By CARY DARLING Knight Ridder Newspapers
Two illustrated, cubicle-bound office workers are talking by telephone. "Oh, my God, this war on terrorism is gonna rule," crows one. "I can't wait until the war is over and there's no more terrorism!"
"I know!" blares the friend. "Remember when the U.S. had a drug problem and then we declared a war on drugs, and now you can't buy drugs anymore? It'll be just like that!"
Toto, we're not in "Dilbert" anymore. Instead, these corporate clones populate "Get Your War On," the online comic that uses cut-rate clip-art characters - refugees from some long-lost language textbook - to riff on Bin Laden, Bush, and bombing Afghanistan, often using words not fit for a kid's comic book.
In the process, "GYWO" has turned its creator, a New York temp worker named David Rees, 30, into something of a celebrity. His sites - www.getyourwaron.com and www.-mnftiu.cc - have logged some 25 million hits in the past year, and the strips have been compiled into a just-released "Get Your War On" book (Soft Skull Press) with an introduction from respected author Colson Whitehead.
Now, Rees is getting his surprise on. He still can't believe his strip, made for a few friends as catharsis for his unease in the aftermath of the World Trade Center attacks and the onset of the war in Afghanistan, has resonated with so many people.
"I made the initial series of eight comics a few days after [the bombing of] Afghanistan. I was depressed and upset about a number of things," he recalls by phone from San Francisco during his book tour. "I put them up on a Web site and sent the link to my friends, and they started spreading it around. Within two weeks, it was one of the most popular sites on the Internet."
What sets "GYWO" apart from its comic contemporaries is the dichotomy of using generic clip art - all-Middle America 1950s stiffs - as a platform for 21st century anxiety, often delivered in co-opted hip-hop lingo. ("Operation Enduring Freedom is in the house!") Full Story: http://www.bergen.com/page.php?level_3_id=41&page=6158869 --- Sent from UnionMail Service [http://mail.union.org.za]