David Rees is an angry man. From the deepest, blackest depths of his soul, he spews forth an especially potent form of liberal vitriol aimed directly at Dick Cheney's shiny head. Or maybe he's just watches too much CNN.
But can you really blame him for responding to the nation's current state of affairs? The events of 9/11 changed us all personally, but for a then Maxim fact checker whose coping mechanism was swigging bottles of whiskey and pouring his thoughts into the dialogue of various clip art cartoons, David Rees is perhaps a little different than the average citizen. \Get Your War On,"" his acclaimed and rudimentary comic strip, was a breath of fresh air during the aftermath of the terrorist attacks when the media was little more than a puppet in the government's hands and questioning our nation's motives for anything was tantamount to grand treason.
Enter a crude, explative-filled comic bemoaning everything from anthrax to Afghanistan-one man's ranting diatribe against a world devoid of logic, true justice or any accountability of its supposed leaders. Imagine ""This Modern World"" without the scruples.
In these times, it isn't to hard take much to look twice at a presidential quote or cable news headline and be forced to disbelieve what you have just witnessed, and Rees uses this to his advantage. A typical comic will start off with the utterance of some fact, however incredulous, followed by hyperbole and the assertion that the aforementioned statement is actually true. Add some repetitive clipart taken from the mid-1980s and a large helping of the foulest language this side of ""South Park,"" and you have the author's formula at a hit comic strip. Not very complicated, but still incredibly hard hitting.
One comic, for example shows a generic office worker saying on the phone: ""You know the good thing about military guys? They don't bullshit. They say what they mean. Like Lieutenant Colonel Nathan Sassaman, talking about Iraqi civilians: 'With a heavy dose of fear and violence, and a lot of money for projects, I think we can convince these people that we are here to help them.'""
The character on the other end of the phone replies ""Oh you 'think' we can convince 'em, huh? You got a fuckin' heavy dose of fear and violence and you can't do better than 'think'' What the fuck kind of heavy dose do you use if you don't convince 'em?""
It's been three eventful years since ""Get Your War On"" became an Internet phenomenon, since appearing in such publications like Rolling Stone and Core Weekly, and the angry one is still at it. ""Get Your War On II,"" his next installment of political paraphernalia, begs the simple question-can David Rees still be at it? Certainly, the mere act of channel surfing past Fox News is enough to turn this writer's stomach, and events in the Middle East have been getting progressively worse, no matter what our commander in chief says, but the amount of hatred required to produce such a body of work must certainly take a physical toll on its author. David Rees' anger would certainly serve the dark side well.
""Get Your War On"" offers no sunny alternatives to our current situation, no happy endings or miracle comebacks. As a vehicle for one man's thoughts, the comic ponders subjects both infuriating and morose, comments on the hypocritical and heartbreaking and leaves the reader with nothing more than the assurance that someone else out there feels the same way that you do.
The second volume of ""Get Your War On"" is more of the same, but Rees' never intended anything different. There are a few new clip art pictures here and there, and of course more topical events to ridicule, but this comic has never been anything more than an attempt at catharsis-one man's little inside joke on a world gone horribly wrong. Fortunately, it seems the rest of us can laugh along as well.
