David McKean (born 29 December 1963)^[1] is an English artist. His work incorporates drawing, painting, photography,collage,found objects,digital art, and sculpture. McKean has illustrated works by authors such asS.F. Said,Neil Gaiman,Grant Morrison,Heston Blumenthal,Ray Bradbury andStephen King. He has also directed three feature films.

Dave McKean
McKean atLucca Comics & Games 2018
Born	David McKean (1963-12-29)29 December 1963 (age 61) Maidenhead,Berkshire, England
Area(s)	Writer, Artist
Notable works	Arkham Asylum: A Serious House on Serious Earth The Big Fat Duck Cookbook Cages Hellblazer The Sandman The Tragical Comedy or Comical Tragedy of Mr. Punch Violent Cases The Wolves in the Walls The Savage
davemckean.com

McKean first showed his work to editors atMarvel Comics,DC Comics, andContinuity Comics when visiting New York City in 1986. There, he met Neil Gaiman and the pair collaborated on the graphic novelViolent Cases, which was published in 1987.^[2] This was followed in 1988 by aBlack Orchid miniseries^[3][4] andHellblazer covers for DC Comics.^[5][6]

In 1989, McKean illustrated theBatman graphic novel,Arkham Asylum: A Serious House on Serious Earth, with writerGrant Morrison.^[7] The book was a commercial success, selling over 260,000 copies in hardcover and paperback.^[8] From 1989 to 1997, McKean created the covers for Gaiman's seriesThe Sandman and many of its spin-offs.^[9][10] In 1998, the cover images fromThe Sandman were released in one volume titledDustcovers: The Collected Sandman Covers.^[11] Further collaborations with Gaiman produced the graphic novelsSignal to Noise andThe Tragical Comedy or Comical Tragedy of Mr. Punch. In 1995 McKean wrote and illustrated a book forThe Rolling Stones calledVoodoo Lounge to tie in with the release of their album of the same name.^[6]

Between 1990 and 1996, McKean wrote and drew the ten issues ofCages, a graphic novel about artists and creativity.^[12][6]

McKean's collections of short comicsPictures That Tick, andPictures That Tick 2: Exhibition^[13] were published by Dark Horse Comics in 2009 and 2015.Pictures That Tick won theVictoria and Albert Museum Illustrated Book of the Year award.

McKean created a wordlesserotic graphic novel calledCelluloid^[14] forDelcourt, which was published in the United States byFantagraphics Books.

Black Dog: The Dreams of Paul Nash, which was commissioned by the 14-18 Now Foundation,The Imperial War Museum and The Lakes International Comic art Festival, was published in October 2016 byDark Horse Comics as an oversized hardback and regular paperback.^[15]

Raptor was released in 2021 by Dark Horse Books^[16] and is the first of a proposed series of books featuring the character Sokol.

McKean designed the posters for the Raindance Film Festival^[17] for five consecutive years between 1996 and 2000. In 1997 he wrote, directed and edited a ninety-second trailer for the festival. In 2005, McKean designed the poster for the 32ndTelluride Film Festival. In 2006, he designed projections, sets and directed film clips for the Broadway musicalLestat.^{[citation needed]}

McKean has also released picture books that include pictures from his trips. Examples includePostcards from Vienna,Postcards from Barcelona,Postcards from Paris (2008),Postcards from Brussels (2009),Postcards from Perugia (2011),Postcards from Bilbao (2012). He created another book of 200 pages calledSquink (éditions BdArtist(e)) that gathered a number of drawings in 15 chapters.^{[citation needed]}

McKean has created album covers for many artists, includingCounting Crows,Alice Cooper,Testament,Altan,Tori Amos,Download,Fear Factory,Front Line Assembly,Paradise Lost,Dream Theater,Stabbing Westward,Skinny Puppy,^[18]Toad the Wet Sprocket,Steve Walsh^{[citation needed]}, andDelerium.^[19]

Bill Bruford'sEarthworks commissioned McKean artworks for six of their albums from 1994 to 2004, as well as additional images for the 2019Complete box set.^{[citation needed]}

McKean has also made book covers forJonathan Carroll,Iain Sinclair andAlan Moore.^{[citation needed]}

McKean has published five books of photography:

• A Small Book of Black and White Lies (1995)
• Option: Click (1998)
• The Particle Tarot: The Major Arcana (2000)
• The Particle Tarot: The Minor Arcana (2006)
• Prompt: Conversations withArtificial Intelligence (2022)

McKean designed and illustratedJohn Cale's autobiographyWhat's Welsh for Zen, a further biography calledSedition and Alchemy, a box set of C.D.s calledCircus Live, and used John's Welsh-by-way-of-New York voice as the narrator for his short filmNeon.

McKean has collaborated withNeil Gaiman on four children'spicture books,The Day I Swapped My Dad for Two Goldfish (1998),The Wolves in the Walls (2003),Crazy Hair (2009), andMirrormask (2005), and illustrated Gaiman's children's novelsCoraline (2002) andThe Graveyard Book (2008), as well asS. F. Said'sVarjak Paw (2003),Outlaw Varjak Paw (2006),Phoenix (2013) and Tyger (2022).The Wolves in the Walls: a Musical Pandemonium premiered as a play inGlasgow in 2006 with Improbable and theNational Theatre of Scotland. The National Theatre of Scotland adaptedThe Day I Swapped My Dad for Two Goldfish into a promenade performance for young people in 2013. He illustratedDavid Almond'sThe Savage published in April 2008,Slog's Dad published in September 2010, andMouse Bird Snake Wolf (2013). In 2011, McKean collaborated withRichard Dawkins onThe Magic of Reality, an introduction to critical thinking and science for children.^[20] McKean also illustratedRay Bradbury'sThe Homecoming (2006).

