'Get the Lead Out' Archives

Top

blog

Stories

New Jersey Wants to Raise Its Smoking Age to 21, Too

By John Surico
Democracy Now! Hosts Cooper Union Debate

By Sydney Brownstone
Quinn on Street Fatalities

By John Surico
Hurricane Sandy Hotel Evacuees Evade Housing Crisis

By Sydney Brownstone
Liu Gives Back Dirty Cash

By John Surico
What to Do if You Get Vito Lopez'd at Work

By Sydney Brownstone
City Dragged Stop-and-Frisk Judge Through the Mud

By Ryan Devereaux
The New Yorker Launches Project Developed by Aaron Swartz

By Sydney Brownstone
Union Square is Getting a Massive Wi-Fi Expansion in June

By Sydney Brownstone
We May Have a Weiner in the Mayoral Race by Next Week

By John Surico

Interviews

Q&A With David Rees, Cartoonist and Pencil-Sharpener Extraordinaire

By John Surico Sat., Apr. 21 2012 at 1:00 PM

Categories: Get the Lead Out, Interviews

Rees, David © Meredith Heuer.

David Rees is no stranger to paper. As a cartoonist for Rolling Stone and other publications, he won widespread acclaim (and criticism) for his politically charged "Get Your War On" strip, which visualized, in comic form, the intense spectrum emotions felt throughout the Bush years. He is also the self-proclaimed "hottest blogger on the planet." Now, he's onto a bigger project and this one involves his own drawing device: the pencil.

Last July, Rees started an "artisanal pencil-sharpening" business. For $15 or so, customers could send him their pencils for a quick touch-up from the famed cartoonist. From there on out, Rees dedicated his time to the lead-filled field of study and, as of last week, his book, How to Sharpen Pencils: A Practical and Theoretical Treatise on the Craft of Pencil-Sharpening, can be found on bookstore shelves everywhere.

His tour for the book will end May 18th in Brooklyn at the Public Assembly, with guest star and the book's foreward author, comedian John Hodgman. Runnin' Scared sat down with the cartoonist-turned-pencil-author to find out more about the ins and outs of the 'artisanal' craft, his career in cartoons and what will make people laugh in this upcoming Presidential election: