, it became a huge hit and O’Barr suddenly was rich off his fiancee’s death. By all accounts, it didn’t do wonders for his state of mind.
Nonetheless, after twenty years away, he’s back. And he’s bringing a new Crow series to IDW.
IDW is currently running a fairly mediocre Crow miniseries, but this new one is worth looking at for two reasons. One, it marks the first time O’Barr’s come back to his character in a while.
Two, it’s set during the Holocaust, and called Skinning The Wolves.
Well, you certainly can’t argue he’s got a lack of ambition. It’ll be interesting to see how O’Barr balances his character, who’s essentially the manifestation of an insane rage fantasy, into one of the worst moments in human history. It’ll get started in December.