In 2008, McKean collaborated withHeston Blumenthal onThe Fat Duck Cookbook, an autobiography, compilation of key recipes and insight into Blumenthal's scientific method. The book was nominated in theJames Beard Foundation Awards for Cooking from a Professional Point of View and won the Photography/Illustration award. In 2014, McKean collaborated again with Blumenthal and writer Pascal Clariss on Historical Heston, a collection of historically inspired recipes. The book won two James Beard Foundation Awards. McKean is the Director of Story atThe Fat Duck, and helped to relaunch the restaurant after its refurbishment in 2015. He has created package designs, maps, menu designs and murals for The Fat Duck, as well asDinner by Heston Blumenthal in London and Melbourne.^{[citation needed]}

McKean created six images for theRoyal Mail'sMythical Creatures collection, which featured depictions of mythical creatures found in British folklore, includingdragons,unicorns,giants,pixies,mermaids, andfairies. The collection was released in the UK on 16 June 2009. The Presentation Pack contains short descriptions of each subject by author Neil Gaiman.^[21]

MirrorMask, McKean's first feature film as director, premiered at theSundance Film Festival in January 2005. The screenplay was written by Neil Gaiman, from a story by Gaiman and McKean. A children's fantasy which combines live action and digital animation,MirrorMask was produced byJim Henson Studios and stars a British castStephanie Leonidas,Jason Barry,Rob Brydon, andGina McKee. BeforeMirrorMask, McKean directed a number of television intros and music videos as well as several short films, such asThe Week Before (1998) andN[eon] (2002),^[22] which are included in the compilation DVD of McKean's workKeanoshow from Allen Spiegel Fine Arts. McKean directedThe Gospel of Us, a film of theNational Theatre Wales'sPassion play inPort Talbot which starsMichael Sheen.^[23] The feature filmLuna,^[24] written and directed by McKean and starring Stephanie Leonidas, Ben Daniels, Dervla Kirwan and Michael Maloney, debuted at theToronto International Film Festival in September 2014.

McKean was aconcept artist on the TV mini-seriesNeverwhere (1996), which was created and co-written by Neil Gaiman, and the feature filmsHarry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban (2004) andHarry Potter and the Goblet of Fire (2005).

McKean wrote and performed a song cycle calledNine Lives^[25] at theSydney Opera House as part of the Graphic Festival. This was also performed at theBritish Library and at LICAF.

McKean wrote the text for Wildworks'Wolf's Child^[26] site-specific theatre work as part of the Norwich Theatre Festival in 2015.

An Ape's Progress^[27] was a commission by theManchester Literature/Jazz Festivals in 2015, and was created by poetMatthew Sweeney, composer/saxophone playerIain Ballamy, cellist Matthew Sharp, singer Emilia Martensson, accordionistStian Carstensen, and pianistKit Downes, with McKean providing film projections and keyboards. A book of the work accompanied the show.

Black Dog: The Dreams of Paul Nash^[28] is a multi-media, music, song and performance work commissioned by 14-18 Now Foundation and LICAF. McKean performs as narrator and pianist, Matthew Sharp as a performer, singer and cellist, and Clare Haythornthwaite as violinist/performer. It premiered inAmiens, and has been performed in Kendal. In 2016 it was performed in Rye, Ashford and atTate Modern.

McKean has producedalbum artwork for many bands, such as:Paradise Lost,Machine Head,Testament,Fear Factory,Counting Crows,Dream Theater,Michael Nyman. He has a longstanding relationship withindustrial bandFront Line Assembly, creating many illustrations for dozens of their albums from1994 to2021. McKean also founded the record label Feral Records with saxophonist Iain Ballamy.

McKean created the cover art forSynnergist,point-and-click adventure game released in 1996, the only video game he has made art for.

McKean has won numerous awards and accolades. Over the years, he has been nominated five times for aWorld Fantasy Award in the category of "Artist", and he won the award in 1991.^[29] His graphic novelCages won theAlph-Art, Pantera, andHarvey Awards for best Graphic Novel.^[30] He has been nominated six times and won three Spectrum Awards in the categories of "Advertising", "Book", and "Comic".^[31] His collection of short comics,Pictures That Tick won theV&A Museum Illustrated Book Awards Overall First Prize.^[30] In 2004, McKean won aBSFA Award in "Short Fiction" with Neil Gaiman for their work,The Wolves in the Walls. His filmMirrorMask was nominated for theWilliam Shatner Golden Groundhog Award for Best Underground Movie, the other nominated films wereGreen Street Hooligans,Nine Lives,Up for Grabs andOpie Gets Laid.^[32]Luna won Best British Feature at the Raindance Festival Awards,^[33] and also the Raindance Award at the Möet British Independent Film Awards.^[34] In 2017 McKean was the inaugural recipient of the "Sergio Aragones International Award for Excellence in Comic Art", given as part ofThe Lakes International Comic Art Festival.^[35]

• Official website 
• Official site for children's books with Neil Gaiman (UK publisher) and(US publisher)
• Dave McKean atIMDb
• Dave McKean atRotten Tomatoes
• Dave McKean at Mike's Amazing World of Comics
• Dave McKean at the Unofficial Handbook of Marvel Comics Creators
• Black Dog: the Dreams of Paul Nash
• Dave McKean atLibrary of Congress, with 48 library catalogue records