Dave McKean Overview

History is full of famous collaborations that helped to create astounding works of genius: John Cage/Merce Cunningham, Igor Stravinsky/Sergei Diaghilev, as well as Pierre Jeanneret and Le Corbusier’s friendship are three well-known collaborative efforts that have influenced dance, music and architecture…and... [more]

History is full of famous collaborations that helped to create astounding works of genius: John Cage/Merce Cunningham, Igor Stravinsky/Sergei Diaghilev, as well as Pierre Jeanneret and Le Corbusier’s friendship are three well-known collaborative efforts that have influenced dance, music and architecture…and then there is Dave McKean and Neil Gaiman. Gaiman is an influential, prize-winning author, and McKean is a world-renowned visual artist. Dave McKean met up with Neil Gaiman in New York, 1986, after failing to find work as a comics artist, and this meeting produced the first of many collaborative and successful graphic novels: Violent Cases being the first to be published in 1987. This particular comic showcases McKean’s formative style and clearly demonstrates his aesthetic sensibilities that were to become more assertive throughout his career; you can really see how McKean creates a magical combination of painting, sculpture, drawing, photography, collage and digital art to create disturbing off-kilter images that compliment Gaiman’s literary noir-style. This collaboration has lasted for 20 years so far, and they have worked on the award-winning Sandman comic series, a number of graphic novels, and four children’s books. They have also made “Mirrormask,” a film that Gaiman wrote and McKean designed and directed. The graphic novel Violent Cases was followed in 1988 by a miniseries: Black Orchard; then McKean produced covers for DC Comics’ Hellblazer, and in 1989 he produced the covers for Gaiman’s monumental series The Sandman. He also designed and illustrated the graphic novel, Arkham Asylum: A Serious House on Serious Earth, with writer Grant Morrison (1989). Dave McKean has written and illustrated a critically acclaimed comic novel (Cages); designed, illustrated and photographed over 150 CD covers (including Michael Nyman, Fear Factory, Skinny Puppy and Tori Amos), as well as creating graphic designs for various ad campaigns (Nike, British Telecom, Eurostar) and magazines (New Yorker, Mojo, Playboy). And, by golly, he is also a very good musician. Dave McKean (born 1963) now lives and works in Kent, England. [show less]