Dave McKean (born 1963 in Maidenhead, England) is an illustrator, photographer, comics artist, filmmaker and musician. His work incorporates drawing, painting, photography, collage, found objects, digital art and sculpture.

After an unsuccessful 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 by a Black Orchid miniseries (again with Gaiman) and Hellblazer covers in 1988 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 overwrought Batman graphic novel, Arkham Asylum, with writer Grant Morrison (1989).

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 José Muñoz and Lorenzo Mattotti. Cages was published as single volume by Kitchen Sink Press in 1998, and in a new edition by NBM in 2002.

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.

Outside of comics, McKean has produced CD covers for Tori Amos, Alice Cooper, Counting Crows, Michael Nyman, Toad the Wet Sprocket, Front Line Assembly and many others; book covers for Jonathan Carroll, Iain Sinclair and others, illustrations for The New Yorker, and advertising and commercial art. He has published a book of photography, A Small Book of Black and White Lies (1995), and a book of short comics, Pictures that Tick (2001).

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 novel Coraline (2002), as well as S F Said's Varjak Paw (2003).

He has worked as a filmmaker, mostly in short films. As of 2004, he is completing the feature film MirrorMask as director and visual designer. The screenplay was written by Neil Gaiman from a scenario by McKean.

McKean is also an accomplished jazz pianist.

External links

• The Art of Dave McKean (http://www.mckean-art.co.uk/)
• Dreamline (http://www.dreamline.nu/) An unofficial Dave McKean site
• Official site for children's books with Neil Gaiman (http://www.gaimanmckeanbooks.co.uk/) (UK publisher)
• Official site for children's books with Neil Gaiman (http://www.mousecircus.com/) (US publisher)