Прошу принять к сведению:
суббота, 19 апреля 2008
лишь утратив все до конца, мы обретаем свободу...
могу ли я разместить рекламу неформального форума?
воскресенье, 16 марта 2008
Только те, кто предпринимают абсурдные попытки, смогут достичь невозможного.
На правах рекламы)
diary.ru/~gothic-rock/
Сообщество о Готик Роке, в нём вы не только узнаете о новых командах, но и полуите возможность ознакомиться с ними)
при поддержке gothicrock.ru/
diary.ru/~gothic-rock/
Сообщество о Готик Роке, в нём вы не только узнаете о новых командах, но и полуите возможность ознакомиться с ними)
при поддержке gothicrock.ru/
суббота, 08 марта 2008
... и я вернусь домой, в старый замок в горах, когда будет окончен мой путь.
желаю счастья, здоровья, успехов , удачи и любви!
четверг, 17 января 2008
Imagine : c’est la guerre et personne n’y va !
Собственно,здравствуйте..)
среда, 16 января 2008
вот неудача
Кто-нибудь знает магазины готической одежды в Москве?
Пмогите!!!
Пмогите!!!
вторник, 08 января 2008
Sind geboren fur Liebe...
Спам удален администратором
воскресенье, 30 декабря 2007
Stranger to the others, I'm stranger to myself
Петиция на установление памятника Брендона Ли на Аллее Славы в Голливуде.
www.thepetitionsite.com/takeaction/927860626?It...
www.thepetitionsite.com/takeaction/927860626?It...
суббота, 01 декабря 2007
Stranger to the others, I'm stranger to myself
Stranger to the others, I'm stranger to myself
Arizona Daily Wildcat
In less than two weeks, James O'Barr will become a household name. His comic-book cult creation-turned movie thriller, "The Crow," explodes into theatres on Friday the 13th. "The Crow" creator recently walked the Wildcat through his private world of angst and angels.
Wildcat: There's already a very positive buzz in Hollywood coming from the preview screenings of the film. Have you had a chance to see it?
O'Barr: I loved the movie. Though I'm apt to be the harshest critic, being the author, the film stays remarkably true to my vision. But the real star of the picture is Brandon (Lee), and he is just absolutely breathtaking in this role, just heads and tails above anything he's ever done before. He runs the whole gamut from crying sentimentally in one scene to being a total killing machine in another. He pulls it off brilliantly.
Wildcat: What was your inspiration in the development of "The Crow" project, which is heavily bent on revenge?
O'Barr: Basically, I had read a newspaper story about a young couple that had been killed over a $30 engagement ring. I thought that was totally outrageous, and I used that as a pivotal point, and then I had a personal tragedy in my own life that also fueled the whole working of the comic.
Wildcat: Is it safe to say then you find yourself relating to the lead character in "The Crow"?
O'Barr: Yes, I had a lot of anger and outrage that I really had nowhere to vent it. Luckily, I took up a safer route than self-destruction and started to almost document it on paper.
Wildcat: Previous to your career on the comics scene what were some of the other jobs you worked?
O'Barr: I've pretty much done everything. I worked in nursing homes, I did auto body work for six years, I was in the Marine Corps, went to medical school for three years. I'd do something until I got bored with it, then move on to something more challenging. I'm really having fun now and testing my boundaries in the comic field and film work.
Wildcat: Then your work with comic books has come only recently?
O'Barr: I started doing comic full-time two years ago. "The Crow," I did the entire thing part-time when I was working at the auto shop. I would hammer sheet metal and suck bondo dust all day working on cars, come home and draw until one or two in the morning. It was strenuous, but I was pretty obsessive about finishing this thing.
Wildcat: In retrospect, to have the film hitting theaters in a couple weeks and doing these interviews left and right, has this made up for some of the early struggle?
O'Barr: It has. And to see the fans who tend to be very critical of the film because it's something really personal to them, to see them really enjoy it, applaud it and say its one of the best films they've ever seen. It really makes me happy, because I had to fight long and hard to keep the original vision intact, as Hollywood has a tendency to do. You need to look no further than "Captain America" to see that.
Wildcat: It seems "The Crow" has made it fairly quickly from book to movie form. Don't most movie adaptations of comic characters sometimes take agonizing years to get to the silver screen?
O'Barr: It was pretty much unheard of, because it was bought for a film before it was finished. I hadn't finished the last issue when they started working on the sсript. It's been about four years, but if you think about how long it takes for some things to make it to the screen that's an amazingly short amount of time. I mean, Jacob's Ladder took like 12 years to make it to the screen.
Wildcat: The movie's soundtrack seems to have a distinct thematic quality to it. There's quick opening song, rocking and diverse middle section and a melancholic closing track. How much of an input did you have in the collection of artists on the soundtrack?
O'Barr: Quite a bit. That was part of my contract was that I had sсript approval and input on the soundtrack and the actors. I gave the producer a list of bands to approach about doing new songs, and a list with previously recorded material, you know, the things I was listening to when I drew and wrote it. What made it onto the CD was actually one-third of what was submitted. Smashing Pumpkins, Psychedelic Furs did some great songs. Sisters of Mercy had a song titled "Under the Gun," but after the accident they thought it was inappropriate and pulled it.
Wildcat: What are some of your favorites?
O'Barr: I really like the Jane Siberry song. The title of the song refers to a line that's said in the movie about four times. I'm really happy with the Cure song, too. Robert Smith has been a fan of the comic for awhile. He's one of the people I know actually reads the comic, because there are lyrics in the song that aren't in the film. The opening lyric is "Don't look, don't look," which isn't in the film, but is the basis for the comic book.
Wildcat: Aside from "The Crow," what other projects are you currently working on?
O'Barr: I'm doing a series ries for Dark Horse comics called Gothik. It's kind of a cyberpunk story, but there won't be a whole lot of high-tech stuff in it. It's set in Detroit five to 15 years in the future and has five main characters, one of them is named Blixa. He's basically a 7-foot killing machine, and the main character's name is Johnny Zero, who's kind of the antithesis of Eric (The Crow). He's a really fucked up young man with a drug problem. So I'm dealing with a lot of the same themes, but take them to even more of an extreme, and it's very difficult because a lot of it is based on true life experience, but I really think it's going to pay off for me.
Wildcat: Throughout the interview you've made references to Blade Runner, is it safe to say that's one of your all-time favorite movies?
O'Barr: Yeah that's one of my favorite films. I think I've seen it in its entirety almost 15 times and parts of it I watch just to see how Ridley Scott cuts from angle to angle and shadowing and things like that. I'm a big fan of the Cohen brothers stuff too, "Miller's's Crossing." I also liked "Barton Fink," the camera work and the way they moved in the film's atmosphere.
Wildcat: Looking ahead the next five years, what's in the future for you?
O'Barr: I don't really think that far ahead. I plan on sticking with comics for a long, long time. I do have a band I play in and we are going to have some releases on Trent Reznor's label. It's called Trust Obey. It's myself and John Bergin, who has done some comic work, and we have a five-album deal with Reznor's record label, but my main focus is the comic work. There, I get to be all the actors, the director, the screenwriter and I have total control over it.
