Comics as a form of expression

'Get Your War On' served the same purpose for David Rees as 'In The Shadow of No Towers' served for Art Spiegelman. Both of these authors/artists used this creative medium in order to come to terms with the events and find a way to express their emotions -- something they could not do otherwise. Many artistically-inclined individuals turned to their preferred form of expression after the trauma of 9/11 as a cathartic exercise. Most great art, in fact, is a product of the creator's experience with tragedy.

Rees' comics, however, had several defining characteristics that seperated them from Spiegelman's work. The art was very simple -- the core of his work was clearly in the dialogue between the characters. Rees has said in interviews that he doesn't enjoy writing in any form other than comics. My impression is that placing words that he truly believes into the mouths of his characters seperates him from his own controversial ideas, but allows him to voice them nonetheless. Rees uses his characters as a way to vent and express his undying anger towards numerous people ("George W. Bush now appears to be a monarch"), groups (The repetition of "under God" on page 12, for one, can be seen as a criticism of evangelical Christians), beliefs ("Monotheistic religion has always brought out the best in us humans; thank you so much for the idea of a supernatural entity who rewards people in the afterlife!") and policies ("After eight straight weeks of bombing, I don't like the idea of people still walking around Afghanistan!") related to the events of 9/11 without having to deal with the backlash from the public that would come if he had said these things outright (as Ann Coulter experienced, for example).