After a trip to New York in 1986 during which he failed to find work as a comics artist, McKean met writer Neil Gaiman and the pair collaborated on a short graphic novel of disturbing childhood memories,
Violent Cases, published in 1987. This was followed in 1988 by a
Black Orchid miniseries (again with Gaiman) and
Hellblazer covers for DC Comics. Beginning in 1989 he produced the covers for Gaiman's celebrated series
The Sandman, all its collected editions and many of its spin-offs, and the Batman graphic novel,
A Serious House on Serious Earth, with writer Grant Morrison (1989). His work during this period was often compared to that of Bill Sienkiewicz.In 1995 he wrote and illustrated a book for The Rolling Stones called Voodoo Lounge to tie in with the release of their album of the same name.In 2005, he designed the poster for the 32nd Telluride Film Festival.In 2006, he designed projections, sets and directed film clips for the Broadway musical Lestat, adapted from Anne Rice's novels with music and lyrics by Elton John and Bernie Taupin.His most recent projects are directing an original feature called Luna, and a book with the evolutionary biologist Richard Dawkins.
Graphic novels
Between 1990 and 1996 McKean wrote and drew the ten issues of
Cages, an ambitious graphic novel about artists and creativity, illustrated in a stripped-down pen and ink style influenced by Alberto Breccia, José Antonio Muñoz and Lorenzo Mattotti.
Cages was published as single volume by Kitchen Sink Press in 1998, and in a new edition by NBM Publishing in 2002. In 2010, Cages was released by Dark Horse Comics in paperback for the first time.
Further collaborations with Gaiman produced the graphic novels
Signal to Noise in 1992 (previously serialised in
The Face magazine), about a dying filmmaker and his hypothetical last film, and
Mr. Punch, which explored similar themes as
Violent Cases through the imagery of the Punch and Judy show.
Illustration
McKean has also created a few books documenting his travels using only illustrations. Examples include
Postcards from Vienna,
Postcards from Barcelona,
Postcards from Paris (2008), and
Postcards from Brussels (2009). He also wrote another book of 200 pages called
Squink (éditions BdArtist(e)) that gathered a number of drawings in 15 chapters.
CD covers
- Alice Cooper
- Altan
- Tori Amos
- Iain Ballamy
- Believer
- Bill Bruford and Earthworks
- Buckethead (for whom he also created a 3D animation in 16 mm)
- John Cale
- Counting Crows
- Dali's Dilemma
- Disincarnate
- Download
- Dream Theater
- Fear Factory
- Front Line Assembly
- Bill Laswell
- Machine Head
- Mediaeval Babes
- James Murphy
- My Dying Bride
- Michael Nyman
- Paradise Lost
- Skinny Puppy
- Stabbing Westward
- Suicide Silence
- Testament
- Toad the Wet Sprocket
Book covers
- Jonathan Carroll
- Iain Sinclair
- Someone Comes to Town, Someone Leaves Town
- Wizard and Glass
- Coraline
- The Graveyard Book
- The New Yorker
Books of photography
He has published four books of photography,
- A Small Book of Black and White Lies (1995) and
- Option: Click (1998),
- The Particle Tarot: The Major Arcana
- The Particle Tarot: The Minor Arcana
Short comics
Pictures that Tick (2001).
Work with John Cale
McKean designed and illustrated John Cale's autobiography
What's Welsh for Zen, a further biography called
Sedition and Alchemy, a box set of cd's called
Circus Live, and used John's Welsh-by-way-of-New York voice as the narrator for his short film
N[eon].
Children's picture books
More recently McKean has collaborated with Neil Gaiman on two children's picture books,
The Day I Swapped My Dad for Two Goldfish (1998) and
The Wolves in the Walls (2003), and illustrated Gaiman's children's novels
Coraline (2002) and
The Graveyard Book (2008), as well as S F Said's
Varjak Paw (2003).
The Wolves in the Walls: a Musical Pandemonium premiered as a play in Glasgow in 2006 with Improbable and the National Theatre of Scotland. He also illustrated David Almond's
The Savage published in April 2008, and
Slog's Dad published in September 2010.
The Big Fat Duck Cookbook
In 2008, McKean collaborated with Heston Blumenthal on
The Big Fat Duck Cookbook, an autobiography, compilation of key recipes and insight into Blumenthal's scientific method. The book was nominated in the James Beard Foundation Awards for Cooking from a Professional Point of View and won the Photography/Illustration award.
Stamps
McKean created six images for Royal Mail's
Mythical Creatures collection, which featured depictions of mythical creatures found in British Folklore, including Dragons, Unicorns, Giants, Pixies, Mermaids and Fairies. The collection was released in the UK on 16 June 2009. The Presentation Pack contains short descriptions of each subject by author Neil Gaiman, someone whom has worked with McKean many times in the past.
