David Lester's Blog

BIOGRAPHY:

David Lester specializes in creating historical graphic novels. He is also a musician, writer, and graphic designer. Lester used his expertise and skill in drawing and writing to create a series of four graphic novels with historian Paul Buhle and distinguished professor Marcus Rediker of the University of Pittsburgh, which have been translated into nine languages and been adopted for course use at university, college and high school levels. A number of his books have been published by the legendary and respected American publisher, Beacon Press.

His poster of anti-war protester Malachi Ritscher was exhibited at the Whitney Museum of American Art in New York.

Lester contributed artwork, music, title design and poster design to the 2026 documentary Becoming Benjamin Lay which tells the fascinating story of Benjamin Lay, a dwarf, born in 1682 in England and who died in Pennsylvania in 1759. He is one of the most important historical figures that you’ve never heard of. Lay was a sailor, a radical Quaker, and a fierce abolitionist, ahead of his time.

He lives in Vancouver, BC.

MUSIC:

David Lester is guitarist in the punk rock duo Mecca Normal (with singer/lyricist Jean Smith), cited as an influence on the founders of the feminist social movement Riot Grrrl. In 2025, Rolling Stone‘s list of 100 Best Protest Songs of All Time included the duo’s I Walk Alone.  The band has released 14 albums, on some of the most prestigious record labels in North America, including K Records, Kill Rock Stars, Matador Records, and Sub Pop. They played shows with such bands as Bikini Kill, Heavens To Betsy, Fugazi, Sonic Youth, The Ex, Posen Girls, beat happening, Chumbawamba, The Julie Ruin, Bratmobile, Unwound, Mount Eerie and The Corin Tucker Band.  Mecca Normal songs have been included in the TV shows, Cruel Summer (American teen drama thriller) and  Better Things (starring Pamela Adlon), plus the feature film Brooklyn, Minnesota, starring Academy-award winner Amy Madigan. Miranda July, named one of Time Magazine‘s 100 most influential people in 2025 wrote about how the Mecca Normal song One Woman has fuelled her through the years, connecting the lyrics to the very moment she was stepping out of her cab to receive her award.

ARTISTIC STYLE & PRACTICE:

Lester draws in a bold style that pushes the limits of light and dark combined with raw texture all in black and white. He feels that for graphic novels, black and white connects much better to the gravitas of depicting history, and gives unity to the visuals, without the distraction of colour.

For Lester, the artwork must match the emotional depth of the history being depicted, which is often history from below. Rough history requires rough art. An art that is hard… and stark… and cuts to the core of systemic cruelty and brutality. He wants the reader to hold in their hands a visceral experience of history that spills forth in the uncontrolled splatter of ink on the pages. This aesthetic approach goes back to his origins in music as a punk rock guitarist where the splintering sound of a distorted chord rings out with a kind of raw beauty, an urgency.

Lester also makes innovative and creative use of materials in his artwork. As part of his drawing process Lester often uses clay to make heads of the main characters in his graphic novels as a way to allow options in how he might draw the same character from different angles. With clay heads, the angle can be changed and with the use of a flashlight the lighting and shadows can be controlled, which allows for great dexterity in drawing.

Lester is also aided in the drawing process by building scale models of locations in his books using foam core. These are much like building a set in a studio for filmmaking, only these are miniatures. As well, these sets allow him to control the lighting by use of a flashlight. In this way, architecture becomes a character.

RESEARCH:

Scrupulusly researching the history of Greek partisans during World War II, Lester wrote and illustrated a chapter in the anthology, Partisans: A Graphic History of Anti-Fascist Resistance (Between the Lines, 2025). The book also included work by Sharon Rudahl, Summer McClinton, Daniel Selig, Seth Tobocman, Isabella Bannerman, Anne Timmons, David Lasky, Kevin Pyle, and Gary and Laura Dumm.

