David Thomas Rees ( ; 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. Early life Rees grew up in Chapel Hill, North Carolina, and was an avid reader of Rex Morgan, M.D. comics. According to Rees, while a young man he and three of his friends recorded over 2,000 songs as members of a "secret band". He is a graduate of Oberlin College, and drew comics for the school's newspaper, The Oberlin Review. 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 five 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. 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, 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 an Artisanal Pencil Sharpening service. Rees said that, for prices starting at $15, people could buy a sharpened pencil or mail in a pencil to be sharpened by him. Rees claimed to be a craftsman in "the age-old art of manual pencil sharpening", saying, "His artisanal service is perfect for artists, writers, and standardized test takers." He also sold art prints bundled with a sharpened pencil. According to The New Yorker, "This was before parody menus of farm-to-table restaurants had come out, before it was a cliché to make jokes about Mason jars and pickle-making, and artisanal culture desperately needed to be mocked. For fifteen dollars, Rees would hand-sharpen your pencil, bag up the shavings, and send it all back to you with a certificate of authenticity. It was deeply, satisfyingly ridiculous, and he was