Webcomic Book Club Full Reviews of Get Your War On by David Rees

Review of "Get Your War On" I don't think any comic that debuted on the web has gotten as much mainstream media attention as this one. And in one respect, I feel it is deserving of the attention—it tackles head-on the post-911 American environment and reacts directly to the politics of the extraordinary past couple of years. Unfortunately, it's just not a very good comic and it's sad that this was the strip that the media chose to elevate as reflecting some kind of edgy new cynicism. Reading GYWO is like watching a mediocre comedian get on stage and rant. But rather than leaving the stage after doing his five minute shtick, his drunken buddies keep egging him on to do more and more. I remember that "The LA Weekly" ran an article about GYWO a while ago and then actually began including the strip as a feature for about 2 weeks after which it was dropped. Apparently "Rolling Stone" Magazine runs it now in an attempt to still be perceived as hip and relevant. There were about a dozen strips I rather enjoyed and found somewhat funny: http://www.mnftiu.cc/mnftiu.cc/images/war.040.gif http://www.mnftiu.cc/mnftiu.cc/images/war.060.gif http://www.mnftiu.cc/mnftiu.cc/images/war.066.gif http://www.mnftiu.cc/mnftiu.cc/images/war.071.gif http://www.mnftiu.cc/mnftiu.cc/images/war.078.gif http://www.mnftiu.cc/mnftiu.cc/images/war.093.gif http://www.mnftiu.cc/mnftiu.cc/images/war.095.gif http://www.mnftiu.cc/mnftiu.cc/images/war.110.gif http://www.mnftiu.cc/mnftiu.cc/images/war.108.gif http://www.mnftiu.cc/mnftiu.cc/images/war.141.gif http://www.mnftiu.cc/mnftiu.cc/images/war.171.gif http://www.mnftiu.cc/mnftiu.cc/images/war.172.gif But there is an overall tediousness to the whole monotonous enterprise that makes me want to "not like" even the strips that I might otherwise enjoy. It's not that I have an aversion to the visual conceit (use of clip art with word balloons) or even to the anti-Bush politics expressed. My problem is that it's just far below the level of most newspaper political cartoons. Despite all of its shrill yelling, it doesn't pack the punch of, say, a single Paul Conrad image. It would be nice if GYWO on could take the reader to a higher level. I see no greater wisdom in these characters than I find in the Bush Administration. Maybe that's the author's point, that we are just clip art people to the powers that be. But it would be nice if some of the dialogue reflected the humanity that is being lost in the new politics. The David Letterman era of detached irony is over, folks. The Bush Administration takes their Empire seriously. We need political comics that can cut to the core like a Michael Moore. Review by The Phantom Critic Sun Jun 22 2003 06:30 PM

I am a young American liberal. However, this strip doesn't entertain me. The problem is that there isn't really any humor here. It's just some angry little person ranting through copy and paste art. The author keeps throwing out generalizations and straw men and peppering it with more obscenities than a junior high boys' bathroom. The author doesn't understand that for profanity to be useful, one must use it sparingly. It has no real impact in the strip other than to distract the reader. It doesn't make the strip any more entertaining. The "jokes" are just tired generalizations and strawmen to show why the administration is corrupt/stupid/evil. Now, I don't like the administration either, but this goes beyond the realm of satire and into the land of nonsense. It's too exaggerrated, and has lost any relevance it may once have had. It's almost as if Rush Limbaugh were reincarnated as an angry young liberal. I can't recommend this to anyone. Not unless I were very cross at them, and wished for them to suffer. If I could, I would give it a negative value. As it is, one out of ten. Review by Ozymandias Sun Jun 22 2003 11:34 AM

Art Well the art was pretty sub standard, mostly as it only contained clip arts, that you get with most typing software, they do not change, except for maybe small details like a bigger stomach after eating, no variety, no work, no effort. Chars I dont know if they even had names, the chars are static, unchanging and only seem to exist to say how bad, stupid, and horrible the world is, in stark and often foul language. Story The story in this one is indeed a special case, as it all revolves around modern news, in america. As i am no American, and followed little of what they are talking about, most of it made little to no sense to me. Page Setup The page setup was unchanging for the entire comic, the only thing that changed seemed to be the background colour, which at times made it very difficult to read Overall 4/10 I cannot give a high score to this strip, i realise it is inteded for a specific audiance and i am not part of that, so my remarks could be biased on the part of not knowing the situation. Review by Jordin The Learned Sun Jun 22 2003 09:55 AM

