Get Your War Gone

One thing I will miss about the Bush administration is Get Your War On, the comic strip by David Reese which ends this week. Reese put most political cartoonists to shame, satirizing the War On Terror while others were still advocating shopping sprees to defeat Al Qaeda. Unfortunately I can't link to the final strip because Rolling Stone doesn't put them online. (I guess they want people to actually pick up their physical magazine--weird.) Now all I have to look forward to every issue is the perennial shirtless photo of John Mayer.

I asked in the Luckovich post about repeating the same image with different joke in it. Reese might be the best example of doing that well. He tossed his jokes into clip art and came up with funnier comics than most people who can draw. Daily editorial cartoonists should take note of that time-saving strategy. You only have to draw the couple in front of the TV once. The hours you normally waste crosshatching can now be used to think of a better joke.

Besides losing a kick ass strip, it's also the loss of the only major publication (that I'm aware of) to have a regular political cartoonist. Once thought of as a great idea, magazines like Harper's and The Nation can't be bothered with it anymore. Although they are staying relevant with some really awesome essays on poetry!