First-Ever Video Version Of Satirical Clip-Art Comic Strip Developed With “Waking Life” Animator Flat Black Films
Teaser Video Live Today at: http://www.236.com/video/2008/get_your_war_on_promo_7897.php
Series Launches Next Week
New York, NY, July 24 – 23/6 (www.236.com), a leading comedic news site, is launching a 10-part animated series based on
David Rees’ “Get Your War On” comic strip, which Rees created after 9/11 to offer a wry take on the emerging war on terror. The strip is assembled entirely from
1980’s-style clip art and lampoons contemporary politics with scathing insight. Films, the innovative animation company that created the
Richard Linklater film “Waking Life” and the recent “Talk to Chuck” campaign of animated advertisements for Charles
Schwab, is creating the animation for the series.
The Get Your War On (GYWO) comic strip has drawn a large audience by depicting workers in generic office settings
providing acute insights and critiques of U.S. policy post-9/11, from the “liberation” of Iraq to George Bush’s plans to
send astronauts to Mars. The sly insights of these “average” Americans struck a chord with people growing increasingly
concerned with the administration’s actions in the expanding war on terror. GYWO became a minor phenomenon since it
first emerged in part because of the disparity between the stock, white-collar characters and the blistering sarcasm and
foul-mouthed words which emanated from them. The 23/6 videos feature Rees’ office workers commenting on current events,
including the contentious 2008 election season.
“It was a real coup for us to secure David’s agreement to produce with us the first-ever video series based on his Get
Your War On comic strip,” said Brian Spinks, Director of Video Content for 23/6. “David is part of a dying breed of
satirists whose work still has bite — he’s a real maverick. His sensibility is a perfect fit for us, combining informed
outrage with a true sense of the absurd. And we’ll be turning these videos around quickly, so they’ll have the immediacy
of a daily editorial cartoon, but with the rich media experience people are used to on TV and online. It’s a new medium
for political satire.”
Said David Rees: “Ever since Thomas Friedman rejected my application to be his moustache groomer, I’ve searched for a
way to serve my country — and now I’ve found it!” He continued, “When 23/6 approached me about animating Get Your War
On, I was skeptical they could do justice to my brilliance. However, they assured me I wasn’t actually that brilliant.
Ever since that revelation, I’ve enjoyed breathing life into my beloved clip-art characters. These animations will be
like Hobbes’ conception of life in the state of nature: ‘nasty, brutish and short.’ Anyone who enjoys Jib-Jab animations
will have a nervous breakdown watching these things.”
The GYWO series has the distinctive look of the work of Flat Black Film’s Bob Sabiston, an MIT Media Lab veteran who
brought the same interpolated rotoscoping technique to the Richard Linklater film Waking Life. Sabiston’s software lets
animators trace over live-action footage easily and quickly to create comics that are amazingly life-like.
GYWO has been made in to two books and the third, Get Your War On — The Definitive Account of the War on Terror, 2001-2008 — publishes in October.
23/6’s GYWO video series credits: David Rees, writer and producer; Brian Spinks, producer; Holly Schlesinger, producer;
Flat Black Films, animation; Jon Glaser, voice actor; and Anthony Laurent, voice actor
About 23/6
23/6 is a satiric news and opinion web site that offers insight into current events, from politics to pop culture. A collaboration between IAC and The Huffington Post, 23/6 provides a cheat sheet to world news that cuts to the heart of issues by
telling you not what newsmakers said, but what they meant. With over 300 writers and contributors –from TV shows like
The Simpsons, Real Time with Bill Maher, and 30 Rock, and movies such as The Aristocrats, Clerks, and Talladega Nights — 23/6 breaks ground with its heretical
take on the top stories.
About David Rees
David Rees was working a crummy magazine job when Operation: Enduring Freedom inspired him to make his cartoon “Get Your
War On.” The satire about the war on terrorism became an internet phenomenon. “Get Your War On” now appears in every
issue of Rolling Stone. Sales of the two GYWO books have raised almost $100,000 for land mine removal in western
Afghanistan and it has been adapted for the stage by the Austin theater company the Rude Mechs. David’s other comics
include “My New Fighting Technique is Unstoppable” and “My New Filing Technique is Unstoppable,” which appeared every
Thursday in the Guardian until they dropped it. He currently lives in Beacon, NY.
ENDS