In less than two weeks, James O'Barr will become a household name. His comic-book cult creation-turned movie thriller, "The Crow," explodes into theatres on Friday the 13th. "The Crow" creator recently walked the Wildcat through his private world of angst and angels.
Wildcat: There's already a very positive buzz in Hollywood coming from the preview screenings of the film. Have you had a chance to see it?
O'Barr: I loved the movie. Though I'm apt to be the harshest critic, being the author, the film stays remarkably true to my vision. But the real star of the picture is Brandon (Lee), and he is just absolutely breathtaking in this role, just heads and tails above anything he's ever done before. He runs the whole gamut from crying sentimentally in one scene to being a total killing machine in another. He pulls it off brilliantly.
Wildcat: What was your inspiration in the development of "The Crow" project, which is heavily bent on revenge?
O'Barr: Basically, I had read a newspaper story about a young couple that had been killed over a $30 engagement ring. I thought that was totally outrageous, and I used that as a pivotal point, and then I had a personal tragedy in my own life that also fueled the whole working of the comic.
Wildcat: Is it safe to say then you find yourself relating to the lead character in "The Crow"?
O'Barr: Yes, I had a lot of anger and outrage that I really had nowhere to vent it. Luckily, I took up a safer route than self-destruction and started to almost document it on paper.
Wildcat: Previous to your career on the comics scene what were some of the other jobs you worked?
O'Barr: I've pretty much done everything. I worked in nursing homes, I did auto body work for six years, I was in the Marine Corps, went to medical school for three years. I'd do something until I got bored with it, then move on to something more challenging. I'm really having fun now and testing my boundaries in the comic field and film work.
Wildcat: Then your work with comic books has come only recently?
O'Barr: I started doing comic full-time two years ago. "The Crow," I did the entire thing part-time when I was working at the auto shop. I would hammer sheet metal and suck bondo dust all day working on cars, come home and draw until one or two in the morning. It was strenuous, but I was pretty obsessive about finishing this thing.
Wildcat: In retrospect, to have the film hitting theaters in a couple weeks and doing these interviews left and right, has this made up for some of the early struggle?
O'Barr: It has. And to see the fans who tend to be very critical of the film because it's something really personal to them, to see them really enjoy it, applaud it and say its one of the best films they've ever seen. It really makes me happy, because I had to fight long and hard to keep the original vision intact, as Hollywood has a tendency to do. You need to look no further than "Captain America" to see that.
Wildcat: It seems "The Crow" has made it fairly quickly from book to movie form. Don't most movie adaptations of comic characters sometimes take agonizing years to get to the silver screen?
O'Barr: It was pretty much unheard of, because it was bought for a film before it was finished. I hadn't finished the last issue when they started working on the sсript. It's been about four years, but if you think about how long it takes for some things to make it to the screen that's an amazingly short amount of time. I mean, Jacob's Ladder took like 12 years to make it to the screen.
Wildcat: The movie's soundtrack seems to have a distinct thematic quality to it. There's quick opening song, rocking and diverse middle section and a melancholic closing track. How much of an input did you have in the collection of artists on the soundtrack?
O'Barr: Quite a bit. That was part of my contract was that I had sсript approval and input on the soundtrack and the actors. I gave the producer a list of bands to approach about doing new songs, and a list with previously recorded material, you know, the things I was listening to when I drew and wrote it. What made it onto the CD was actually one-third of what was submitted. Smashing Pumpkins, Psychedelic Furs did some great songs. Sisters of Mercy had a song titled "Under the Gun," but after the accident they thought it was inappropriate and pulled it.
Wildcat: What are some of your favorites?
O'Barr: I really like the Jane Siberry song. The title of the song refers to a line that's said in the movie about four times. I'm really happy with the Cure song, too. Robert Smith has been a fan of the comic for awhile. He's one of the people I know actually reads the comic, because there are lyrics in the song that aren't in the film. The opening lyric is "Don't look, don't look," which isn't in the film, but is the basis for the comic book.
Wildcat: Aside from "The Crow," what other projects are you currently working on?
O'Barr: I'm doing a series ries for Dark Horse comics called Gothik. It's kind of a cyberpunk story, but there won't be a whole lot of high-tech stuff in it. It's set in Detroit five to 15 years in the future and has five main characters, one of them is named Blixa. He's basically a 7-foot killing machine, and the main character's name is Johnny Zero, who's kind of the antithesis of Eric (The Crow). He's a really fucked up young man with a drug problem. So I'm dealing with a lot of the same themes, but take them to even more of an extreme, and it's very difficult because a lot of it is based on true life experience, but I really think it's going to pay off for me.
Wildcat: Throughout the interview you've made references to Blade Runner, is it safe to say that's one of your all-time favorite movies?
O'Barr: Yeah that's one of my favorite films. I think I've seen it in its entirety almost 15 times and parts of it I watch just to see how Ridley Scott cuts from angle to angle and shadowing and things like that. I'm a big fan of the Cohen brothers stuff too, "Miller's's Crossing." I also liked "Barton Fink," the camera work and the way they moved in the film's atmosphere.
Wildcat: Looking ahead the next five years, what's in the future for you?
O'Barr: I don't really think that far ahead. I plan on sticking with comics for a long, long time. I do have a band I play in and we are going to have some releases on Trent Reznor's label. It's called Trust Obey. It's myself and John Bergin, who has done some comic work, and we have a five-album deal with Reznor's record label, but my main focus is the comic work. There, I get to be all the actors, the director, the screenwriter and I have total control over it.
Stranger to the others, I'm stranger to myself
K2K: So, to get some background, when did you do The Crow originally?
JO: I started it in 1981 when I was in Berlin, trying to deal with a personal tragedy. I was being too self-destructive in my life and I needed to do something like get it down on paper or something or I was going to end up dead. Berlin was just way too close to Amsterdam. I worked on it off and on for, like, six years in fifteen to twenty page increments. It was really difficult to work on. It was painful to go back to that. I never really thought about selling it. It was more for myself.
When the independent books started taking off, when Comico first started, I thought somebody might be interested in it. I sent it out to virtually every publisher that was out there. No one was interested in it. Either they all said it was too violent or not violent enough. It's too depressing, it's too moody. Nobody wanted it. So I put it on the shelf and thought it would be a personal project.
K2K: The original inspiration was the drunk driving accident though, right?
JO: Yeah.
K2K: How did you get from that to coming up with the actual storyline that you did?
JO: I'm from Detroit and I had read in the newspaper about a couple who were killed over a twenty-dollar engagement ring. I thought that that was so outrageous that I thought that would be a good typical point for the story to work around. So I kind of based it on that.
K2K: I had spoken with you before about the characters in the movie and you had mentioned that you had known these people or that they were real people from Detroit or something.
JO: Yeah, pretty much everyone who was in the book is a real person - either somebody I knew or was inspired by or some of them were even facets of my own personality, the parts I wasn't too happy with.
