Dave Mckean - BAF

This story teller - Dave Mckean - gave us a masterclass talking us through his career, how he started on DC comics, then explored other areas, galleries, kids books, films, photography... This man has really done it all, and seems to love doing it!

He took us from the very start of his career, telling us about his first few DC comics works; Violent Cases, Sandman and Mr Punch. He worked with Neil Gaiman on these, illustrating the words that he wrote. 

After working with Gaiman and other writers, he decided to write a comic himself - and illustrate it! Cages was created, which he wrote and illustrated 10 issues of. This is where he claims he taught himself to draw properly, practicing his style over and over again.

Once he had established he can draw comics, he decided to do some work for galleries. Firstly was "The Coast Road", where he thought it would be better to change the layout of his comic book style to be displayed on the walls - because he believes comics belong in books.

The Rut

Blue Tree

After this he went on to do two more major galleries; called "The Rut" and "Blue Tree". The Rut was in the Pumphouse gallery in London, where he had a series of pictures displayed throughout the rooms to tell one story, and put a body - (don't worry it was a dummy!) in a small corridor, to see if people would look through the whole gallery to notice it. 

The Blue Tree was displayed in his hometown, which he started setting up at around 5am, so the locals would wake up surrounded by his work. He later put this in a proper gallery space, where the branches/twigs were attached to the ceiling through the whole of the three rooms, with illustrations on the walls.

By the time he had finished these galleries, he wanted to work on some children's books. Reuniting with Neil Gaiman,  the pair of them created: The Wolves in the Walls, Coraline, The Graveyard and the Ocean at the End of the Lane.

After this he continued illustrating books for people such as David Almond (The Savage), Richard Dawkins (What is Magic/Reality?) - to get the science accurate in this book, he got a tutor to teach him the facts! - and Heston Bloomington's cook book.

He went on to illustrate record covers (for Michael Nyman), get involved in photography, and more recently has made several low budget films!

He also showed us illustrations from the sketchbooks he kept, telling us how he uses them at any free moment, and even getting his kids involoved with their own books!

I didn't recognise a lot of his work, but I still find it interesting just how much he has contributed to, and doing what he loves! And he is still going, making a film called "Callisto and the Wolves" next year! He has been a big inspiration for many people, so I hope he keeps it up!