David Rees (cartoonist)

David Rees
Rees in 2012
Born (1972-06-22) June 22, 1972
Chapel Hill, North Carolina, United States
Nationality American
Area(s) Cartoonist, writer, artist, television host
Notable works
 Get Your War On
Spouse(s)

Sarah Rees (2002-2009)

Emily Yoshida (2018-present)
mnftiu.cc

David Thomas Rees (/riːs/ "reece";[1] born June 22, 1972) is a humorist and cultural critic whose career has moved between various disciplines. He first became known as a cartoonist whose best-known work combines bland clip art with outrageous "trash talk" to incongruous effect. He moved on to his Artisanal Pencil Sharpening service and publishing a related book. More recently he has been a presenter for Going Deep with David Rees.

Early life

Rees grew up in Chapel Hill, North Carolina and was an avid reader of Rex Morgan, M.D. comics. He is a graduate of Oberlin College, and drew comics for the school's newspaper, The Oberlin Review.[2]

Career

Cartoonist

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

There are 5 collected volumes of his work while the best-known and most controversial comic is Get Your War On which has been translated into French, Spanish and Italian.[3] A 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[4] 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."[5][6][7] His book, How to Sharpen Pencils, was released April 16, 2012.

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.[8] For the second season, the show moved to the Esquire Network.[9]

Rees hosted the weekly podcast Election Profit Makers with his childhood friend Jon Kimball in which they discussed the prediction market website PredictIt.org[10] before the 2016 U.S. presidential election.

Mashup

In late 2014 via his SoundCloud page Rees released AphexSwift, a collection of eight songs that combined the vocals of Taylor Swift and the electronic music of Aphex Twin. The collection received positive reviews ranging from The Verge calling it "bizarrely good",[11] The A.V. Club as "great"[12] and even Time magazine "surprisingly catchy".[13]

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.[14][15][16]

Personal life

When Rees was a young man, he and three of his friends recorded over 2,000 songs as members of a "secret band." Rees attempted to coerce one of his friends to ask for a bass guitar for a Christmas a gift; his friend ended up asking for a regular guitar instead and it upset Rees.[17]

Rees has a younger brother named Peter, who currently works in Chicago.[18] Rees was married to a woman named Sarah from around 2002 until they divorced around 2009.[19] Rees was just married on 16 June 2018 to Emily Yoshida at a ceremony in North Carolina. The couple live and work in NYC.[20]

In 2010, Rees worked as a civil servant for the United States Census Bureau, a position that engendered his interest in pencils. Rees at that time lived in Beacon, New York.[21]

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.

Notes

  1. ↑ MotherboardTV: "The Finer Points of David Rees". Retrieved 2013-02-07.
  2. ↑ Higgins, Chris (August 24, 2014). "Pooters, SkyMall, and Haterade - The David Rees Interview". Mental Floss. Retrieved August 25, 2014.
  3. ↑ "Get Your War On". Soft Skull Press. Archived from the original on 2015-04-02.
  4. ↑ Jory, John. "The Rumpus Interview with David Rees". The Rumpus.
  5. ↑ Artisanal Pencil Sharpening website
  6. ↑ Three Questions for David Rees About His New Artisanal Pencil-Sharpening Project, Daily Details
  7. ↑ For the person who has everything: artisanal pencil sharpening, The Los Angeles Times
  8. ↑ 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.
  9. ↑ Esquire Archived 2015-11-28 at the Wayback Machine.
  10. ↑ Election Profit Makers website
  11. ↑ Kastrenakes, Jacob. "Listen to the bizarrely good Aphex Twin / Taylor Swift mashup album". The Verge.
  12. ↑ Hughes, William. "Here's a great Taylor Swift/Aphex Twin mash-up by David Rees". AV Club. The Onion.
  13. ↑ Waxman, Olivia B. "Taylor Swift Mashed Up With Aphex Twin Is Surprisingly Catchy". Time.com. Time Magazine.
  14. ↑ David Rees (21 June 2013). "www.mnftiu.cc » Blog Archive » CODEFELLAS". WordPress. Retrieved 2013-06-23.
  15. ↑ Todd Spangler (21 June 2013). "Wired's 'Codefellas' Plays NSA Privacy Flap for Laughs - Variety". Variety. Retrieved 2013-06-23.
  16. ↑ Camilleri, Ricky (20 June 2013). "John Hodgman LIVE - HuffPost Live". The Huffington Post. Retrieved 2013-06-23.
  17. ↑ http://earwolf.com/episode/pet-store-post-robbery/
  18. ↑ "Peter Rees | LinkedIn". www.linkedin.com. Retrieved 2016-07-28.
  19. ↑ Jory, John. "The Rumpus Interview with David Rees," Rumpus Magazine (September 11th, 2012). Accessed November 19, 2016.
  20. ↑ Facebook post of Yoshida's mother
  21. ↑ 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.

References

Further reading

  • Harrigan, Chris (Sep 2014). "A sharp mind". Smith Journal. 12: 40–42.
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