K2K: Embellishments?
JO: Yeah, yeah. All the names were actual gang names that I took off the walls of graffiti. T-Bird, Tom-Tom, Top Dollar, Spooky Stone, they're all real gang members in Detroit. I don't know if they know they've been immortalized in film or not.
K2K: What can you tell me to explain "Devil's Night" for those who don't really know about it.
JO: I thought it was a universal thing across the whole USA, that the night before Halloween, people go out and burn abandoned buildings, abandoned houses, warehouses, dumpsters on fire. I thought they did it across the U.S. because they did it every year in Detroit since I was a kid. When I'd tell people about it, they'd always look at me like I was stupid. Around 1985, in Detroit, it got some tremendous press. There were people from everywhere coming to Detroit to watch it burn on Devil's Night. There were, like, 25,000 reporters there for Devil's Night, so they kind of cracked down on it after that. They call it Angel's Night now because every single cop who is in Detroit is out that night. They have patrols. They keep it down to nothing now. The idea was that there were so many abandoned houses in Detroit - every other house is abandoned - to keep them from turning into crack houses, the people in the neighborhoods burn them down. They were all built in the 1920s and 1930s. They're beautiful houses. They're huge 5,000 square foot houses, but they haven't had any upkeep because they're in the ghetto with welfare families who have the "I don't own it, so why should I take care of it" mentality. The houses are like garbage. You could buy a mansion in Detroit for about $5,000, but it would cost you $50,000 to bring it up to code.
K2K: That's so funny because, coming from Silicon Valley, I'm used to seeing houses that used to cost about $150,000 now going for about $3 million. People would die to buy a house for $5,000 no matter what the extra costs. They should advertise the low purchase prices in Detroit to bring in outside interests.
JO: They need to do something. Detroit, people think it's the murder capital of the country. It's not even scary or dangerous, it's more sad. It's just empty skyscrapers and empty buildings. Dead neighborhoods. There are no major gangs in Detroit like Bloods or Crips. It's just small gangs of about 20 to 30 people. Neighborhood gangs.
K2K: Is it dangerous to walk around?
JO: No, not really. There are some definite bad areas that are obvious. You just don't wander around the ghetto. I lived in the worst part of Detroit for probably six years and never had any trouble at all. Not one incident. If you respect people, they will respect you back. Usually, you know where you're going to get in trouble in the city.
K2K: To get back to the Crow - Did you have any part in the casting of the first film?
JO: Yeah, I was real heavily involved in choosing the cast and making choices. They consulted me on pretty much every aspect of that.
K2K: Did you know Brandon Lee before the film?
JO: Not before The Crow. I first met him when they brought him in for me to talk to him to see if I thought he would be right for it. I thought he was perfect. The night before I met him, I had seen "Rapid Fire". In that movie, even though he's energetic and he does the action screens great, after he hit someone, he seemed almost apologetic. "I didn't really mean to do that." I didn't think he was threatening enough. He had some great screen presence, but I didn't think he was menacing enough. I was skeptical when I saw that. After I met him, I thought he was perfect. I couldn't picture anyone else beside him after meeting him one time. He was a huge fan of the comic. He knew phrases and lines of dialog from it. He was real instrumental in keeping it faithful to the comic. The first sсript they had pretty much had nothing to do with the comic. I was like, "What the f*** is this?" They buy this property and then completely change it into something that's completely different. What was the point of buying it if you were going to change it completely different. He was instrumental in bringing it back to the book.
K2K: The scenes, the death scenes, were changed. What I was wondering was about the Crown of Thorns scene from the comic book, where Eric is stabbing the needles into his chest that has the Crown of Thorns carved into it. Why was that taken out of the movie?
JO: I don't know. I thought those, where he was cutting his arms up so that he could have physical pain to match his emotional pains, I thought those were some of the most powerful moments in the book. They thought that nobody was going to identify or have empathy for a hero who is into self-mutilation.
Actually, they changed it in the movie where Eric is fighting with Fun Boy, in the loft. Fun Boy grabs a razor. Actually, Darla picks it up and drops it on the floor. There is a scene after that, a great scene where Fun Boy wakes up in the shower and there's this big fight where Fun Boy gashes up his arms and his stomach and that's why [Eric] has electrical tape on his arms and his stomach. The scene was so vicious that they cut it out. They submitted it five times and it got an X-rating every time, for the violence. I think they were overly sensitive over what happened to Brandon. They were looking at every little thing in there. It was ridiculous. Brandon choreographed all the fight scenes himself and spent a long time doing it. They were magnificent.
K2K: Are those scenes filmed and will they be released on a Director's Cut?
JO: Edward R. Pressman films tells me that there is not enough interest to warrant a Director's Cut. I keep telling them. They said it would cost $500,000 to reinstate the cut scenes and synch the sound together and put music in - which is practically nothing. They'll make that back in the first week of video and DVD rentals.
K2K: The DVD is plain. There is nothing special on it.
JO: They don't have a clue of what a huge market there is for it. There's probably another hour and a half of interviews with Brandon that haven't been seen either. I was there, or right afterwards, where Brandon was in full costume and they did a full interview with him. It's where he's talking about all the action scenes and the gunplay. "I get shot fifty times in this next scene." They were like "We don't want anyone to see that since he got shot." So they have forbidden Brandon Lee interviews that are just sitting on a shelf somewhere. They are great because he says a lot of really philosophical elements throughout the thing. It's stupid. They don't think, "We'll never see another film from this guy." because he's gone. It's just sitting on the shelf somewhere. It's aggravating to me.
K2K: So, was there a religious reason for taking out the Crown of Thorns scene?
JO: No. It was the same thing. Nobody ever brought that up to me and the director was pretty keen on keeping the religious elements in it. They made sure that the church stayed there and stuff.
K2K: What did you think about the second film, "City Of Angels"?
JO: I thought the second film had a lot of possibilities. It looked beautiful, like a Renaissance painting with the dark browns and scarlet reds. Vincent Perez is actually an excellent actor but I think he was miscast. That was unfortunate because he gets the blame for ruining that film and he actually did a tremendous job for what he was given.
K2K: In the end, it just wasn't believable.
JO: It was a bad sсript. It was another first-time director and all of his flaws were evident. The pacing was off on it. It would have a nice action segment and then it would stop for ten minutes with exposition of talking and explaining what's going on. It was like, the material is not that deep. The audience knows what's happening. Ninety-nine percent of these people saw the first one and know what's going on. You don't need to explain it again.
K2K: What about the ending with all the crows coming down from the heavens?
JO: Yeah, yeah. I argued and argued about that. It was just pointless and plus, it was a cheap effect. They needed something big for the ending and here was this cheap $10,000 CGI effect that looked totally cheap.
K2K: The original idea that you had for The Crow, was that it? Was there never supposed to be any more?
JO: Well, I thought it would be possible for the crow to come back and bring somebody else back. This wasn't a one-time thing for Eric. There are possibly other things that are tragic and outrageous enough for a person to come back and avenge it.