Well....Get Your War On just blows my mind. How this could be published in any magazine, I will never know. Art: None. It's cut and paste to the worst degree. Even sprite comics show more effort than Get Your War On does. Which is rather sad, considering how much effort most sprite comics get (Kid Radd being a welcome exception). Characters: None. The clip art doesn't change, but trying to pretend the same art is the same character doesn't really work. Writing: This is the main strength of any good satire. Too bad it's so lacking here. Get Your War On relies on cursing, shouting and situations so ridiculous they pass from satire to nonsensical. It then tries to sustain said situations, when the initial joke was completely useless. It's just not funny, and says nothing clear or coherent. Plot: None. The comic is entirely based on current events, so for once, this isn't entirely Get Your War On's fault. Though it does try to create story arcs. These fail as well. Overall, Get Your War On was a horrible attempt at commentary, with no redeeming traits that I could see. As others have noted, its viewpoint is entirely from America. Being an American, I can say that it's still without any content, so being from another country shouldn't change your opinion of this at all. I would give it 0 out of ten, but 1 is the lowest number I can give, so: 1 out of 10. Do not read Get Your War On. Instead, curl up with some Jonathan Swift for real, biting satire and wit. Review by Benor Sat Jun 21 2003 09:04 PM

A review of Get Your War On by Kajamir the Giant I first became aware of GYWO in the issues of Rolling Stone magazine that my roommate subscribes to. I'd read it as happenstance, but it was never very enjoyable. Bland repeating 'art', constant and rather obnoxious Gen-X rants about modern political turmoil, endless swearing giving rise that nothing worthwhile was being written... GYWO reminds of a radio shock jock. Trying to maybe say something, but having more attitude and vulgarity than he knows what to do with so the message is lost. Who is this comic appealing to? Zen L33t says the liberals. What about the masses of people who couldn't care less about politics as a whole? If the comic has a particular political bent, why is it featured in a major publication with no balancing counter commentary? Well, as was written by another reviewer, it's an editorial comic, at least somewhat. However, nothing this thing offers would ever convince me of something, let alone have me cheer out 'right on!'. It's more like the ranting of a foul mouthed teenager who can touch upon meaningful points, and then completely lose any sense of persuasiveness. I don't particularly care what's being written in this case. It's about as elegant as the nationalistic violence of Stickdeath.com. Rather, every panel is horrible eyesore. Not only must we contend with flat xerox art, but a total lack of cohesiveness, while bearing endless empty ranting, sarcasm, and cynicism, is just disgusting to what a publicized creation could be. Did Rolling Stone pick this up for it's ho-hum controversial value? I don't know. But I don't consider being irritating a selling point. But I guess it does give one the idea that if enough pages are collected, they would make a decent liner for a bird's cage. I'm going to step down a moment from politeness, and say I detest everything about this 'comic'. I see no reason to support or speak anything well of Get Your War On. It's a crude mess more befitting the pages of some dramatic teenager's notebook during biology class. I give this appalling monstrosity of obnoxious negativity a flat out 0 of 10 stars. Don't read, don't acknowledge it, just keep walking. Review by Kajamir the Giant Mon Jun 16 2003 02:07 PM

art as has been said, i cant say that much about the art, i think however that the copy paste bit was very well done and added impact, although, the addition of voltron seemed somewhat stupid... everything else this is a comic strip made by young liberals for young liberals. it's near sole focus is that of concerend college students, lukely for them, i am one of that group. however, the points were maide in a bit too offensive tone with them overusing certain words for emphasis. the points they made were not bad, but they were not made in a way to influence anyones ideas. i generally agreed with them, but it showed me also the big problem the liberal are facing. it comes off as if the liberals do not support the troops, and so, i think peces like "Get Your War On" my be more unhelpfull than not... overall 5/10, very limited, but somewhat funny, worth it if you are a young liberal, otherwise, steer clear Review by Zen l33t Mon Jun 16 2003 09:24 AM

All right, I have to admit outright that I do NOT like this webcomic whatsoever, and I have no qualms in saying that I don't. Firstly, I share Pingu-san's sentiments about the art. It's cut-and-paste and therefore, there's no point for me to be impressed or not impressed about it. I'm a bit skeptical about cut-and-paste artwork and in fact, it lowers my respect for the people who make the comic. If they can't be bothered to draw it, that probably means that the comic is not a work of heart. Then we come to the choice of words in dialogue. I'm a conservative person - the type of girl who prays before bedtime and goes to church every week, so I do have reservations about a comic that uses swearwords like punctuation. "Get Your War On" certainly does that. That aside, I wouldn't mind the extensive use of swearwords if the comic had good content. Unfortunately, "Get Your War On" also fails in that aspect. The dialogue is flat and bears little relavancy to people who are not citizens of the USA (I am a Singaporean, therefore the comic is not relavant to me). It has no gripping storyline and it isn't exactly very funny either. All in all, I find "Get Your War On" to be a childish attempt at comical satire. It fails to bring its point across in a mature manner. The comic itself is not well thought out and only has a niche audience in mind. I give the comic a 1 out of 10 for effort - and only because I would give at least 1 point for something. Selphie Trabia/Catty Dewclaw Review by Catty Dewclaw Mon Jun 16 2003 03:21 AM

