Above the Dreamless Dead: World War I in Poetry and Comics ed. by Chris Duffy (review)

Abstract

Reviewed by: Above the Dreamless Dead: World War I in Poetry and Comics ed. by Chris Duffy Elizabeth Bush Duffy, Chris, ed. Above the Dreamless Dead: World War I in Poetry and Comics; illus. by Hannah Berry, Stephen R. Bissette, Eddie Campbell, et al. First Second, 2014 144p ISBN 978-1-62672-065-7 $24.99 R* Gr. 9 up As the World War I centennial bandwagon pulls into town, laden with a fresh crop of literary tie-ins, readers would do well to revisit the Trench Poets, whose lacerating irony and bleak humor grappled with the obscenity of the barbed wire and gas-infused new age of battle in which they served. Bringing the work of Siegfried Sassoon, Wilfred Owen, and their peers to a new audience with vivid visual interpretations are over a score of comic-book artists (many of whom might be familiar to mature graphic-novel readers) who interpret and sometimes expand on the original work. Poems are organized simply into three sections: “Call to War,” “In the Trenches,” and “The Aftermath.” Artistic styles range from George Pratt’s smudgy, nightmarish visualization of Owen’s “Greater Love”; to Hannah Berry’s more photorealistic backstory for Wilfred Gibson’s “The Question”; to Carol Tyler’s simple, almost retro-like extrapolation of Robert Graves’s “Two Fusiliers.” Hunt Emerson supplies what might ironically be called comic relief with his ribald cartooning of several soldier songs that skewer trench life, superior officers, and the regretted enlistment of many soldiers. Back matter includes brief bios of the featured poets and comics creators, as well as commentary (often with term definitions) on each poem, highlighting the creators’ approaches to their assigned work. [End Page 150] This should encourage high school English and history teachers to supplement or even toss the textbook guide and, more importantly, impel young adults to reflect on war with poetry in one hand and a newspaper in the other. Copyright © 2014 The Board of Trustees of the University of Illinois