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About a month after September 11, many people were delighted, some shocked, and not a few offended to find someone had forwarded them the latest exponentially spreading Web phenomenon: an online comic strip starring a handful of savagely sarcastic office workers engaged in flippant and profane discussions about the current events of the time.
The first panels featured a clip art representation of a Dan Quayle-ish business executive intoning over the phone, "Oh yeah! Operation Enduring Freedom is in the house!" The response from his clip-art compatriot, an equally dapper African American on the other end of the line, repeats the line and adds some extra punch better not repeated here.
Thus the tone was set for "Get Your War On," a comic strip the New York Times has called "a textbook illustration of the viral reach of the Web." The vaunted paper titled the article, "Like Dilbert, but Subversive and Online." And in case you haven't already gotten the idea, we'd like to warn you: If you're uncomfortable with subversive and online, don't venture further.
"Get You War On" has since spawned two book collections, a regular run in "Rolling Stone," and a theatrical play. The satirist behind this Internet success story is 35-year old David Rees, a former temp worker who had created a pair of absurdist comic strips before September 11th jolted him into more controversial—and politically relevant—territory. David recently answered some questions for us over email.
Hey, Dave. What prompted you to start Get You War On?
I was skeptical that we could win a War on Terror, and I didn't see anything in President Bush that suggested he'd make a good leader for a never-ending battle between good and evil. I also thought bombing the s*** out of Afghanistan seemed kind of short-sighted. People were excited about the bombing, but not so much the humanitarian follow-up.
How do you put the strips together? Where do the images come from?
I make the comics on my computer. Most of the images are from Dover collections of public domain clip art. Every so often I modify an image to ratchet up the visual intensity of the comic to unbearable levels.
A lot of the graphics are used over and over again. How many different image panels are there in total?
I would say that 99% of the comic is composed of the same five pieces of clip art:
- White guy talking on phone while looking at his notebooks
- Black guy talking on the phone while wondering why his computer is so outdated
- Black woman talking on the phone with her head tilted at a rakish, sardonic angle
- White guy talking on phone while leaning forward with unbridled enthusiasm
- Three people in kitchenette smiling and discussing a donut the Asian lady is holding
Do you do any drawing?
Sometimes I doodle when I talk on the phone. I can provide representative doodles if you don't believe me. [We believe him.]
Has any of the dialogue actually been overheard?
The first GYWO comic, "Operation Enduring Freedom is in the house," was a conversation my friend and I had on the phone.
It's not always easy to pigeonhole the characters' politics. Are they callous reactionaries, deeply sarcastic liberals, or just terrified citizens reacting to a series of incredible events?
All of the above.
What's the proportion of hate mail to fan mail?
90/10 love/hate.
How are your two other strips doing: "My New Fighting Technique is Unstoppable" and "My New Filing Technique is Unstoppable"?
I made the first Fighting Technique comics before 9/11. They reflect America's innocence, before we were forced into adulthood by Y2K and the 9/11 attacks. At this point, "Fighting Technique" and "Filing Technique" are both hanging on for dear life.
What are your influences? Tom Tomorrow?
Stand-up comedy and punk rock are probably the two biggest influences. I love Tom Tomorrow, but I think our writing styles are different (and he makes his own images, in a deliberately clip-art style). He is more talented than I am, so I'm flattered to be in his company.
Given up your day job yet?
I am a professional cartoonist. I used to do freelance fact-checking for Martha Stewart Weddings magazine, but ever since Rolling Stone hired me to make GYWO in January 2003, I've been able to eke out a living with freelance cartooning work.
Okay. Finally, what's up with that weird domain, www.mnftiu.cc?
The .cc domain extension is the country extension for the Cocos (Keeling) Islands (like how .ca is the country extension for Canada). The Cocos Islands are in the Indian Ocean. I thought the domain looked cooler and more mysterious than .com.
Thanks, Dave! See you in the (online) funny pages.
Filed under: Comics, Political Humor, Yahoo! Picks Profiles
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comments
Posted by knowon_yuno | Mon, January 07, 2008, 4:51 pm PST
Nice! Good to see satire alive and well! In an increasingly fascist America, sarcasm is the last refuge of the sane! Keep up the good work!
Posted by morningsteak | Tue, January 08, 2008, 2:17 pm PST
What a trash. I don't like it.
