Win 20th anniversary edition of 'The Crow'

It’s hard to believe it’s been two decades since Detroit-born James O’Barr’s “The Crow” turned the comic world on its head.

Gallery Books this week released “The Crow: Special Edition,” a collection of the cult classic with new art and new sequences from O’Barr (done by hand the way he first did the book, with no computers).

It’s billed as a “20th anniversary” collection, but the first issue came out in 1989, so I’m not sure how they’re doing their math.

But as O’Barr writes in a touching introduction, he started working on the book in 1981, so it’s been 30 years in one way. O’Barr also tells the story behind “The Girl Who Was Shelly,” his real-life girlfriend who was killed by a drunk driver. He also talks a bit about how much the death of Brandon Lee, who played the main character, Eric, in the movie version, affected him.

In the book, Eric and his fiancee Shelly are killed by a street gang, and Eric’s spirit comes back for revenge.

Of course, it goes much deeper than that.

It’s a great book for fans, and a good place for new readers to find the story. And I have a copy to give away.

For your chance to win, send your name and address to ehenrickson@detnews.com. Use “The Crow” as your subject line, and enter only once by Aug. 5. U.S. entries only.