You know it when you see it.
Dave McKean’s distinctive style is easy to recognize and impossible to ignore. Those rich collages, those regal, muted colors and striking designs—they couldn’t come from any other artist.
From CD covers to book jackets and commercial projects, McKean has done it all; but he’s probably best known for his collaborative work with Neil Gaiman. McKean’s vibrant, evocative Sandman covers set the genre standard and raised the creative bar for comics everywhere.
More recently, McKean has collaborated with Gaiman on a pair of children’s books: The Day I Swapped My Dad for Two Goldfish (1998) and The Wolves in the Walls (2003); and he also illustrated Gaiman’s 2002 children’s novel Coraline.
In January of 2005, McKean made his directorial debut with the highly acclaimed Mirrormask at the Sundance Film Festival. A visually stunning children’s fantasy, Mirrormask was produced by the Jim Henson Company, based on a screenplay written by Neil Gaiman.
Dave McKean is also an accomplished jazz pianist, and together with saxophonist Iain Ballamy, he founded Feral Records.