Btw, the pictures are always the same...
Posted by mojo420rising2000 | Mon, January 14, 2008, 4:15 pm PST
Finally, someone else who understands that everything can be funny. In a society that is increasingly trying to make everyone safe and happy would have a problem with a CARTTOON. Then again cartoons can be so very dangerousefor example Tom and Jerry... With somuch head trama no-wounder the baby boomer generation elected G.B. It doesn't matter any-way America has become far left and far right. And everyuone else doesn't care. The generation of today cares only for there cell phones, and Bobbys comments on myspace. They (your parents) put you to sleep, and now they are taking living breath from the constution. As the late great H.S.T. once said. "The Fear has got us.."
P.S. to all of thoses 20 somtthings............ white black yellow green purple blue brown orange, magenta, teal, and green again...... FIGHT BACK.... AND NEVER STOP
Posted by jj_webb_1999 | Thu, February 07, 2008, 2:19 pm PST
Sad to see he has attacked religion as well. Faith makes no sense to the faithless. I'm sure this guy is an atheist. My hope is that he seeks God at some point in his life. Then maybe it will make more sense. If not, there will be no "life" in the afterlife for him.
Posted by johnarigali | Sun, February 17, 2008, 11:31 pm PST
There must be some misunderstanding. When Yahoo! Picks claims that it's been bringing the best of the web since 1995, I expect every pick -- no, let's make it almost every pick, I'll cut it some slack -- to be among the best of the web. GYWO is NOT among the best of the web. The strip's dialogue -- which I think we can safely presume is Mr. Rees' couched left-wing, occasionally anti-religious rhetoric -- is so far around the corner that a taxi driver couldn't take me to it. I've gotten better rhetoric from mentally unstable transients. And how about those expletives? I thought Eddie Murphy's "Raw" was foul; Mr. Rees could wipe the floor with him!
To his credit, though, I like his minimalist use of graphics and his sense of irony and sarcasm. If only he was a politically and socially conservative Catholic...
Posted by yamziam | Tue, February 19, 2008, 10:00 am PST
Thank God!! Finally somebody who says what I think! Love the strip. Made me laugh out loud! It's nice to see that somebody else doesn't put elected officials up on a pedestal and realizes that they have been HIRED to do a JOB and they are not annointed. This country needs to remember it's roots and that we were formed by men and women looking for freedom not religious guidance. Keep up the good work!
Posted by skyhighhlz | Tue, February 19, 2008, 4:57 pm PST
A strip where most of the dialogues end in an exclamation sign doesn't look good. Good punchlines just sink in, they don't need to be hammered in, unless the readers -and the author- are 13 years old.
Posted by rodannadana | Wed, February 20, 2008, 10:37 am PST
To all these idiots in the comments above that try to bad mouth "Get your War On" - shut up and go to Iraq, bunch of right wing pansies. Talking out of the side of your mouth, not knowing a darn thing, trying to sound smart while being clueless. Check out that guy trying to sound like a literary critic with all his BS, what he doesn't want to admit is that the content of the comic strip is spot on, yes using the same cartoons over and over is part of the gag - you sophmoric imbeciles. It also highlights the words which is the focus of the strip, and they ring out volumes about the stupidity of right wing caveman thinking, political one liners, and kill them all, while I stay home slogans. No group of people present more a danger to America than right wing, knuckle draggers - they want to force everyone in this country to pay for their murder jollies, do their killing for them, and preach religion as political stances until the 70% of the country that disagrees with them gets swept up paying for their lies and lazy thinking. Not only do we need truthful and comical satire to point these aburd morons out from among us, but the time will come when we have to physically extract these usurpers from our country and we're getting there. Remember, 90/10 love/hate - and the 10% want you thinking they are the 90%, when the rest of us make it known to them that the jig is up they'll go back under their rock and wait for another time to try to take over via fear and insecurity. They talk tough but when it's 9 against 1, they shut up and go away.
Posted by joshb2025 | Sat, February 23, 2008, 11:32 am PST
He writes some funny stuff. Hey, even Readers Digest says laughter is the best medicine. If you laugh at other things, then go do that. His is a gift to those who appreciate it. Stop the hate, masturbate!
Posted by keith.orem | Sun, April 06, 2008, 7:18 am PDT
white guy,siting at computer thinking (who give's a $# ! + )
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