I think that the Crow is a mostly a Tragedy. I mean, there are some parts that may make you crack a nervous smile, like when he cuts off the gang members legs or tells the cat to get lost. But the smile is not a deep smile, it's the sort of smile you make when the crazy guy pees on himself on the 7 train. But for the most part the work is a tragedy. It's a tragedy because Eric is trapped by his circumstances, and we feel bad for him; we pity him. He not only seems trapped in his own obsession with revenge, but he is also trapped in the house with the cat, the bird, and his memories.
Eric's mask is used throughout the novel for many reasons. It obviously hides his face to scare his victims and intimidate those who he feels are responsible for the tragedy that has happened in his life. I can't help but think of his mask as a kind of pale expressionless face of death which if you notice is only off him when he is dreaming of that life before. At the same time the black streaks around his eyes are always hinting at a deeper sadness, like someone with heavy mascara who has been crying a lot. It makes sense when which it is revealed exactly happened to him before he was The Crow.
In many of the panels, James O'Barr has placed masks on the wall of the apartment that are very similar to the one Eric has painted on his face (which we do not know for sure because we never really see him do so). These masks sit as a constant reminder of Shelly to both Eric and us the reader. Shelly floats in and out of the book like a pale white angel very similar to how the masks seem to float themselves on the wall. In many panels the masks hang on the wall to remind us of Eric's life before. The masks were there when the couple painted the place together, when she danced around the apartment, and even when Eric sits on the floor with the cat and the crow. Later in the novel, when Shelly is tortured and raped, it is her face that is destroyed. To her tormenters she is a faceless piece of meat. In the violence and horror of their act, the Gang has taken the beautiful, porcelain smooth face of Shelly away, replacing it with one that is pale and dead...like Eric. In one panel Eric's mask seems to show Shelly's face as he reminds Tin Tin of that night long ago on the road. In many of the panels O'Barr has drawn Eric's face so much like Shelly's it's hard to figure out who is really The Crow, which is exactly the purpose of a mask...to become something or someone else.
Eric's mask is tragic. It is a scar on his soul. Eric's mask is always there regardless of any justice he may get from killing those responsible for Shelly's death. In many ways the masks are tattoos, permanent symbols that remain long after the events that inspire them. The bird is constantly telling Eric not to look at Shelly in his dreams and memories, especially after he is shot dead (?). At the same time the mask of The Crow forces everyone to look at Eric and their own punishment for killing Shelly. the mask on Eric's face forces Tin Tin, T-Bird, Tom Tom, Fun Boy, and Top Dollar to remember what they did that night...it forces everyone to look.
