I really enjoyed watching how each artist chose to interpret their individual nursery rhyme. This also ends up being the collection's greatest fault when it comes to younger readers, as it's hard to interpret what age this collection was made for, as certain comics may be difficult to follow for some of the younger set. Some are similar to what you might find in a cheerful picture book while others (Mike Mignola's in particular) are far from it. All of the artwork is top notch, but because of the diverse collection of artists, no two comics look alike. One of the most enjoyable aspect about Nursery Rhyme Comics is the wide variety of content inside. Other artists I know by name, but have never experienced their work myself, such as Hark! A Vagrant's Kate Beaton, and Hellboy's Mike Mignola. I was familiar with a handful of them, such as American Born Chinese's Gene Luen Yang, Blankets' Craig Thompson, and Smile's Raina Telgemeier. The reason I picked this collection up to read is due to the impressive collection of artists that can be found inside. Well known classics such as “The Itsy Bitsy Spider,” “Hey Diddle Diddle.” and “Old Mother Hubbard,” are presented aside some lesser known rhymes such as “My Name is Yon Yonson” and “Solomon Grundy.”

Each nursery rhyme is presented in comic strip form and runs from one to three pages long. Nursery Rhyme Comics takes the idea of the classic collection of nursery rhymes and updates it for our current graphic-novel hungry generation of youngsters. I have memories of reciting them in preschool, and reading from a large hardcover book that collected and illustrated many of the most popular rhymes. Twenty poems are interpreted in comics form by twenty of today's leading cartoonists, including Eddie Campbell, Kevin Huizenga, George Pratt, and many others.TemporaryworldsI think it's safe to say that most American children have experienced their fair share of nursery rhymes. With New York Times bestselling editor Chris Duffy ('Nursery Rhyme Comics,' 'Fairy Tale Comics') at the helm, 'Above the Dreamless Dead 'is a moving and illuminating tribute to those who fought and died in World War I. In stark black and white, the words of the Trench Poets find dramatic expression and reinterpretation through the minds and pens of some of the greatest cartoonists working today. The marriage of poetry and comics is a deeply fruitful combination, as evidenced by this collection. Known for its rejection of war as a romantic or noble enterprise, and its plainspoken condemnation of the senseless bloodshed of war, Trench Poetry soon became one of the most significant literary moments of its decade. The Trench Poets, as they came to be called, were soldier-poets dispatching their verse from the front lines.

As the Great War dragged on and its catastrophic death toll mounted, a new artistic movement found its feet in the United Kingdom.

Nursery Rhyme Comics by Chris Duffy