Lester’s graphic novel, AT THE END: The Last Year in the Life of Emma Goldman was rigorously researched, all of the words spoken by Emma Goldman in the book come from her letters, speeches and published work. He conducted original research at archives in Amsterdam, New York, Berkeley and Ottawa. Guggenheim Fellow and founding director of the Emma Goldman Papers, Dr. Candace Falk, had this to say about the book: “This work is a tour de force, original, visually stunning, and historically sound.”

REVIEWS:

David Lester’s work in graphic novels and music have been widely noted and reviewed by such renowned publications as Library Journal, Kirkus Reviews, Booklist, Publishers Weekly, Rolling Stone, The Comics Journal, The New York Times and he has appeared with Mecca Normal on Democracy Now.

AWARDS:

Working with a group of academics known as The Graphic History Collective, Lester illustrated 1919: A Graphic History of the Winnipeg General Strike (2019), which was co-winner of the CAWLS Book Prize for the best book in Canadian work and labour studies and shortlisted for the George Ryga Prize for Social Awareness in Literature.

CONTACT:

davidlester AT fastmail.com

Hi Historical Graphic Novel lovers!!

Just a heads up about my latest graphic novel, The Black Schooner: Rebellion on the Amistad. The book tells the true story of the 1839 uprising by enslaved Africans aboard the Amistad, and is co-written with Marcus Rediker. It will be published on June 9, 2026 by Beacon Press (distro by Penguin Random House).

This is the 4th book I've created with historians Marcus Rediker and Paul Buhle. Editions of our previous three books have been published in seven languages. 90 second book trailer: https://tinyurl.com/y27d4zrm

“The Black Schooner is a vivid and graphic depiction of the 1839 Amistad rebellion, when African slaves seized control of a slave ship near Cuba. While most histories focus on the work of white abolitionists in the US in defending the Africans during their subsequent trial in Connecticut, The Black Schooner shows the Africans themselves as the central figures. David Lester’s powerful black-and-white art depicts their story, from the uprising on the ship to their subsequent imprisonment in the US and concluding with their return to Africa.”
—Gord Hill, author-artist of The 500 Years of Indigenous Resistance Comic Book and The Antifa Comic Book

The Black Schooner will be published by Beacon Press on June 9, 2026.

But you can PRE-ORDER now:
Bookshop.org: https://tinyurl.com/4sjkd44z
Indigo (Canada): https://tinyurl.com/3z6xbj49
Barnes & Nobel (USA): https://tinyurl.com/5ddb8nm5
Amazon (Canada): https://tinyurl.com/4wmtcbax
Amazon (Canada): https://tinyurl.com/39khnuk7
Also available as a Kindle.

Full details on the book:
Beacon Press: https://www.beacon.org/The-Black-Scho...

ISBN: 978-080701690-9
www.beacon.org

Revolution by Fire: New York's Afro-Irish Uprising of 1741, a Graphic Novel (Beacon Press) by Marcus Rediker, David Lester with Paul Buhle

Pub date: November 12, 2024
176 pages (Paperback )
ISBN: 978-0807012550

Based on the little known real life "Slave Insurrection" of 1741, this book imagines outlaw fugitive John Gwin and an eclectic crew of renegades as they attempt to disrupt and overthrow the colonial social order

Rebel fugitive John Gwin was previously introduced in Under the Banner of King Death and this graphic novel continues his adventures. Revolution by Fire is a hypothetical look at the inner workings of the so called “New York Conspiracy” or "Slave Rebellion" of 1741, following the figures who were considered the real-life masterminds of the plot.

Featuring an eclectic crew of African-American, Irish, and mixed race Hispanic sailors, soldiers, and renegades, Gwin and his band are determined to capture New York City in their own names and fight the higher class “wigs and ruffles” wearing white people. Unfortunately for the conspirators, suspicions about an uprising were already in the minds of the Governor and his fellow elites, and the events that followed change the course of everyone’s lives forever.