K2K: In the third film ["Salvation"], we were talking about the helicopter where he explodes it, killing many innocent people.
JO: Yeah, and then he goes into a room and kills ten innocent cops? Bad writing. And what was the s*** with the fake arm? What really got me was that the killer convinces Eric that he did kill his girlfriend. What is the whole point of that?
K2K: And in the spirituality, he would have known the truth.
JO: Yeah, he would have known that he had nothing to do with it.
K2K: So, is this going to be released or not?
JO: It would be my guess that it is going to go straight to video. They released it in Europe last month, as a test to see how it would do, and it didn't do well at all. I think they're just going to dump it on video. They already got their $10 million, their money back in the European release. It will do well on video but I can't see them putting any more money behind it. If they have a decent release, it will probably be another $6 million in prints and advertising, unless they did selected screenings.
K2K: Will there be any more Crow movies?
JO: They had the rights to do three Crow movies with me and then they have to renegotiate it with me. I'm going to pursue an animated Crow film or perhaps a TV series. I think, with the films, the budget got smaller with each successive film. It started at $20 million, then went to $15 million and then to $10 million. I think the way to go, to expand it, is animation, where there is no limits to what you can do. With Batman, it shows you that you can do something decent with minimum amount of money and you're only restricted by your imagination on animation.
K2K: Did you like the Crow TV show?
JO: I saw the possibilities but I think that they didn't know where to go with it.
K2K: I thought it was better than the last two films.
JO: Well, I liked Mark Dacostas. I thought he had a lot of potential. Usually you have to wait until the second season before the cast and crew get their ledge, to know what direction to take it. They didn't get the chance to do that. There were some really good shows and some really bad show. It had a million and a half dollars per episode budget, shot in Vancouver, which is like $3 million U.S. currency.
K2K: Why wasn't Mark cast in the Crow movies?
JO: He was considered for the second one but I told them he looked too much like Brandon. I told them, "Everyone is going to think that you're trying to replace Brandon and they're going to hate you for it." They agreed and went with somebody else.
K2K: Do you still feel that way now?
JO: I thought it was far enough removed from the first film. Enough time had gone by that people wouldn't feel that way. When you're doing the sequel six months after the first film was released, I just wasn't into that at all. I only see greed as a reason to do a sequel so soon after Brandon's death.
K2K: What about further comic book issues?
JO: We're re-releasing the graphic novel as eight individual issues with new covers and two to six pages of new artwork per issue. It's finally going to be the way I wanted it to be.
K2K: About your artwork in the past - Some of it seemed choppy and some seemed well thought out.
JO: That was stretched out over ten years and I got better as time went on. When I first started out, I had done a lot of paintings and drawings and stuff but I wasn't that familiar with comics. There were things that I wanted to do but didn't know how to do back then. As time went by, I learned my own strengths and weaknesses and learned how to do things I wanted. It opened up for me. A lot of that stuff I'm going back and fixing now. There are going to be before and after pages in there where I've changed the scene around and added a few pages and fixed some anatomy. It's going to be like a Director's Cut. That's going to lead into a new Crow series that I'm writing and drawing.
K2K: Your art has become quite brilliant over the years.
JO: Thanks. I've been working really hard at it. Even though I haven't published a whole lot of stuff in the last three years, I have been working and doing things for myself and just practicing on things. I don't feel intimidated by a blank page anymore at all. I don't feel intimidated by the things I couldn't do before. It just seems wide open to me now. I'm excited about doing comics again.
K2K: Do you like doing color or just black and white?
JO: It depends on your subject matter. I always thought the Crow belonged in black and white. The first film was sort of washed out looking in monochromatic colors.
K2K: How would you describe The Crow, the original idea, in one word?
JO: Bitter.
K2K: I found that a lot of people who don't like to think called it horror whereas I saw it as a romance.
JO: Well, it was a romance story but it was anger at having lost romance. Basically, the first book was just one big, long scream about what had happened to me in life.
K2K: Currently, have you found anything to replace that with?
JO: Yeah, I'm finally happily married. It's actually like Brandon's death brought things full circle for me. It gave me the perspective that I couldn't find before. So something good did come out of it for me, at least.
K2K: What other projects are you working on right now?
JO: I did a series called "Zeitgeist", which is a story about two brothers who are immortal who have been trying to kill each other for the last thousand years over a woman. Northstar published the first three installments of it. That's something that I want to finish up this year. I have this book called "Gothic" that I've been working on for six years. It's a fully painted series. I have three hundred pages done on it and probably have another hundred to go. That's been my pet project for years and years.
K2K: Any movie projects out of those?
JO: "Gothic" has been optioned for a movie.
K2K: Are you worried?
JO: It's the same producer who did the Crow, so he's willing to let me supervise it. I'm working on storyboards for a science-fiction western called, "Kerosene & Mr. Joe", which has been a lot of fun to do.
K2K: Otherwise, have you and Ed Pressman and them all get along well?
JO: Not especially, no. They understand what I think is important to the fans, so they try to get me to endorse the stuff to the fans. But, I'm not going to do it. I'm not going to lie to the fans. If something is s***, I'm going to tell them. So that worries them sometimes. When I wouldn't endorse the second one, they got really, really upset with me. It's not a very amicable relationship.
With that, it was closing time at the Comic Con for the day and we were all herded out. We spoke again shortly after to clear up some issues regarding Brandon Lee's accidental shooting and about Ed Pressman and Buena Vista pushing James O'Barr as representing the two sequels. James made it very clear that the two films were not handled properly, nor with full respect, and he has nothing to do with them. The PR folks at both of the aforementioned institutions may like to advertise it so, but it isn't true. In regards to Brandon Lee, James shed some light on some new stories that were uncovered regarding nonunion workers having used the guns the night before the accident, leaving live bullets in the chamber which were not properly checkd and identified the next day. The accident could have been avoided in several different ways, which clearly shows an illegal amount of negligence all the way around. Now that the legal control of The Crow is back in the hands of its creator and visionary, we can expect some good things in the near future. As one of the moodier and inspired writers / artists of today, James O'Barr is the Edgar Allen Poe of our generation. He has given us a classic piece of work that will continue on for some time to come.
JO: I started it in 1981 when I was in Berlin, trying to deal with a personal tragedy. I was being too self-destructive in my life and I needed to do something like get it down on paper or something or I was going to end up dead. Berlin was just way too close to Amsterdam. I worked on it off and on for, like, six years in fifteen to twenty page increments. It was really difficult to work on. It was painful to go back to that. I never really thought about selling it. It was more for myself.
When the independent books started taking off, when Comico first started, I thought somebody might be interested in it. I sent it out to virtually every publisher that was out there. No one was interested in it. Either they all said it was too violent or not violent enough. It's too depressing, it's too moody. Nobody wanted it. So I put it on the shelf and thought it would be a personal project.
K2K: The original inspiration was the drunk driving accident though, right?
JO: Yeah.
K2K: How did you get from that to coming up with the actual storyline that you did?
JO: I'm from Detroit and I had read in the newspaper about a couple who were killed over a twenty-dollar engagement ring. I thought that that was so outrageous that I thought that would be a good typical point for the story to work around. So I kind of based it on that.
