David Rees (cartoonist)

David Thomas Rees (/riːs/ "reece";[1] born June 22, 1972) is a humorist and cultural critic. He first rose to prominence as a cartoonist whose best known work combined bland clip art with "trash talk". Rees later created an artisanal pencil sharpening service and published a related book on the subject. He co-created and hosted two seasons of the television series Going Deep with David Rees.[2]

For other people with the same name, see David Rees.
David Rees
Rees in 2012
Born (1972-06-22) June 22, 1972
Chapel Hill, North Carolina, United States
NationalityAmerican
Area(s)Cartoonist, writer, artist, television host
Notable works
Get Your War On
Spouse(s)Sarah Lariviere (2002–2012)
Emily Yoshida (2018–present)
mnftiu.cc

Early life

Rees grew up in Chapel Hill, North Carolina and was an avid reader of Rex Morgan, M.D. comics. As a young man, Rees and three of his friends recorded over 2,000 songs as members of a "secret band."[3]

He is a graduate of Oberlin College, and drew comics for the school's newspaper, The Oberlin Review.[4]

Career

Cartoonist

Rees first became known for his office-cubicle humor that was inspired by his experience working in a basement for Citicorp. He also pulled his humor from his experience as a part-time fact-checker for Maxim and Martha Stewart Weddings magazines.

There are 5 collected volumes of his work. His best known and most controversial comic is Get Your War On, which has been translated into French, Spanish and Italian.[5] When the follow-up volume, Get Your War On II was published, Rees donated all the royalties of both books (more than $100,000) to Adopt-a-Minefield,[6] an organization that works to remove landmines from post-conflict areas. He is also the author of the comic strips My New Fighting Technique is Unstoppable, My New Filing Technique is Unstoppable, and Adventures of Confessions of Saint Augustine Bear.

Artisanal Pencil Sharpening

In July 2010, Rees announced his Artisanal Pencil Sharpening service, where – for prices starting at $500.00 – people can mail in their own pencils to be sharpened by him, or receive a sharpened pencil provided by the craftsman. According to the site, "...craftsman David Rees still practices the age-old art of manual pencil sharpening. His artisanal service is perfect for artists, writers, and standardized test takers. Shipped with their shavings and a 'certificate of sharpening', these extra-sharp pencils make wonderful gifts."[7][8][9] His book, How to Sharpen Pencils, was released on April 16, 2012. In 2016 he announced that he would be drastically reducing the amount of orders he processed.[10]

Host/presenter

In July 2014 the show Going Deep with David Rees launched on the National Geographic Channel. The show features Rees humorously investigating the science and process behind very basic tasks such as making ice, lighting matches and the tying of shoelaces.[11] For the second season, the show moved to the Esquire Network.[12]

Rees hosts the weekly podcast Election Profit Makers with his childhood friend Jon Kimball and Starlee Kine in which they discuss the prediction market website PredictIt.org.[13] The podcast first appeared as a series of 17 episodes before the 2016 U.S. presidential election and returned for a 30-episode series leading up to the 2020 U.S. presidential election.

Mashup

In late 2014 via his SoundCloud page, Rees released Aphex Swift, a collection of eight songs that combined the vocals of Taylor Swift and the electronic music of Aphex Twin. The collection received positive mentions ranging from The Verge, which called it "bizarrely good",[14] to The A.V. Club [15] and Time.[16]

Writer/blogger

Over his career Rees has written for a variety of publications. Since May 2005, Rees has been a contributing blogger at The Huffington Post. In 2013, Rees began writing for Wired's first scripted web series Codefellas.[17][18][19]

Voice acting

Rees co-created and starred as David Purefoy on Dicktown with John Hodgman.

Personal life

Rees married Sarah Lariviere[20] in 2002; they divorced in 2012.[21] On June 16, 2018, Rees married film critic Emily Yoshida at a ceremony in North Carolina. They live and work in New York City.

