(DEC 1993)
* by Neil Gaiman and Chris Bachalo * Mike Barreiro: inks *
* Daniel Vozzo: colors * John Costanza: letters *
* Julie Rottenberg: assistant editor * Stuart Moore: editor *
* Lou Stathis & Tom Peyer: consulting editors *
page 7: The chapter title, "True Detective Stories", is play on the names of old pulp mystery magazines.
page 8: Here we meet Charles Rowland and Edwin Paine. First appearing in THE SANDMAN #25, Rowland and Paine are ghost boys who have
developed a somewhat cosy relationship with Death. Both were students at St. Hilarion's boys school, albeit seventy- five or so years apart. When
Lucifer Morningstar closed the gates of Hell in recent years, the damned who once attended St. Hilarion's returned, including three bullies who
ritually murdered Charles as they had done Edwin seven decades previously. Edwin and Charles became friends shortly before Rowland's death,
and have been together since.
page ?, panel 8: The "she" Edwin refers to is Death, whom the boys fear will come to collect them back to the Afterlife.
page 9, panel 5: It is apparent that the ghosts' fears about Death are unfounded; in her manner, she has decided to let them remain aboard in the
living world, at least for the time being.
page 10, panel 2: Oliver appears to be both older and thinner in the photograph than in THE CHILDREN'S CRUSADE #2.
page 13, panels 3-15: This sequence is a parody on the famous Abbott and Costello "Who's On First?" comedy sketch.
page 14, panel 5: "The Maltese Falcon" is the name of a Humphrey Bogart movie in which Bogart played detective Philip Marlowe. sps (i'm not
sure about this one; none of Raymond Chandler's novels are titled The Maltese Falcon; it may be a short story . Don't accept this as gospel yet. -Laura)
page ?, panel 10: Inspector Lestrade was a recurring character in Arthur Conan Doyle's Sherlock Holmes short stories. he was a police inspector
who was constantly being upstaged by the Master Detective.
pages 15-19: These pages present a fairly accurate portrayal of the historical Children's Crusade, with a few dramatic embellishments -- notably the
mysterious monk, of course. The children who participated in the Crusade actually went in two princi ple groups, one led by a French shepherd boy
named Stephen and the other by a 10 year-old German lad called Nicholas. Stephen's group, numbering about 30,000, made it as far as Marseilles
before being shipped to North Africa by disreputable merchants, as illustrated here. The other group, about 20,000 in total, crossed the Alps into
Italy where they split up. Some made it as far as Rome, where Pope Innocent III took pity on them and relinquished their Crusade vows; most,
however, were sold in the East as slaves. The story as told herein appears to be a synthesis of these two separate journeys.
pages 15-16: In fact, the Children's Crusade would inspire the Fifth Crusade, which did not begin until 1218. The caption ought to be referring to
the conclusion of the Fourth Crusade. "A complete and utter failure" is a somewhat misleading descrip tion, as the Crusaders did manage to capture
Constantinople (modern-day Istanbul).
page ?, panel : The monk here apparently stands in for the beggar (actually God in disguise) the French boy Stephen claimed had appeared to him
in a vision, inspiring the historical Children's Crusade.
pages 17-18: Only Stephen's group -- numbering about 30,000 -- set sail from Marseilles. Gaiman seems to have condensed the tale by merging
Stephen's and Nicholas' groups, as 49,000 is an accurate estimate of their combined numbers.
page ?, panel 3: The Crusade numbering is incorrect. Innocent set in motion the Fifth Crusade. The Sixth Crusade would not begin until 1227, and
was not directly organized by the papacy.
page 20, panel 9: Note the "Vertigo" sign on the back of the bus.
page 23, panel 9: Miss Marple is one of author Agatha Christie's most popular fictional detectives.
page 27: Here the major players of THE CHILDREN'S CRUSADE are all introduced. Suzy is the child counterpart of the Black Orchid, a
superhero who is the synthesis of plant life and a dead woman named Susan Linden; Maxine Baker is the daughter of the superhero Animal-Man
and, like her father, possesses a number of animal-related abilities; Tefe Holland is the daughter of the Earth elemental Swamp Thing and Abby
Arcane, and is the heir apparent to her father's role on this planet; Dorothy Spinner is a member of the superheroic Doom Patrol who can bring into
reality her subconscious thoughts and memories; Puck is a mischievous faerie in Shakespeare's "A Midsummer Night's Dream" (Puck has also
appeared in THE SANDMAN).
page 28, panel 4: Robert Browning (1812-1889) was one of the major English poets of the Victorian age. "The Pied Piper of Hamelin" first
appeared in "Dramatic Lyrics" (1842), the third number of his work "Bells and Pomegranates". The legend of the Pied Piper has some basis in
history, having been connected in the 16th century with the disappearance of the children from Hamelin (or Hameln), Germany in 1284.
Intriguingly, the legend of the Pied Piper has been connected with the activities of Nichola s, the German boy who was instrumental in the
instigation of the Children's Crusade.
page 29, panel 1: Note that it is the piper who unleashes the rats upon St Cecile.
page 36: The title of this chapter, "Charles Rowland To The Dark Tower Came", is a play on the title of another Browning poem: "Childe Roland
To The Dark Tower Came" first appeared in "Men and Women" (1855).
page 39, panel 1: Enter Tefe Holland.
panel 2: Enter Suzy.
panel 3: Enter Dorothy Spinner.
page 40, panel 1: Enter Maxine Baker.
page 55, panel 1: It is probably a safe assumption that Wat is from the Middle East, where the practise of cutting off a thief's hand is very common.
(please note: all annotations for both issues of The Children's Crusade and the Arcana Annual, unless noted, were submitted by Shannon Patrick Sullivan)