K2K: I had spoken with you before about the characters in the movie and you had mentioned that you had known these people or that they were real people from Detroit or something.
JO: Yeah, pretty much everyone who was in the book is a real person - either somebody I knew or was inspired by or some of them were even facets of my own personality, the parts I wasn't too happy with.
K2K: Embellishments?
JO: Yeah, yeah. All the names were actual gang names that I took off the walls of graffiti. T-Bird, Tom-Tom, Top Dollar, Spooky Stone, they're all real gang members in Detroit. I don't know if they know they've been immortalized in film or not.
K2K: What can you tell me to explain "Devil's Night" for those who don't really know about it.
JO: I thought it was a universal thing across the whole USA, that the night before Halloween, people go out and burn abandoned buildings, abandoned houses, warehouses, dumpsters on fire. I thought they did it across the U.S. because they did it every year in Detroit since I was a kid. When I'd tell people about it, they'd always look at me like I was stupid. Around 1985, in Detroit, it got some tremendous press. There were people from everywhere coming to Detroit to watch it burn on Devil's Night. There were, like, 25,000 reporters there for Devil's Night, so they kind of cracked down on it after that. They call it Angel's Night now because every single cop who is in Detroit is out that night. They have patrols. They keep it down to nothing now. The idea was that there were so many abandoned houses in Detroit - every other house is abandoned - to keep them from turning into crack houses, the people in the neighborhoods burn them down. They were all built in the 1920s and 1930s. They're beautiful houses. They're huge 5,000 square foot houses, but they haven't had any upkeep because they're in the ghetto with welfare families who have the "I don't own it, so why should I take care of it" mentality. The houses are like garbage. You could buy a mansion in Detroit for about $5,000, but it would cost you $50,000 to bring it up to code.
K2K: That's so funny because, coming from Silicon Valley, I'm used to seeing houses that used to cost about $150,000 now going for about $3 million. People would die to buy a house for $5,000 no matter what the extra costs. They should advertise the low purchase prices in Detroit to bring in outside interests.
JO: They need to do something. Detroit, people think it's the murder capital of the country. It's not even scary or dangerous, it's more sad. It's just empty skyscrapers and empty buildings. Dead neighborhoods. There are no major gangs in Detroit like Bloods or Crips. It's just small gangs of about 20 to 30 people. Neighborhood gangs.
K2K: Is it dangerous to walk around?
JO: No, not really. There are some definite bad areas that are obvious. You just don't wander around the ghetto. I lived in the worst part of Detroit for probably six years and never had any trouble at all. Not one incident. If you respect people, they will respect you back. Usually, you know where you're going to get in trouble in the city.
K2K: To get back to the Crow - Did you have any part in the casting of the first film?
JO: Yeah, I was real heavily involved in choosing the cast and making choices. They consulted me on pretty much every aspect of that.
K2K: Did you know Brandon Lee before the film?
JO: Not before The Crow. I first met him when they brought him in for me to talk to him to see if I thought he would be right for it. I thought he was perfect. The night before I met him, I had seen "Rapid Fire". In that movie, even though he's energetic and he does the action screens great, after he hit someone, he seemed almost apologetic. "I didn't really mean to do that." I didn't think he was threatening enough. He had some great screen presence, but I didn't think he was menacing enough. I was skeptical when I saw that. After I met him, I thought he was perfect. I couldn't picture anyone else beside him after meeting him one time. He was a huge fan of the comic. He knew phrases and lines of dialog from it. He was real instrumental in keeping it faithful to the comic. The first sсript they had pretty much had nothing to do with the comic. I was like, "What the f*** is this?" They buy this property and then completely change it into something that's completely different. What was the point of buying it if you were going to change it completely different. He was instrumental in bringing it back to the book.
K2K: The scenes, the death scenes, were changed. What I was wondering was about the Crown of Thorns scene from the comic book, where Eric is stabbing the needles into his chest that has the Crown of Thorns carved into it. Why was that taken out of the movie?
JO: I don't know. I thought those, where he was cutting his arms up so that he could have physical pain to match his emotional pains, I thought those were some of the most powerful moments in the book. They thought that nobody was going to identify or have empathy for a hero who is into self-mutilation.
Actually, they changed it in the movie where Eric is fighting with Fun Boy, in the loft. Fun Boy grabs a razor. Actually, Darla picks it up and drops it on the floor. There is a scene after that, a great scene where Fun Boy wakes up in the shower and there's this big fight where Fun Boy gashes up his arms and his stomach and that's why [Eric] has electrical tape on his arms and his stomach. The scene was so vicious that they cut it out. They submitted it five times and it got an X-rating every time, for the violence. I think they were overly sensitive over what happened to Brandon. They were looking at every little thing in there. It was ridiculous. Brandon choreographed all the fight scenes himself and spent a long time doing it. They were magnificent.
K2K: Are those scenes filmed and will they be released on a Director's Cut?
JO: Edward R. Pressman films tells me that there is not enough interest to warrant a Director's Cut. I keep telling them. They said it would cost $500,000 to reinstate the cut scenes and synch the sound together and put music in - which is practically nothing. They'll make that back in the first week of video and DVD rentals.
K2K: The DVD is plain. There is nothing special on it.
JO: They don't have a clue of what a huge market there is for it. There's probably another hour and a half of interviews with Brandon that haven't been seen either. I was there, or right afterwards, where Brandon was in full costume and they did a full interview with him. It's where he's talking about all the action scenes and the gunplay. "I get shot fifty times in this next scene." They were like "We don't want anyone to see that since he got shot." So they have forbidden Brandon Lee interviews that are just sitting on a shelf somewhere. They are great because he says a lot of really philosophical elements throughout the thing. It's stupid. They don't think, "We'll never see another film from this guy." because he's gone. It's just sitting on the shelf somewhere. It's aggravating to me.
K2K: So, was there a religious reason for taking out the Crown of Thorns scene?
JO: No. It was the same thing. Nobody ever brought that up to me and the director was pretty keen on keeping the religious elements in it. They made sure that the church stayed there and stuff.
K2K: What did you think about the second film, "City Of Angels"?
JO: I thought the second film had a lot of possibilities. It looked beautiful, like a Renaissance painting with the dark browns and scarlet reds. Vincent Perez is actually an excellent actor but I think he was miscast. That was unfortunate because he gets the blame for ruining that film and he actually did a tremendous job for what he was given.
K2K: In the end, it just wasn't believable.
JO: It was a bad sсript. It was another first-time director and all of his flaws were evident. The pacing was off on it. It would have a nice action segment and then it would stop for ten minutes with exposition of talking and explaining what's going on. It was like, the material is not that deep. The audience knows what's happening. Ninety-nine percent of these people saw the first one and know what's going on. You don't need to explain it again.
K2K: What about the ending with all the crows coming down from the heavens?
JO: Yeah, yeah. I argued and argued about that. It was just pointless and plus, it was a cheap effect. They needed something big for the ending and here was this cheap $10,000 CGI effect that looked totally cheap.
