The Crusades Collected

I feel like the Crusades were this lost point of history that has kind of gotten forgotten in modern literature. Sure, there were intense religious reasons behind the whole event, and maybe that's why. I don't think Dark Horse is very religious as a company, but they're perfectly content to bring a comic adaptation of the event back into the mainstream.

Written by Steven T. Seagle and with art by Kelley Jones, The Crusades Vol. 1: Knight collects The Crusades: Urban Decree and The Crusades #1-9. The book has been out of print for a while, and Seagle is stoked to be bringing back the scandal and violence.

"This material has been out of print for about a decade, but -- dealing with church scandals, shady land deals, shock media and social justice -- it remains creepily relevant in its themes," says Seagle, "I get asked at every convention if the series will ever be collected, and now I can finally say 'yes' in a big way."

History buffs probably know a good bit about the Crusades, but the collection features an enigmatic 11th century Knight rendering "terrible justice on the citizens of 21st century San Francisco." Wait. What? It's up to the voluptuous Venus Kostopikas to solve the mystery of his appearance and help set things right. I never checked out the works when they were originally in print, but I get the sense that they are decidedly un-Crusade in their subject matter. The Crusades: Vol. 1: Knight hits stores July 4 for $29.99 and 256 pages.

Full press release after the jump.

ON A CRUSADE WITH THE CRUSADES
Steven T. Seagle and Kelley Jones' THE CRUSADES collected for the first time

Berkeley, CA - 27 April 2010 - The Dark Ages begin again in the first-ever collection of the controversial crime series THE CRUSADES, written by Steven T. Seagle (Soul Kiss, it's a bird...) and drawn by Kelley Jones (Sandman, Batman).

The first of two re-mastered volumes, THE CRUSADES Vol. 1: KNIGHT collects THE CRUSADES: URBAN DECREE and THE CRUSADES #1-9.

"This material has been out of print for about a decade, but -- dealing with church scandals, shady land deals, shock media and social justice -- it remains creepily relevant in its themes," says Seagle, "I get asked at every convention if the series will ever be collected, and now I can finally say 'yes' in a big way."

"We've really gone back in and made a great book even better for this edition," adds Jones, "We've redesigned everything, produced new covers, corrected some typos, heightened the color effects, upgraded the paper -- this quirky book was mostly missed the first time around, but it is not to be missed this time."

"Image is proud to collect THE CRUSADES for the first time," says Image Publisher Eric Stephenson. "This is fantastic work by Steve and Kelley that deserves a top flight collection and the vast new audience this two-volume set will attract."

In THE CRUSADES, an enigmatic 11th century Knight has come to render terrible justice on the citizens of 21st century San Francisco. His acts of unspeakable violence spark a firestorm of moral soul-searching in the hearts and minds of the city's most colorful figures. Putting together the pieces of the Knight's mysteriously brutal puzzle is the voluptuous Venus Kostopikas, a fact checker for a dying newspaper who has aspirations to rise above her station and lead her own crusade.

THE CRUSADES Vol. 1: KNIGHT, a full-color 256-page hardcover for $29.99, will be in stores July 4, 2010.

Image Comics is a comic book and graphic novel publisher founded in 1992 by a collective of best-selling artists. Image has since gone on to become one of the largest comics publishers in the United States. Image currently has five partners: Robert Kirkman, Erik Larsen, Todd McFarlane, Marc Silvestri and Jim Valentino. It consists of four major houses: Todd McFarlane Productions, Top Cow Productions, Shadowline and Image Central. Image publishes comics and graphic novels in nearly every genre, sub-genre, and style imaginable. It offers science fiction, romance, horror, crime fiction, historical fiction, humor and more by the finest artists and writers working in the medium today. For more information, visit www.imagecomics.com.