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