GRAPHIC NOVELS

Free Country: A Tale of the Children's Crusade

by Neil Gaiman
& others (text) & Peter Snejbjerg & others (illus.). DC. 2015. 200p. ISBN 9781401242411. $24.99; ebk. ISBN 9781401262396. Rated: M. GRAPHIC NOVELS
COPY ISBN
When 40 children vanish from a small town, two young detectives begin to follow a trail that leads them beyond their imaginations. Considering the detectives are already ghosts, this case is truly bizarre, with everything from giant talking rabbits to magic gateways posing as hopscotch grids. Danger lurks as a larger plot to take all of the world's children begins to unfold within the interweaving episodes. This revised collection of a Vertigo crossover event from the early 1990s combines minor characters from several of its comic lines such as Swamp Thing, Black Orchid, and The Sandman. New material has been added to give the work a smoother story arc, as the original narrative was shared by several authors who worked on the series at various times.
VERDICT A provocative read with a few gems to admire, including a brief history of the Children's Crusade. However, the extra content doesn't quite fix the jumpy transitions among the different chapters. Recommended for comic history buffs and fans of The Sandman who want to read everything Gaiman has written within the Vertigo universe.
Reviewed by Mary E. Butler, Marion Cty. P.L. Syst., Ocala, FL , Sep 11, 2015
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