Based on the chapter titled “Outcasts of the Nations of the Earth” in Rediker’s and Peter Linebaugh’s The Many-Headed Hydra: Sailors, Slaves, Commoners, and the Hidden History of the Revolutionary Atlantic, the bookprovides a fly-on-the-wall view of a historical event reimagined, highlighting cooperation among races and classes that transcends the social order of its time—and inspire us today.

“Revolution by Fire is a riveting graphic narrative of the 1741 New York City slave conspiracy. The innovative graphic narrative brings into full view America’s slave past and how enslaved people courageously rebelled against their enslavers. Readers particularly interested in the multiracial dimensions of slave resistance will find this graphic narrative a real gem.” —Dr. Karlos K. Hill, author of The Murder of Emmett Till: A Graphic History

Pre-order in USA: https://www.amazon.com/Revolution-Fir...

Beacon Press:
https://www.beacon.org/Revolution-by-...

Pre-order in Canada: https://www.amazon.ca/Revolution-Fire...

Music by Sergey Cheremisinov courtesy of the Free Music Archive

Book trailer for UNDER THE BANNER OF KING DEATH: Pirates of the Atlantic, a graphic novel by David Lester and Marcus Rediker with Paul Buhle:
https://youtu.be/lu_V5utFHXE

Pub date: Feb 7, 2023, but available NOW for pre-orders: http://www.beacon.org/Under-the-Banne...

JUST RELEASED: My graphic novel "Prophet Against Slavery: Benjamin Lay" (Beacon Press), about an 18th-century dwarf and hunchback who fought a lonely, heroic fight for the immediate abolition of slavery. The book was edited by renowned historians Marcus Rediker and Paul Buhle.

Advance comments: "David Lester's raw, expressive visual approach perfectly delivers." -- Nate Powell, artist of the March trilogy

"Do you know the story of Benjamin Lay? Neither did I. These pages constitute the graphic apocrypha of the Prophet of Slavery himself, brought to light by David Lester's thorough research, spare language, and stunning artwork.” — Jason Lutes, author of Berlin

Here is a trailer for the book: https://youtu.be/5-yUkKKHGhM

In addition to making graphic novels, I'm also the guitarist in Mecca Normal. cheers, David Lester
PS: Further details here: https://www.penguinrandomhouse.com/bo...

Twenty-five free copies of *Prophet against Slavery: Benjamin Lay, a Graphic Novel* are being given away by @BeaconBks through Goodreads. Register here: https://www.goodreads.com/giveaway/sh...

An excerpt by Karen Jacobson about teaching my graphic novel THE LISTENER in her classroom:

One of the most powerful ways the students utilized the historical and visual nature of The Listener was in seeing the connection between events of the past and present.
One student prepared a multimedia presentation for the class that explored the many ways in which Lester used another visual technique, superimposition, in this book. An example is a series of images that portrays Louise in a tour of a concentration camp; ghostly outlines of the former inmates take up increasing amounts of the image as reflections on their experience increasingly possess her thoughts.

The presentation powerfully conveyed one of the ways in which a graphic novel is unique as a literary/art form; this student's insightful ideas were alluded to frequently by other students in subsequent class discussions as they pointed out additional examples of superimposition in the chapters they had studied.

-- "Challenging Stories: Canadian Literature for Social Justice in the Classroom" (Canadian Scholars' Press, 2017)
https://www.amazon.ca/Challenging-Sto...

Consider giving a graphic novel this holiday season! Check out my graphic novel THE LISTENER. Just sayin'.

https://www.buyolympia.com/q/Item=dav...

MECCA NORMAL TOUR starts Tuesday, Sept 23 in the Northeastern USA:
http://meccanormal.wordpress.com/

Thanks to everyone who is helping to publicize our upcoming shows and the new record! We really appreciate it. Being D-I-Y means we need our friends and fans to help us get the word out.

Read all about our new album: http://www.mladysrecords.com/