K2K: The original idea that you had for The Crow, was that it? Was there never supposed to be any more?
JO: Well, I thought it would be possible for the crow to come back and bring somebody else back. This wasn't a one-time thing for Eric. There are possibly other things that are tragic and outrageous enough for a person to come back and avenge it.
K2K: In the third film ["Salvation"], we were talking about the helicopter where he explodes it, killing many innocent people.
JO: Yeah, and then he goes into a room and kills ten innocent cops? Bad writing. And what was the s*** with the fake arm? What really got me was that the killer convinces Eric that he did kill his girlfriend. What is the whole point of that?
K2K: And in the spirituality, he would have known the truth.
JO: Yeah, he would have known that he had nothing to do with it.
K2K: So, is this going to be released or not?
JO: It would be my guess that it is going to go straight to video. They released it in Europe last month, as a test to see how it would do, and it didn't do well at all. I think they're just going to dump it on video. They already got their $10 million, their money back in the European release. It will do well on video but I can't see them putting any more money behind it. If they have a decent release, it will probably be another $6 million in prints and advertising, unless they did selected screenings.
K2K: Will there be any more Crow movies?
JO: They had the rights to do three Crow movies with me and then they have to renegotiate it with me. I'm going to pursue an animated Crow film or perhaps a TV series. I think, with the films, the budget got smaller with each successive film. It started at $20 million, then went to $15 million and then to $10 million. I think the way to go, to expand it, is animation, where there is no limits to what you can do. With Batman, it shows you that you can do something decent with minimum amount of money and you're only restricted by your imagination on animation.
K2K: Did you like the Crow TV show?
JO: I saw the possibilities but I think that they didn't know where to go with it.
K2K: I thought it was better than the last two films.
JO: Well, I liked Mark Dacostas. I thought he had a lot of potential. Usually you have to wait until the second season before the cast and crew get their ledge, to know what direction to take it. They didn't get the chance to do that. There were some really good shows and some really bad show. It had a million and a half dollars per episode budget, shot in Vancouver, which is like $3 million U.S. currency.
K2K: Why wasn't Mark cast in the Crow movies?
JO: He was considered for the second one but I told them he looked too much like Brandon. I told them, "Everyone is going to think that you're trying to replace Brandon and they're going to hate you for it." They agreed and went with somebody else.
K2K: Do you still feel that way now?
JO: I thought it was far enough removed from the first film. Enough time had gone by that people wouldn't feel that way. When you're doing the sequel six months after the first film was released, I just wasn't into that at all. I only see greed as a reason to do a sequel so soon after Brandon's death.
K2K: What about further comic book issues?
JO: We're re-releasing the graphic novel as eight individual issues with new covers and two to six pages of new artwork per issue. It's finally going to be the way I wanted it to be.
K2K: About your artwork in the past - Some of it seemed choppy and some seemed well thought out.
JO: That was stretched out over ten years and I got better as time went on. When I first started out, I had done a lot of paintings and drawings and stuff but I wasn't that familiar with comics. There were things that I wanted to do but didn't know how to do back then. As time went by, I learned my own strengths and weaknesses and learned how to do things I wanted. It opened up for me. A lot of that stuff I'm going back and fixing now. There are going to be before and after pages in there where I've changed the scene around and added a few pages and fixed some anatomy. It's going to be like a Director's Cut. That's going to lead into a new Crow series that I'm writing and drawing.
K2K: Your art has become quite brilliant over the years.
JO: Thanks. I've been working really hard at it. Even though I haven't published a whole lot of stuff in the last three years, I have been working and doing things for myself and just practicing on things. I don't feel intimidated by a blank page anymore at all. I don't feel intimidated by the things I couldn't do before. It just seems wide open to me now. I'm excited about doing comics again.
K2K: Do you like doing color or just black and white?
JO: It depends on your subject matter. I always thought the Crow belonged in black and white. The first film was sort of washed out looking in monochromatic colors.
K2K: How would you describe The Crow, the original idea, in one word?
JO: Bitter.
K2K: I found that a lot of people who don't like to think called it horror whereas I saw it as a romance.
JO: Well, it was a romance story but it was anger at having lost romance. Basically, the first book was just one big, long scream about what had happened to me in life.
K2K: Currently, have you found anything to replace that with?
JO: Yeah, I'm finally happily married. It's actually like Brandon's death brought things full circle for me. It gave me the perspective that I couldn't find before. So something good did come out of it for me, at least.
K2K: What other projects are you working on right now?
JO: I did a series called "Zeitgeist", which is a story about two brothers who are immortal who have been trying to kill each other for the last thousand years over a woman. Northstar published the first three installments of it. That's something that I want to finish up this year. I have this book called "Gothic" that I've been working on for six years. It's a fully painted series. I have three hundred pages done on it and probably have another hundred to go. That's been my pet project for years and years.
K2K: Any movie projects out of those?
JO: "Gothic" has been optioned for a movie.
K2K: Are you worried?
JO: It's the same producer who did the Crow, so he's willing to let me supervise it. I'm working on storyboards for a science-fiction western called, "Kerosene & Mr. Joe", which has been a lot of fun to do.
K2K: Otherwise, have you and Ed Pressman and them all get along well?
JO: Not especially, no. They understand what I think is important to the fans, so they try to get me to endorse the stuff to the fans. But, I'm not going to do it. I'm not going to lie to the fans. If something is s***, I'm going to tell them. So that worries them sometimes. When I wouldn't endorse the second one, they got really, really upset with me. It's not a very amicable relationship.
With that, it was closing time at the Comic Con for the day and we were all herded out. We spoke again shortly after to clear up some issues regarding Brandon Lee's accidental shooting and about Ed Pressman and Buena Vista pushing James O'Barr as representing the two sequels. James made it very clear that the two films were not handled properly, nor with full respect, and he has nothing to do with them. The PR folks at both of the aforementioned institutions may like to advertise it so, but it isn't true. In regards to Brandon Lee, James shed some light on some new stories that were uncovered regarding nonunion workers having used the guns the night before the accident, leaving live bullets in the chamber which were not properly checkd and identified the next day. The accident could have been avoided in several different ways, which clearly shows an illegal amount of negligence all the way around. Now that the legal control of The Crow is back in the hands of its creator and visionary, we can expect some good things in the near future. As one of the moodier and inspired writers / artists of today, James O'Barr is the Edgar Allen Poe of our generation. He has given us a classic piece of work that will continue on for some time to come.
Stranger to the others, I'm stranger to myself
WIZARD: You’ll be at Wizard World Texas this year. Anything in particular you’re working on that you’ll be promoting?
O’BARR: I’m doing this book called Ride that’s distributed through Image. It’s a black-and-white independent book, and the basic premise is that each individual writer and artist can do whatever they want as long as this particular 1967 Camaro Rally Sport is in it. The theme is the life of the car as it goes from person to person. I’m working on a special or annual issue. There has never been a really good car chase scene in comics, and I thought that would be a nice challenge for me to do. But now I understand why there never has been one. It’s a static medium, and trying to make [the car] look like it’s going fast or going around a corner is really difficult. But I’m really happy with the pages I have so far. I set it in the ghetto at midnight in a snowstorm. I didn’t want to have just a flat surface with speed lines and vanishing points on horizon lines. I wanted levels and depth to the panels. There’s almost a 3-D effect to the artwork. When it’s finished it’s probably going to be about 96 pages. But it’s probably the best work I’ve done so far.
Did you study art on your own, or did you attend a school?
O’BARR: I attended pre-med school for about 18 months, but I never went to any kind of art school. Unfortunately, I lived in Detroit and came from a working-class family. Typically, if you wanted to be an artist you were wasting your time. You had to be more practical, which is why I ended up working on cars for 15 years. My parents—just like I’m sure every other parent—thought comic books were a waste of time, and they discouraged me going into that field. So, it took me a little longer to break in, but that’s okay. I mean, how many other artists or writers can say the very first book they put out is the best-selling independent graphic novel of all time? The Crow is upwards of three-quarters of a million copies sold. And it still sells around 30,000 copies every year. It has an amazing life.
When you’re at conventions, is it surreal to see the effect the comic and movie had?
O’BARR: The movie came out in 1994, so we’re talking a big span of years here, and it seems to get passed on. It’s on its third generation of fans now. I guess because of the material, it appeals to people who are around 13 to early 20s, and once they get married and have kids, they still have their comics and movies and such, but they’re not as enthusiastic about it. They have to deal with the real world at some point. So another generation of kids comes in and finds it through video or the book. It’s become this kind of gothic cult icon, and everyone seems to know about it. It’s a continually renewing source of fans. It’s like this turnover every couple of years, and suddenly I’m doing sketches for 15-year-old girls again—who are either enamored with [actor Brandon Lee] or the romanticism in the book.
I guess a lot of fans still ask about the movie and Brandons death?
O’BARR: Everyone still wants to know what happened, and was I there. It’s still really difficult to talk about. In some ways, I still haven’t dealt with it. I went through a long period where I felt I was successful because of Brandon and he wasn’t there to garner any of that success. And I felt really bad about it. It was just a really hard thing to deal with and for a good 10 years, going to conventions was a difficult thing to do because I knew I would be asked all the questions. Eventually I had to accept that Brandon was a huge part of my success because he was so faithful to the character—so much to the point that now I can’t even picture anyone else in that role. I guess that says a lot for his performance and his impact on me. It’s still a sad part that I have to deal with pretty much every time I do a show. But I’ve gotten better at it. It’s not as painful every time. Plus, the fans understand that this was somebody I cared about and that I was friends with. So, they’re usually delicate with it. It’s hard but it’s gotten a lot easier.
How long did you know Brandon?
O’BARR: It wasn’t all that long, probably 18 months or so. But he made me such a part of his life that he felt like my little brother. He was absolutely one of the sweetest people I’ve ever met. I never heard him tell a lie. I never heard him exaggerate. And the fact that he was about to get married, and the fact that his fiancée, Eliza, was with him all the time, that perfected that image of Eric and Shelly I had in the book. They had to have been one of the most deeply in love couples I’ve ever met. Whenever someone would come up to meet Brandon, he would always introduce her first. Just a real gentleman and a real sweetheart. I still think about him a lot. He was just a genuinely likable person. And the world is a lesser place without him in it.
What’s it like meeting your fans at conventions?
O’BARR: Oh, they want to show me their Crow tattoos and give me demos of their bands or obscure bands from their hometown. From reading my stuff, they have a basic understanding of what I like and what type of music I enjoy. It’s very much a sharing experience. The Crow affected their lives and they want to give something back to me. Normally, I just feel that buying the book is enough, but they always want to give me gifts. I can’t think of a show I’d been to where I don’t come home with a box of things. They’re really generous, and they want to share that Goth culture and keep it alive.
What’s the craziest tattoo you’ve seen from a fan?
O’BARR: I was in Charlotte and this girl came up and wanted me to see her tattoo. She pulled up her T-shirt and across her whole back she had one of the paintings from the book. Literally, the whole thing was on her back in amazing detail. I don’t know who the artist was, but he did an amazing job. Although part of me thinks, “You’re 19, are you sure you wanted to do that?” There’s also this one experience in Seattle. I’m friends with Trent Reznor, and Nine Inch Nails had played the night before at a comics convention. This girl came in and asked if I could sign her breast. And I wasn’t comfortable with that—my wife was right over there. But she pulled up her shirt and said, “Well, Trent signed this one.” And there was a signature on her left breast. I thought, “Well, if he did it, I could do it. It’s no big deal.” I signed it, and I was little uncomfortable doing it, but I did it anyway. The next year, she had them tattooed on there.
Oh my God.
O’BARR: If you want to get some nice artwork, that’s cool. But don’t get it on your neck or your forehead or a body part that’s going to limit your job possibilities in the future. Think things through.
So, you’ve got Ride coming out, but what other projects do you have planned for the future?
O’BARR: I’m hoping next year, I’ll finally get to do a couple projects I’ve really wanted to do for along time. I’ve wanted to do a Batman project for a long time. And I think the people in charge of DC at the time were a little afraid of where I could take it, but now they seem to be a little more receptive to it. I’d really like to do the O’Barr version of Batman. At shows my version of the character seems to be widely popular. I asked Adam Hughes, “The echelon has changed over at DC—who should I talk to about doing a Batman story?” And Adam Hughes said, “O’Barr and Batman, that’s a f---in’ no-brainer. You can just talk to anyone!’”
O’BARR: I’m doing this book called Ride that’s distributed through Image. It’s a black-and-white independent book, and the basic premise is that each individual writer and artist can do whatever they want as long as this particular 1967 Camaro Rally Sport is in it. The theme is the life of the car as it goes from person to person. I’m working on a special or annual issue. There has never been a really good car chase scene in comics, and I thought that would be a nice challenge for me to do. But now I understand why there never has been one. It’s a static medium, and trying to make [the car] look like it’s going fast or going around a corner is really difficult. But I’m really happy with the pages I have so far. I set it in the ghetto at midnight in a snowstorm. I didn’t want to have just a flat surface with speed lines and vanishing points on horizon lines. I wanted levels and depth to the panels. There’s almost a 3-D effect to the artwork. When it’s finished it’s probably going to be about 96 pages. But it’s probably the best work I’ve done so far.
Did you study art on your own, or did you attend a school?
O’BARR: I attended pre-med school for about 18 months, but I never went to any kind of art school. Unfortunately, I lived in Detroit and came from a working-class family. Typically, if you wanted to be an artist you were wasting your time. You had to be more practical, which is why I ended up working on cars for 15 years. My parents—just like I’m sure every other parent—thought comic books were a waste of time, and they discouraged me going into that field. So, it took me a little longer to break in, but that’s okay. I mean, how many other artists or writers can say the very first book they put out is the best-selling independent graphic novel of all time? The Crow is upwards of three-quarters of a million copies sold. And it still sells around 30,000 copies every year. It has an amazing life.
