His covers defied logic and defined a generation of cool comics. Iconoclast Dave McKean waxes demonic on art school, eye damage and what drives Neil Gaiman nuts.
A conversation with Shelly Bond
V: Where were you when the VERTIGO line launched in '93?
McK: I don't remember any launch parties! Was I invited? All I remember was the imposition of a design template on the covers halfway through the Brief Lives storyline. So... that was nice.
V: Where were you in '83?
McK: I was still in art school, my second year. I was still arguing with everybody. I had discovered Ralph Steadman and Jim Dine. I had started reading a lot more novels and watching a lot more films. I was renting a tape a night to try to fill in the gaps in my education. I still hadn't done anything any good.
V: What was your first job in comics?
McK: I did a 3-page Mister X comic on spec. They published it and it sneaked out just ahead of Violent Cases , my first full-length book with Neil [Gaiman]. Before that I self-published at college with some friends—four issues of a comic anthology called Meanwhile...
I think I've managed to locate and shred almost all of the existing copies.
V: What's your most horrible recurring dream?
McK: Eye damage—stabbing my eye into the corner of a table. It's an image that just won't leave me alone. My most emotionally draining dream was the one where I dreamt that my wife was actually two people, half of her wonderful qualities in one person, and the other half in the other. I woke up with the knowledge that this was true and that I had to choose between them. For days I kept thinking there was a cloud over my head, but then I remembered it was the feeling from that dream.
V: Can you recall a specific time that you and Neil disagreed on a direction for a project?
McK: Sure. We recently wrote a screenplay for Hensons together. It was the first time we have ever actually sat in a room for several days together and worked out a project face-to-face. It turns out that after working together for 15 years, we are completely incompatible. I have to have a solid structure sorted out before I can even think about starting to write. That drove Neil nuts. He likes to just fire up his laptop, bring some people on stage, and see what they do. This drove me out my tree. We glowered at each other over our dinner. It worked out eventually, but that was a surprise
.
V: What was your favorite scene to write/draw in Cages ?
McK: I enjoyed doing the conversation when the artist finally meets and talks to the girl he's been drawing from the apartment opposite his. I'd planned a great, long naturalistic conversation, but when I got to it, I just couldn't face it. I didn't think the world really needed a real-time trivial faltering conversation in comic-book form. So I dissolved it into expressionistic images as they float around the room, caught up in their own world. I also enjoyed getting to draw God. And his Cat.
V: What's your connection to Harry Potter?
McK: I contributed the production design of the spiders and mandrakes to Potter 2, and werewolf, hypogriff, shroudy floaty guys (can't remember what they're called), and some other bits and pieces to number 3, and I'm still working on that one.
V: What's your most interesting recollection of working with Grant Morrison?
McK: I think it's got to be the chocolate addiction. Every time there was the chance of stopping for gas [on the signing tour for Arkham Asylum ], he'd say, “Chocolate, just get me some chocolate.” “What kind?” “Just any fuckin' thing, just get me a big bag of assorted chocolate.” And he's skinny. It's just not right.
V: What two things would you tell aspiring comic-book artists?
McK: Stop it. Depends on the age. If they're thinking about going to art school, then I'd definitely recommend going, but put aside the comics for a while and just try lots of things. If you still want to do comics afterwards, they'll be that much richer for it.
V: You have a recurring motif of fish in your work. If you could be any breed of fish, what would you be and why?
McK: You're just being silly now. But the answer is a sternet. Because they're kind of groovy. And they swim upside down.
What's your connection to John Cale?
McK: A friend of Neil's [Gaiman's] works in a recording studio. Cale was looking for several people to work on his autobiography: a cartoonist, a designer, a photographer, etc. So via Neil's friend, he called me up. It seemed easier for me to do everything. The book's called What's Welsh for Zen and it was released a few years ago. Since then John's done the narration for one of my films, I've designed his business cards and I'm doing some additional design on his new biography called Sedition & Alchemy, and we are planning a short illustrated book called The Paranormal Bedroom .
V: What music did you listen to while you were working on the illustrations for Coraline [recent New York Times bestseller/children's book with Gaiman]?
McK: Coraline didn't really come with a soundtrack. Often projects do have specific soundtracks, but not that one. I was listening to a lot of accordion-based music at the time, David Douglas's Tiny Bell Orchestra, music by Stian Carstensen and other Nordic jazz. I think I'd just found Sigur Ros, so they were on a lot.
V: What's in your CD player now?
McK: In the car I have: the soundtrack for The Thomas Crown Affair by Bill Conti; the new Peter Gabriel and his soundtrack to Rabbit Proof Fence ; a hilarious CD of French/Hungarian circus/folk music played at breakneck speed; a beautiful trancy/ambient CD I picked up in a shop in Minneapolis by Jelo because it was playing while I was walking around (I think that's the first time that's happened for me), and the new Sigur Ros.
V: What's your favorite story about Neil?
McK: There are so many—most recent is his current adventure directing a short film as practice before directing Death . I suggested he should at least try something first, meaning: Get a couple of friends and a video camera, shoot a bit of plot, sample into his Mac and have a go at editing. "That's a good idea," he said. Next day he's mobilized a huge crew, shooting it in England, produced by Matthew Vaughn with a £75,000 budget. That's more money than all of my (seven) shorts have cost put together. He doesn't do anything by halves, our Neil.
V: What did you do the day after you finished the final cover for THE SANDMAN #75?
McK: I think I had a celebratory lunch with Clare [Dave's wife]. I always used to draw a line under a long job with a holiday or some days off at least, but at the moment everything kind of rolls into each other. I never seem to actually get to the end.
V: ABSOLUTE FAVORITES
V: Song
I think I'll go with Pretending To Care , written by Todd Rundgren, as performed by Ian Shaw.
V: Book
The Abortion by Richard Brautigan. Read it in art school, haven't read it since, so I may have a rosy memory of this one.
V: Pickup line
I like the one in Shirley Valentine (thick Greek accent) "Of course I wanta to make-a da fuck with you."
V: Comic book
Got to be Man at the Window by Mattotti. He's the man. Also Little Nemo . The only comic artwork I've ever actually bought was a piece from Little Nemo .