Shooting War

Shooting War by Anthony Lappe and Dan Goldman is a fiction comic novel that depicts the future of the U.S in the face of terror mainly in Iraq. The comic follows the main character Jimmy Burns, who earned his fame in the media by the use of blogging. The premise of the comic is that he is sent to Iraq as a journalist by the biggest TV company, and he is there to cover the complex war between Iraqi terrorist groups and the United States Army.

            Throughout the first part of the comic, political views are clearly conveyed by the author. The author clearly takes an anti-republican, and anti-monopoly stance on the current political ‘status quo’ of our country both at home and overseas. There are many examples where symbolism is used in order to send a message to the audience on anti-right wing, and anti-monopolistic view. For example, many different global chain restaurants are depicted to be at presence in Iraq, which in fact is very satirical. Another example of this would be the W Hotel, one of the most luxurious but more importantly one of the most expensive hotel chains in today’s standards, is depicted to be present in Iraq, which is very satirical since there are hundreds and thousands of Iraqi civilians who are suffering every day.

            Comic books have different types of rhetorical strategies that can be very effective. In comic books the author is painting the picture for you, so the context of what you are reading and seeing can only be interpreted in a limited number of ways, whereas in a book, the context of a story can be interpreted in many different ways. So in fact, if an author is trying to pursue you of a certain point or argument, a comic book is a great way to convince the reader. A great rhetorical strategy that comic books often contain is imagery and symbolism. As mentioned earlier, Shooting War used many symbolic imagery to mock at western international companies (namely Starbucks, McDonalds, etc…). This rhetorical strategy is pretty much exclusive in comic books, and movies.

http://shootingwar.com/webcomic/