When you’re at conventions, is it surreal to see the effect the comic and movie had?
O’BARR: The movie came out in 1994, so we’re talking a big span of years here, and it seems to get passed on. It’s on its third generation of fans now. I guess because of the material, it appeals to people who are around 13 to early 20s, and once they get married and have kids, they still have their comics and movies and such, but they’re not as enthusiastic about it. They have to deal with the real world at some point. So another generation of kids comes in and finds it through video or the book. It’s become this kind of gothic cult icon, and everyone seems to know about it. It’s a continually renewing source of fans. It’s like this turnover every couple of years, and suddenly I’m doing sketches for 15-year-old girls again—who are either enamored with [actor Brandon Lee] or the romanticism in the book.
I guess a lot of fans still ask about the movie and Brandons death?
O’BARR: Everyone still wants to know what happened, and was I there. It’s still really difficult to talk about. In some ways, I still haven’t dealt with it. I went through a long period where I felt I was successful because of Brandon and he wasn’t there to garner any of that success. And I felt really bad about it. It was just a really hard thing to deal with and for a good 10 years, going to conventions was a difficult thing to do because I knew I would be asked all the questions. Eventually I had to accept that Brandon was a huge part of my success because he was so faithful to the character—so much to the point that now I can’t even picture anyone else in that role. I guess that says a lot for his performance and his impact on me. It’s still a sad part that I have to deal with pretty much every time I do a show. But I’ve gotten better at it. It’s not as painful every time. Plus, the fans understand that this was somebody I cared about and that I was friends with. So, they’re usually delicate with it. It’s hard but it’s gotten a lot easier.
How long did you know Brandon?
O’BARR: It wasn’t all that long, probably 18 months or so. But he made me such a part of his life that he felt like my little brother. He was absolutely one of the sweetest people I’ve ever met. I never heard him tell a lie. I never heard him exaggerate. And the fact that he was about to get married, and the fact that his fiancée, Eliza, was with him all the time, that perfected that image of Eric and Shelly I had in the book. They had to have been one of the most deeply in love couples I’ve ever met. Whenever someone would come up to meet Brandon, he would always introduce her first. Just a real gentleman and a real sweetheart. I still think about him a lot. He was just a genuinely likable person. And the world is a lesser place without him in it.
What’s it like meeting your fans at conventions?
O’BARR: Oh, they want to show me their Crow tattoos and give me demos of their bands or obscure bands from their hometown. From reading my stuff, they have a basic understanding of what I like and what type of music I enjoy. It’s very much a sharing experience. The Crow affected their lives and they want to give something back to me. Normally, I just feel that buying the book is enough, but they always want to give me gifts. I can’t think of a show I’d been to where I don’t come home with a box of things. They’re really generous, and they want to share that Goth culture and keep it alive.
What’s the craziest tattoo you’ve seen from a fan?
O’BARR: I was in Charlotte and this girl came up and wanted me to see her tattoo. She pulled up her T-shirt and across her whole back she had one of the paintings from the book. Literally, the whole thing was on her back in amazing detail. I don’t know who the artist was, but he did an amazing job. Although part of me thinks, “You’re 19, are you sure you wanted to do that?” There’s also this one experience in Seattle. I’m friends with Trent Reznor, and Nine Inch Nails had played the night before at a comics convention. This girl came in and asked if I could sign her breast. And I wasn’t comfortable with that—my wife was right over there. But she pulled up her shirt and said, “Well, Trent signed this one.” And there was a signature on her left breast. I thought, “Well, if he did it, I could do it. It’s no big deal.” I signed it, and I was little uncomfortable doing it, but I did it anyway. The next year, she had them tattooed on there.
Oh my God.
O’BARR: If you want to get some nice artwork, that’s cool. But don’t get it on your neck or your forehead or a body part that’s going to limit your job possibilities in the future. Think things through.
So, you’ve got Ride coming out, but what other projects do you have planned for the future?
O’BARR: I’m hoping next year, I’ll finally get to do a couple projects I’ve really wanted to do for along time. I’ve wanted to do a Batman project for a long time. And I think the people in charge of DC at the time were a little afraid of where I could take it, but now they seem to be a little more receptive to it. I’d really like to do the O’Barr version of Batman. At shows my version of the character seems to be widely popular. I asked Adam Hughes, “The echelon has changed over at DC—who should I talk to about doing a Batman story?” And Adam Hughes said, “O’Barr and Batman, that’s a f---in’ no-brainer. You can just talk to anyone!’”
Вопрос: Перевести ?
| 1. Да | 7 | (100%) | |
| 2. Нет | 0 | (0%) | |
| Всего: | 7 | ||
среда, 31 октября 2007
31 Октября.
Ночь Дьявола.
Счастливого Хеллоуина, дорогие друзья.
Ночь Дьявола.
Счастливого Хеллоуина, дорогие друзья.
Помним o Брендонe.
воскресенье, 21 октября 2007
Stranger to the others, I'm stranger to myself
пятница, 19 октября 2007
Stranger to the others, I'm stranger to myself
Кто-нибудь смотрел "Дежурного Аптекаря " ?
суббота, 13 октября 2007
Stranger to the others, I'm stranger to myself
Stranger to the others, I'm stranger to myself
www.collectivecrowcomics.com/comics/2002/bandw/... - любительские воронские комиксы.
Stranger to the others, I'm stranger to myself
Stranger to the others, I'm stranger to myself
Wilfred Owen
Move him intothe sun.
Gently its touch awoke him once,
at home, whispering of fields unsown.
Always it woke him, even in France,
until this morning and this snow.
If anything might rouse him now
the kind old sun will know.
Think how it wakes the seeds: -
woke once,the clays of a cold star
Are limbs, so dear achieved, are sides
full nerved, still warm, too hard to stir?
Was it for this the clay grew tall?
O what made fatuous sun beams toil
to break earths sleep at all?
Gently its touch awoke him once,
at home, whispering of fields unsown.
Always it woke him, even in France,
until this morning and this snow.
If anything might rouse him now
the kind old sun will know.
Think how it wakes the seeds: -
woke once,the clays of a cold star
Are limbs, so dear achieved, are sides
full nerved, still warm, too hard to stir?
Was it for this the clay grew tall?
O what made fatuous sun beams toil
to break earths sleep at all?
Art by James O'Barr
пятница, 12 октября 2007
Брендон Ли, Алекс Прояс и Ночь Дьявола. 
среда, 10 октября 2007
Алекс Прояс, снявший " Ворон" , "Я Робот", "Темный Город" снимает " Дракула, город Зеро".
О Владе Дракуле, вдохновленный румынскими сказаниями и новеллой Брема Стокера.
Продюссер Майкал Де Лука.
Проэкт находится в разработке, намеченное время выхода 2008 году.
О Владе Дракуле, вдохновленный румынскими сказаниями и новеллой Брема Стокера.
Продюссер Майкал Де Лука.
Проэкт находится в разработке, намеченное время выхода 2008 году.
