Bio on Dave Mckean
Dave Mckean was born on the 29th of December 1963, in a town called Tablow in Berkshire.
Dave has worked in a number of creative fields from Illustration, collage, film-Making,
photography, comic book artist, Graphic Designer. However he started his career as an Illustrator once he studied
a the Berkshire college of Art and Design
Mckean has worked on a variety of projects, many of these he collaborated with long time friend and book writer Neil Gaiman.
They met in the year 1986 such as Mr Punch in 1975 and even did the very intriguing art
for The famous covers of The Sandman graphic novels collection which are by far one of my favourite
stories to read of all time.
One of the most successful Graphic Novels that he Illustrated for was Arkham Asylum which was a Batman storyline written by the
famous Grant Morrison This was a great tale created and produced in 1989. Then during 1995 the project
ventured into a collaboration with Rolling Stones and Vertigo.
He has contributed many illustrations for films like Blade that starred Wesley Snipes. Tim Burton's Sleepy Hollow and Alien Resurrection. as well
as worked on several childrens books that were written by Neil Gaiman like The Wolves in the Walls which is a New York Times
Illustrated Book of the Year and MirrorMask. He's also gained a lot of awards over the years such as the Ignatz Award,
the International Alph Art award and Italy’s La Pantera Award. and the Harvey Award for Best new comic and best graphic novel on his comic Novel Cages. Hes done
drawings for adult books such as Night Shift by Stephen King and Coraline, The Graveyard Book by Neil Gaiman.
During 1998 Dave has also been involved in making films which were short films called n[eon] and The Week Before and played them
worldwide, also won and award in a First Prize Clermont-Ferrand Film Festival. This definately caught Lisa Hensons eye from the Jim Henson Company. and
pushed Dave to use his film crew and Neil Gaiman to to on the film adaptation MirrorMask for Columbia/Tristar as a fantasy
movie.
Dave keeps himself very busy till today with projects on drawings that inspire him of Erotic Cinema for a book that
is titled Caustic and has worked on Stephen Kings Colorado Kid and
I am Legend written by Richard Matheson. His now working on sketchbook paintings that
give power toward the silent cinema and working on two new Graphic Novels called Caligaro and Raptor. To this
present day he has been living with his wife named Clare who has a career as a Studio Manager and Musician.
They both live in harmony within the Isle of Oxney, Kent in England.
List of my Favourite Dave McKean Works
- The Sandman Dust Covers.
- Arkham Asylum: A Serious House on Serious Earth.
- Hellblazer covers for DC Comics.
- Black Orchid.
- Violent Cases.
- The Tragical Comedy or Comical Tragedy of Mr Punch.
- The Graveyard Book.
- Coraline.