The Children's Crusade (comics)

In addition to the two ''Children's Crusade issues, the crossover ran through five newly created/resurrected Annuals. In reading order the event runs as follows: Children's Crusade #1, Black Orchid Annual #1, Animal Man Annual #1, Swamp Thing Annual #7, Doom Patrol Annual #2, Arcana Annual #1, and Children's Crusade'' #2. ==Collected edition==

In 2015, Vertigo published the entire title in one collected edition ''Free Country: A Tale of the Children's Crusade, which includes the two issue miniseries, as well as a "brand-new middle chapter" written by Dead Boy Detectives'' writer Toby Litt and drawn by artist Peter Gross in place of the annuals of the original crossover. Characters Alongside Edwin Paine and Charles Rowland, the "Dead Boy Detectives", it focused on the children who played major roles in these books: Suzy, Maxine Baker, Tefé, Dorothy Spinner and Timothy Hunter respectively. ==Advertising==

The crossover was advertised in the trade press, amongst them the fledgling Hero Illustrated. The advert featured a specially written five-panel strip in which Charles Rowland and Edwin Paine read the Vertigo press release advertising the "big crossover in October and November [1993] in some of the Vertigo Annuals". The crossover's tagline was "'''The Children's Crusade', it's no Fairy Tale''" and the author of the comic-strip-advert (likely Neil Gaiman, about whom it says "whoever he is") writes archly, through the character of Charles Rowland: :"It says here that the Vertigo Universe will never be the same again. :Of course, it was never the same before". ==Plot summaries==

The story starts with the ghosts of two boys, Edwin and Charles (seen previously in issue #25 of The Sandman and later in The Dead Boy Detectives), who have set up shop as detectives for hire, with nothing but the knowledge of the great mystery novels and films. The two boys are approached by a young girl that finds their ad and enlists them to locate her brother who, along with several other children, disappeared from the small English hamlet they all live in, called Flaxdown. It turns out that all the children of the village as well as all other children who have ever disappeared (in "The Children's Crusade" & "The Pied Piper of Hamelin") were taken to a place called "Free Country". Free Country is a place where children never grow old and are free from the abuse and tyranny of adults (child abuse is a recurring theme). Free Country is run by a council of various children who have existed there hundreds of years. The council is attempting to bring over all the children in the world, but Free Country is having trouble supporting them all. To help bolster Free Country's power they bring over five innately powerful children. As long as the children stay in Free Country they provide the place with power. which continued the stories of Tim and Tamlin, and Marya and Daniel. Arcana: The Books of Magic Annual #1 was included in the collected edition of The Books of Faerie. ==Prose adaptation==

In 2003, a prose adaptation of the crossover was released as part of the Books of Magic prose novels series. ''The Books of Magic: The Children's Crusade'' was written by Carla Jablonski. ==References==