I’m always so surprised that Dave McKean doesn’t have a bigger web presence. He has been one of my biggest artistic influences since a friend first loaned me a Sandman comic in the early 90s. His work is dreamlike, dark, disturbing, mysterious and deeply gorgeous. His work has always found a place deep inside of me where it connects. And in my opinion, he helped pioneer an aesthetic and style that is still found frequently in all creative outlets today, from fine art down to music videos and tv commercials.
McKean is a true mixed-media artist. His work combines drawing, painting, sculpture, found objects, digital art, photography and collage. He began as a comic artist, working with Neil Gaiman on such early projects as Violent Cases and Black Orchid. And then came their collaboration on the Sandman series, the greatest comic book/graphic novel series ever, in my humble opinion. McKean has also dabbled in film as well, directing the visually stunning film MirrorMask (a film so imprinted with his artistic vision, it looks like his art come to life), and the short films The Week Before and N[eon]. He is in post-production of another feature length film, Luna, which does not have a release date at this time.
McKean has worked on countless other projects, including the Batman graphic novel Arkham Asylum: A Serious House on Serious Earth, the graphic novel Cages, CD covers for such musicians as Tori Amos and Skinny Puppy, and designed sets and directed film clips for the Broadway musical Lestat to name a few. He even is an accomplished jazz pianist. Seriously, I can’t even begin to list all what the guy does.
So perhaps because of this we need to give him a pass on his less than stellar web presence. His personal web page unfortunately is not active. There is fortunately a couple of really nice fan-run sites. The Dave  Collector concentrates more on his artwork, while Behind the Masks: The Dave McKean Portal features his film work. And to help make up for the lack, I present a few of his works. Yes, to me, this is a few. Trust me, I had to slap my hands and tell myself to stop at this many. Enjoy.
Look! Its the original pieces for these Sandman covers! Done before the days of Photoshop. These process pictures were so exciting to see.
