David Lester

David Lester is an award-winning graphic novelist. His books have been translated into German, French, Italian, Japanese, Thai, Korean, Spanish, Catalan and Basque. His poster of anti-war protester Malachi Ritscher was exhibited at The Whitney Museum of American Art in New York. He is guitarist in the punk rock duo Mecca Normal, 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 Mecca Normal's "I Walk Alone." His collaboration with Marcus Rediker and Paul Buhle, The Black Schooner received a starred review in Library Journal.

He is also the creator of the "Inspired Agitators" poster series and the t-shirt design "Actually, I like crap." His graphic novel THE LISTENER was published in 2011 by Arbeiter Ring Publishing and went into a second printing. He is currently making a graphic novel on the life of anarchist/feminist Emma Goldman.

In 2017, Drawn To Change: Graphic Histories of Working Class Struggle (with David Lester’s The Battle of Ballantyne Pier) won the $10,000 Wilson Prize for the best book that “succeeds in making Canadian historical scholarship accessible to a wide and transnational audience” The book also won ...

Franklin University (Columbus, OH) used one of my paintings (Conflict #1) for a course on Global Cultures. 2005* The University of Utah (Salt Lake City, Utah) used 2 of my paintings (Conflict #1 and #2) in a course called Conflict Resolution. The Network for East-West Women-Poland (an NGO in Special Consultative Status with the Economic and Social Council of the United Nations) used my Conflict #1 painting on in article on Crimes Against Women. The University of Colorado (Boulder) used my painting Conflict #2 on their webpage for a course on Social Problems.

Whitney Museum of American Art (2014 Whitney Biennial); Metrospace, Sonic Landscapes, East Lansing, MI; OK. Quoi?! Contemporary Arts Festival, Struts Gallery, Sackville, NB; +5 Gallery, Paper Politics, Brooklyn, NY; Phinney Center Gallery, Seattle, WA; Bookmobile (travelled North America); Art in the Air Audio Art Festival, Sackville, NB; Happy Gallery, Belgrade, Serbia.