Get Your War On II - Softcover

Rees, David

Softcover

ISBN 10: 1594480486 ISBN 13: 9781594480485

Publisher: Riverhead Trade, 2004

Synopsis

A second collection of the Web site cartoonist's observations on the war on terrorism and other contemporary issues offers a provocative look at the Bush Administration and its policies, Operation Iraqi Freedom, the war in Afghanistan, tax cuts, the 2004 presidential campaign, and more. Original.

About this title

About the Author

David Rees is the author of the cult-hit comic books Get Your War On, My New Fighting Technique Is Unstoppable, and My New Filing Technique Is Unstoppable. His "Get Your War On" comic appears in every issue of Rolling Stone and he runs a website, www.mnftiu.cc. In his spare time he writes songs for his band, Skeleton Killers.

Reviews

Rees began assembling his comic commentary on U.S. politics after 9/11, and since then he's remained faithful to his simple, remarkably powerful style. In each strip, anonymous office workers (portrayed as one-dimensional clip art figures) discuss the day's political events, either over the phone or while sitting around the conference table. Oddly, this combination of expressionless characters and strident commentary makes for some of the most consistent, wickedly funny political cartooning out there today. This collection presents the series of three- and four-panel comics Rees has posted on his Web site (www.mnftiu.cc) at regular intervals since late 2002. The characters ponder the effect of the war in Iraq on Afghanistan's citizens, wondering, "Remember those leftover civilians in that country where we waged our last war a few months ago? Do they realize they're one war away from being completely forgotten?" They contemplate the Patriot Act: "You think once they have Benjamin Franklin's body spinning in his grave fast enough, they'll be able to power an internal combustion engine with it?" And they question the possible reinstatement of Henry Kissinger to the September 11 Commission: "Jesus Christ, are we fucking MOVING BACKWARDS IN TIME???" Rees's work is a comic juggernaut; with a laugh and a groan in every strip, he never misses. Although this relentless skewering could grow stale, Rees's keen understanding of politics and history, and his passion for American freedoms, keeps the work surging forward.
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

The clip-art office workers whose bland looks contradict the foulmouthed political sarcasm that threatens to burst their speech-balloons in Rees' originally Web-based comic strips are back. Not that they've been absent since the first Get Your War On (2002); indeed, they've gone places and now appear regularly in Rolling Stone, which may increase the attractiveness of this collection. Meanwhile, of course, the War on Terror and U.S. intervention in Afghanistan morphed into the second Gulf War and U.S. occupation of Iraq, so there has been no end of things for them to talk about. The bloom is rather off their rose, however, and they are starting to sound less like comedy-sketch dialogue and more like a stand-upper's braying rant emanating ventriloquist-like from several different wooden heads. The most memorable sequence here is about the strip's monotonous cursing instead of any aspect of the forever wars; predictably, it ends in petty defiance. Newcomers to Rees' hissy fit will probably laugh harder than veterans at the second helping of it. Ray Olson
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved

Edition details

• Publisher: Riverhead Trade
• Publication date: 2004
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 1594480486
• ISBN 13: 9781594480485
• Binding: Paperback
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 208