Get it On

The Confessions of St. David Rees

by Nina Shengold and photographs by Jennifer May, November 24, 2008

It’s two days after Barack Obama’s landslide, and leftists of every description are wafting around in a grinning daze. David Rees, whose scathing political comic Get Your War On lit up the Internet and Rolling Stone throughout the Bush regime, was not taking chances.

Rees points to a copy of Get Your War On: The Definitive Account of the War on Terror, 2001-2008, just published by Soft Skull Press. His cover design features a blue field with white text in its upper left quadrant, the rest of the page striped with comic strips printed in trademark red ink. “Can’t burn it. It’s an American flag,” he says, tapping his head sagely. “That was my Palin insurance.”

The iconoclastic cartoonist has suggested a 10am meeting at Beacon’s Muddy Cup coffeehouse. His lanky frame, in baggy sweater and hiking boots, sprawls on an acid-green velveteen couch. He appears to be not quite awake, which might make one wonder why he chose this time. “I always do that. I schedule these early morning interviews so I’ll have to get up, and then I’m half asleep,” he apologizes, adding, hopefully, “The coffee’s starting to kick in.”


Get Your War On was launched on the Internet less than a month after 9/11. Its opening salvo:

Man on phone: “Oh yeah! Operation: Enduring Freedom is in the house!”

Man at computer: “Oh yeah! Operation: Enduring Our Freedom is in the motherfucking house!”

Man on phone: “Yes! Operation: Enduring Our Freedom to Bomb the Living Fuck Out of You is in the house!!!”

No one was writing like this in October 2001. The nation was still shell-shocked, confused, and paranoid. Rees’s public assertion that the war on terrorism and invasion of Afghanistan deserved a good profane bash was a breath of fresh air. Using a handful of anonymous-looking clip-art figures, he tapped into collective anxieties and taught them to breathe comic fire.

Get Your War On (GYWO to fans) quickly developed a cult following, and in 2002, Rolling Stone picked it up. Rees was anointed a generational mouthpiece. Better yet, he was able to quit his day job.