This is an editorial cartoon, and as of such requires a different take than normal webcomics. Art Well, it's cut and paste. So, the art doesn't matter at all, nor will I pay any attention to it. It's just there to act as a vehicle for the dialogue. Dialogue No doubt if you're an american, you'll have something to say about the content. I won't, as I'm not, and Get Your War On is all about America. The dialogue sounds and feels pretty much like an extended livejournal rant, or a chat room. If it tries to use humour, then I'm afraid it's failed quiet miserably for me. Message There are editorial cartoons that get their message across subtly, usually with a nice pinch of humour. Then there are editorial cartoons THAT YELL THE MESSAGE IN YOUR FACE AS YOU ARE CLEARLY TOO DUMB TO WORK IT OUT. Get Your War On falls into the second catagory. In conclusion Nah, sorry, I don't see the point of this being put on the web. It's for Americans and by Americans. If it appears in Rolling Stone, then it should stay there. Review by Pingu the Great Mon Jun 16 2003 02:19 AM

Offsite Review Summaries

"From a technical standpoint, the strips are very crude. Almost all of the images are assembled from a dozen or so simple clip-art pictures (with a few exceptions, most notably Voltron) that recur constantly. Due to an extremely heavy emphasis on dialogue, there is practically no action. Virtually all are in red on a white background. What has made Get Your War On such a hit is the dialogue, depicting things from the viewpoint of average Americans. Highly disillusioned and cynical, it is remarkably apposite and outspoken, emphasized by a strong dose of expletives (discussed in the strips of December 9, 2003)." more... Read Full Review by Wikipedia contributors at Wikipedia Mon Mar 08 2004

"Rees' webcomic is crude by any standard. It's clip art that looks as if it was pasted together in Microsoft Paint, and that's obviously an intentional effect. The style serves the theme of the comic well: at that time, the country seemed to be swerving into the '50s-style repression that is hinted in the rigid clip art smiles and poses, and that stiff illustration style is also the international symbol for irony and subversion on millions of punk band T-shirts, 'zines, etc." more... Read Full Review by Michael Whitney at Comixpedia Sun Nov 09 2003

Visitor Reviews & Comments

The point of Get Your War On is that contemporary politics is retarded beyond repair, mindless messages given by bland-faced p.r. hacks who have about as much soul as the clip-art used in the strip. I mean, really, the image of a black guy holding a telephone has more soul than Donald Rumsfeld, you know? Plus, the subtle metaphor of Voltron as nuclear holocaust is awesome. -hx, and jesus, Michael Moore is unfunny. Unfunny like no cusses allowed. Review by Hooper_X Thu Dec 16 2004 12:36 PM

This post is in response to "Voltron's" comment below. First off, I'm pretty sure that all club members are aware that Rees is very successful commercially, as his strips have been appearing in "Rolling Stone" magazine for some time. So trotting out the argument that "he's been signed, so he must be good" doesn't really wash. We like to go a bit deeper here. Or at least I do. I'm more interested in my own personal response to a comic than in merely cheering on what the masses think. I don't want to rehash my opinion regarding "GYWO" which you can read above. I just want to decry the poor level of commentary guys like Voltron have been posting to this forum lately. If you are going to post something here, try to make it substantial and address the content of the webcomic. Voltron seems to be under the impression that the club members didn't like "Get Your War On" because it wasn't a superhero comic or because we didn't understand satire. It's a lazy, guttural response. Offer something useful here. This club isn't about a simplistic "thumbs up / thumbs down" mentality. Why do you like "GYWO", Voltron? Why do you consider it a great work of modern satire? Share the insights. The Entity and Satan managed to contribute quality commentary in just a couple of sentences. I'm sure you can do the same. Review by The Phantom Critic Wed Mar 31 2004 02:02 PM

Rees just signed a deal with Penguin, so his hilarious strip is going to be seen by more and more people. Satire isn't for everyone; if you're having trouble getting it, try branching out from the superhero stuff. Review by Voltron Wed Mar 31 2004 06:47 AM

"Get Your War On" is angry, loud, unsubtle and contains lots of swearing. If checked out occasionally it can be amusing; it's not something to put on your regular reading list though. However, it will always have a special place in my heart for the classic first strip of the Get Your Exx On sequence, which I greatly approve of for making a damn good point in a suitably blunt manner. Review by The Entity Thu Feb 12 2004 07:27 PM

The point of the strip is not the art or political commentary, it is a response to the mass media's portrayal of post 9/11 America and is basically saying WTF IS UP and thats why people like it because other people think WTF IS UP. Review by Satan Tue Dec 02 2003 10:58 PM

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