by Alex Deuben
“My ambition at the moment is to stay home and draw.”
– Dave McKean
Dave McKean’s first love was comics, but the artist, designer and writer has branched into other fields, creating book and album covers, publishing multiple books of his photographs and paintings, and has even drawn stamps for the Royal Mail. He’s the illustrator of Arkham Asylum, the landmark 1989 graphic novel written by Grant Morrison. He worked with John Cale on multiple books and collaborated with Heston Blumenthal on the memoir and cookbook, The Big Fat Duck Cookbook.
McKean is probably best known for his many collaborations with writer Neil Gaiman. McKean was the cover artist on The Sandman, illustrated Coraline and The Graveyard Book and the pair have created a series of graphic novels and picture books including Violent Cases, Signal to Noise and Mr. Punch. One of their collaborations was the film Mirrormask, which McKean co-wrote, designed and directed. It’s led to another career as a filmmaker, with two films currently in progress.
Working on his own, McKean has crafted dozens of short comics, many of which were collected in the book Pictures That Tick. He also authored Cages which is widely considered one of the most acclaimed and ambitious graphic novels ever created. McKean’s new book is Celluloid which was published by Delcourt in France and was just released by Fantagraphics in the United States.
Read our exclusive interview with Dave McKean on SuicideGirls.com.
