"Do not survive the bitterness that war begets: the century of carnage since your slaughter made cynics out of very nearly all"-Siegfried SassoonI found this book beautiful and tragic. I especially was drawn to Owen and Sassoon's poems and the reflection on how the war affected the minds of those involved. The illistrations really added to many of the poems especially the Next War. Quotes:"And not the peaceful delivered at such dreadful cost. Mishandled just as surely as the war, it did no more

High school teachers, use this book! I would have loved to use this when I taught history and English. I went through a stage in my 20s when I read a lot of the World War I poets--Sassoon and Brooke mostly. But, whoa, this version rocks. So easy to incorporate into the classroom. In the introduction, Duffy notes that many Americans don't know much about World War I, and I agree. Trench warfare was horrible and deadly--shell shock was common, and soldiers thought their commanders were idiots for

This was a bit weird. It came up as a suggestion here on GR and I read it because of my weird fascination with WW1. Despite my English being quite good, I always have troubles understanding poetry without notes. In addition, the few poems I've read (and studied at school) all came with explanations and notes. Here my reading was a bit difficult. I mean, I would stop and ask myself: who is the poet referring to with that pronoun?The art was OK, I guess. Like every anthology that are the good part...

3.75 I love poetry, definitely enjoy a good graphic novel and teach history, so I thought this was going to be right up my alley. I did enjoy it, but I was surprised to realize that combining the poems with a graphic novel just didn't quite work for me. The poems seemed disjointed as they were split up over different panels and the artwork really distracted me from the overall enjoyment of the poems. I think I would have enjoyed it much better if each poem was completely intact and the graphic n...

This year is the 100th anniversary of the Great War, the "war to end all wars," ha. And who of us knows much about it? Jane Addams, once the most famous woman in America, was vilified for taking a position that the war could have been avoided, of course she was right, and she was later hollowly vindicated, in a way, by being award the Nobel Peace Prize. If you are a student of literature, maybe especially British literature, you are aware of the trench poets of that war, those who wrote poems li...

What a fantastic idea! I would never have encountered most/all of these WWI poems if not for this book, and some of them are really beautiful and will stick with me for a long time. As with all anthologies, I liked some of the poem+comic chapters here better than others, especially because there were so many elements that had to all come together here to make it work, but there were a handful that did this so well they took my breath away. I especially loved that James Lloyd included a page of t...

This book is about the 1st world war, it shows all the struggles and problems which the soldiers faced during this time and how everything fell into place. The artwork of this graphic novel is very interesting. Every chapter is a different poem and they are all different styles of art, so you really can’t get bored of it. The characters in this story aren’t really consistent. They are constantly changing which makes it even more interesting. Overall I really enjoyed this story.

When our editor, Calista Brill, came into the office fired up about 'trench poetry,' I had no idea what she was talking about. Two and a half years later, I'm so glad that I've gotten the chance to learn more about this really fascinating category of writing -- poetry written from the trenches of World War I. And I'm glad that with ABOVE THE DREAMLESS DEAD, we're able to share these fascinating, thoughtful, viscerally written poems with a new generation of readers, with an all-new comics interpr...

Now I'm not a big poetry reader and often manage to completely miss the point of such things but these poems and the illustrations that accompany them broke through that and brought the horrors, difficulties and humours of war clearly and vividly to mind. The poems were written by the troops on the ground during the First World War as they were stuck in the trenches while the illustrations came later by those not there. A point acknowledged in the introduction by Duffy but one that does not seem...

Good collection of poems in comic book format. I still don't know too much about World War I, but in the intro Duffy acknowledges that he finds Americans seem to have little knowledge of the war. I remember being taught in school, but it was brief, probably because we talk more about the Civil War and then World War II. Regardless, you don't need to know too much about the war since these focus more what soldiers think about during and after wars. Also, I like the fact this is black and white, I...

Interesting idea, pairing century old war poetry with modern comic illustration.

Above The Dreamless Dead is one of those books that is worth reading no matter the format, although I think that the physical copy is worth reading for the tactile experience.Read the rest of my review here

Starred review from SLJ (http://blogs.slj.com/adult4teen/2014/...)Plus read my interview with George Pratt, here: http://blogs.slj.com/adult4teen/2014/...There are various dates given as the first day of World War I, from the assassination of Archduke Franz Ferdinand on June 28, 1914, to the first shots fired by Austro-Hungarian soldiers on July 28 to the August 4th declaration of war by the British Empire, signalling the truly world-wide stretch of the conflict. Whatever the case, there is no d...

Editor Chris Duffy merges words and images in this unique look at World War I. Poems from the soldiers, authors, and writers from that era are paired with a contemporary artist, tasked with illustrating the messages contained with. While a unique experiment, the book's engaging premise is also its downfall. Many of the poems are capable of generating their own mental imagery, yet they become bogged down under the weight of artistic interpretation. This is especially the case with the more comple...

An excellent collection of twenty World War I poems superbly illustrated by twenty leading graphic artists. Includes biographical information about each of the poets.

Above the Dreamless Dead is a collection of poems and stories from World War One soldiers and veterans that were turned into a bunch of comics. The art styles in this book were really cool. Each poem kind of had their own style of art. Everything was in black and white, but the art styles were very different. Some were very simple and had very basic open shapes where are others were more scribbley and lacked clean lines. Then there were some that reminded me heavily of Jared Lee's art. Over all

World War I is a bit of a black hole for most people, both historically and literarily. This brief and lovely collection edited by Chris Duffy sets about to shine a little light on those dark times, featuring twenty-seven poems or songs by thirteen of the so-called Trench Poets. Each poem is interpreted by a cartoonist, only a couple of whom pull double duty, offering a fantastic spread of voices and images dealing with the three phases of the war: the patriotic build-up, the time spent in the t...

There is a fiction and poetry of World War One (much of the fiction written by the poets) that matches the Iliad for richness and power. And like the Iliad, those works are open to re-working and re-interpreting by later generations. (Not a year goes by that there isn't a major retelling of some part of Iliad/Odyssey somewhere in the world.) I see this book as a strong entry in what could be a very fruitful tradition.I loved this. The WWI poets, especially the British poets, wrote some immortal

This book is so important. My favorite poem/comic combination was Robert Graves. I would highly recommend this for anyone studying WWI era history or literature, but I truly believe everyone should read this.

This is an interesting collection of literature that has been combined with illustrations. I don't want to say this is a never done before concept however this really brings life to some of these older poems and classical writings which helps bring them to a completely new audience. This would be a great addition to World War II lessons in school settings and are very interesting for students who are interested in war material. This might even encourage them to read more classics of the past.