J. O'Barr, "The Crow"
I really should have known better. One guy who comes in the store fairly often and is both friendly and engaging recommended this to me.
�I don't know, man,� I said. �That movie really sucked.�
�That's because they made it a kid's movie! This is nothing like that. It's got the best storyline I've ever read, and the writing is just beautiful!�
I should mention that this guy was gothed out to the maximum. All black clothes, crazy huge boots with ten million buckles and belts all over them, the fucking ankh symbol hanging from a chain around his neck that rested against a Sisters of Mercy shirt — the works. All he needed to do was cry a lot.
Just the fact that he said the writing was �beautiful� should have been warning enough. I mean, Jesus, there might as well been a siren blaring.
"WHOOP! WHOOP! DANGER! BACK AWAY FROM THE GOTH!"
But I bought the book anyway, and about two weeks later a copy came through which was priced fairly cheaply. I leafed through it when I first bought it, put it on my shelf, and there it sat for a full year. Now I've read it.
Deep breath.
No wonder goths are so depressed all the time. It's all the bad poetry and Joy Division lyrics (which get quoted not once, but TWICE in this graphic novel). The lack of gender identity is apparent here as well, as the hero looks like a cross between Robert Smith from The Cure (who also get quoted) and Siouxsie Sioux.
In the meantime, the character goes into the typical comic book revenge fantasy, which in this case deals mostly with people involved with hip-hop or punk, because they always give goths a hard time, don't'cha know. (One of the guys killed is wearing not only a Black Flag shirt, but a Misfits jacket.) In between it all we get mountains of bad poetry and lots of brooding.
Still, just so I don't come off as bitchy as some of the deathrockers I know, I have to say the art is pretty good in this.