In 2010, Rees worked as a civil servant for the United States Census Bureau, a position that revitalized his interest in pencils.[22] During that time, Rees lived in Beacon, New York.[23]

Bibliography
  • Get Your War On. Brooklyn: Soft Skull, 2002. ISBN 1-887128-76-X.
  • My New Fighting Technique is Unstoppable. New York: Riverhead, 2003. ISBN 1-57322-373-5.
  • My New Filing Technique is Unstoppable. New York: Riverhead, 2004. ISBN 1-57322-382-4.
  • Get Your War On II. New York: Riverhead, 2004. ISBN 1-59448-048-6.
  • Get Your War On: The definitive account of the war on terror, 2001–2008. Brooklyn: Soft Skull, 2008. ISBN 1-59376-213-5.
  • How to Sharpen Pencils: A Practical and Theoretical Treatise on the Artisanal Craft of Pencil Sharpening. Melville House, 2012. ISBN 1-61219-040-5.

References
  1. MotherboardTV: "The Finer Points of David Rees". Retrieved 2013-02-07.
  2. Rees, David. "David Rees on How to Make Your Own TV Show". Vulture.
  3. "Pet Store, Post Robbery, episode #41 of SPONTANEANATION with Paul F. Tompkins on Earwolf". www.earwolf.com. Retrieved 2020-11-14.
  4. Higgins, Chris (August 24, 2014). "Pooters, SkyMall, and Haterade – The David Rees Interview". Mental Floss. Retrieved August 25, 2014.
  5. "Get Your War On". Soft Skull Press. Archived from the original on 2015-04-02.
  6. Jory, John. "The Rumpus Interview with David Rees". The Rumpus.
  7. Artisanal Pencil Sharpening website
  8. Three Questions for David Rees About His New Artisanal Pencil-Sharpening Project, Daily Details
  9. For the person who has everything: artisanal pencil sharpening, The Los Angeles Times
  10. "Artisanal pencil sharpener calls it quits". CBC Radio. 2016-04-08. Retrieved 2020-09-07.
  11. Modell, Josh (July 14, 2014). "Get Your War On's David Rees wants to teach you fun but useless things on his new TV show". The A.V. Club.
  12. Esquire Archived 2015-11-28 at the Wayback Machine
  13. Election Profit Makers website
  14. Kastrenakes, Jacob. "Listen to the bizarrely good Aphex Twin / Taylor Swift mashup album". The Verge.
  15. Hughes, William. "Here's a great Taylor Swift/Aphex Twin mash-up by David Rees". AV Club. The Onion.
  16. Waxman, Olivia B. "Taylor Swift Mashed Up With Aphex Twin Is Surprisingly Catchy". Time.com. Time Magazine.
  17. David Rees (21 June 2013). "www.mnftiu.cc » Blog Archive » CODEFELLAS". WordPress. Retrieved 2013-06-23.
  18. Todd Spangler (21 June 2013). "Wired's 'Codefellas' Plays NSA Privacy Flap for Laughs – Variety". Variety. Retrieved 2013-06-23.
  19. Camilleri, Ricky (20 June 2013). "John Hodgman LIVE – HuffPost Live". The Huffington Post. Retrieved 2013-06-23.
  20. Leland, John. "Like 'Dilbert,' But Subversive And Online". New York Times. Retrieved 20 July 2020.
  21. Jory, John. "The Rumpus Interview with David Rees," Rumpus Magazine (September 11th, 2012). Accessed November 19, 2016.
  22. Miller, Jenni. "Interview with David Rees, Author of How to Sharpen Pencils". GQ. Retrieved 2020-09-07.
  23. Cauthon, Phil. "Q&A with David Rees: Get Your War On creator returns to Lawrence to spread the gospel of dissent," Lawrence.com (Sept. 26, 2005). Accessed Oct. 7, 2008.

Notes

Further reading
  • Harrigan, Chris (Sep 2014). "A sharp mind". Smith Journal. 12: 40–42.
This article is issued from Wikipedia. The text is licensed under Creative Commons - Attribution - Sharealike. Additional terms may apply for the media files.