I'm going to take the site on a short intellectual spin, if that's okay with you. Don't worry, geeks, it remains comic related, in a loose kind of way. There's another side to me that I rarely show in these reviews : the artist. The guy with paint on his hands as he types up these reviews, who desperately wishes he could paint just a little bit better. Pardon me if I get heavy and lose my enchanting sense of humor at times.
You know Dave McKean from any number of things - the cover of any Sandman comic, or various covers from any number of other Vertigo comics, or the epic 500-page Cages, or the old Batman favorite, Arkham Asylum. He's got about a decade and a half of CD covers, films, ads, illustrations and books to his credit, and in my humble opinion, he's the probably finest visual artist of our time. I don't exaggerate when I say this. He's the reason that I do what I do, and he's redefined genres. He reinvents himself with each new project, never using the same aesthetic twice. Now, a retrospective catalogue of his work has been published to accompany a museum show in Belgium. Narcolepsy, published jointly by Hourglass (UK), Beeld Beeld (Belgium) and Allen Spiegel Fine Arts, takes a quick look back at the past 15 years of Dave McKean's published work, and it's an incredible first trip for anyone who is unfamiliar with his work. I say 'quick', because at 95 pages, it encompasses most of McKean's various aesthetics and projects, but a lot of it is miniaturized into small boxes for the sake of quantity. In his introduction, Dr. Leo Frietas even calls the retrospective a "short and inadequate appraisal", and he's the REAL McKean scholar - a job I envy acutely.
I've been collecting Dave McKean's work like a man obsessed (with a bottomless wallet) for the past seven or eight years, mostly with the kind and informative help of Mr. Allen Spiegel himself. McKean's stuff isn't the easiest to come by, but I have to say that my collection of first editions and signed works is pretty vast, and I admit that I consider myself something of a minor authority on the works of Dave McKean. I could at least win a quiz show about the guy. Seeing his original paintings for Violent Cases and Sandman #8 at the now-defunct Words and Pictures museum in Northampton, Mass. was one of the high points of my intellectual life. Before I get too overly moist with praise, I'm here to talk about this latest McKean book.
As stated, it's 95 pages of heavy matte paper and full and vibrant color, all wrapped in a beautiful paperback. There's never been a more beautiful publication, quiality-wise. The front and back covers are double-thick, illustrated foldovers. There's not really a spare millimeter in this book that isn't somehow illustrated with McKean's art and design.
The works are presented in categories, but with no real chronology. Paint, Photo, Film, Comix, Print. The entire package exists out of time - no indication is made about to when each work belongs. It makes it difficult to watch McKean's elegant evolution, especially when some of his ink drawings are anachronistic and seem to belong at another place entirely in his life, upon a quick glance. I've seen most of these works as they were published, but I think it would be difficult for a new McKean viewer to trace the visual lineage. Of course, I think that the whole 'existing out of time' thing is a great testament to the enduring and ahead-of-its-time nature of McKean's work. One would be hard pressed to tack a year onto any of these, and I think that the organization of this book is kind of playing to that idea.
I guess that evolution is a pleasure left to those who were there.
We're introduced to the 5 sections by 5 different McKean-related people. First off is McKean, who (ever humbly) contests that he does not do art, which is a sort of dadaist statement is I ever heard one, despite his usually narrative artworks. What he does say is that "the only thing that art can do really is provoke an evolutionary step that human life has to take... So here are some pictures of things that I like." I don't know if there's any truer, purer philosophy. For all the intent and metaphor that's bandied about across the art world, 'making things that you think are cool' seems to be very often forgotten. You can see the heart of McKean, and some kind of fiery passion, in all of these fabulous works. And they're neat.
Iain Sinclair, a noted UK punkish author, chimes in with his brand of semi-incomprehensible image-driven speak regarding photography, and a few other folks speak of semi-mystical encounters with McKean. I tend to skim over words when the choice is between them and gazing astoundedly at McKean's artwork.
The book begins with a few collages of McKean's existing works, which is a theme that carries throughout the book. This all fades into 10 panting/sculptures that are published for the first time in this collection, making it a worthwhile addition to the library. Not unlike a greatest hits album in its nature - the fans already have all of the contained songs, so the label throws in a few new tunes to groove on. The genuinely new material ends there, but this doesn't make the rest of the book anything less special. Most, if not all, of the images in this book have only been published once or twice in a tangible, non-digital format, so it's a good starting point for collectors. The bibliography of McKean's major works at the end of the book is also a good roadmap.
The collection of paintings, like much of McKean's work, is a bunch of startlingly original personifications. Everything has a human part, or a human attribute. This is the case of much of the catalogue, and this is also perhaps why is strikes a personal, visual chord. It was once remarked by Neil Gaiman or Dave McKean in Dust Covers (a published retrospective of Sandman covers and extra stuff by McKean) that every single cover but one had an eye on it, in one way or another. As much as McKean sticks eyes and arms on things (to put it simply and almost vulgarly), it's never tired repetition.
After the paintings comes a semi-chronological look at McKean's limited photobooks, which are in ultra short supply and can go for huge prices online. By way of a brief listing : a 3-image look at A Small Book of Black and White Lies comes first, unfortunately only looking at the first half of the book; the grainy, sepia toned White Lies. The section of Black Lies, a collection of torn, taped and reassembled photos mixed with dirt and hair, is not shown. They are in many ways a very important aesthetic in their uniqueness. 4 more pages deal with his next photobook, Option : Click (so named for the oft-used Photoshop clone tool), which also featured rough looking sepia toned photos, but with more visible digital manipulation. His third photobook, the most digital of them all, The Particle Tarot : The Major Arcana, has only 2 pages dedicated to it, and one of them is a collage which obscures a majority of the images. If you recall, McKean created all of the imagery for the Vertigo Tarot deck that came out many a year ago, which also saw a smaller-format republication. This is different stuff, more realistic and cinematic. The beautiful Vertigo Tarot is not represented in this book.
The following section of film work is the one that McKean has most of his energy in at the moment, working with Henson studios on the upcoming Mirrormask. The film pages are given over to one large promotional film image and a page of 32 small film stills. McKean's first full film, The Week Before, is represented here. I have one of the few copies of this film that exist on a first generation tape, and it's simply gorgeous. It's one of those cinematographic films where every frame is a fully realized, stunning photograph. If you can get a copy of it, it'll change your perception of film forever.
Gush gush gush, right? "Put it away, Collin", is what you're thinking. Nae, I say! I have it all out for Dave McKean!
Anyhow, 32 film stills can't do it justice, as I'm sure the publishers of this book know. Next is n[eon], which I've yet to see. McKean's films have been waiting for a DVD release, which has been in the works for about 2 years now, if not more. A few more short film pages, and a page of 4 music videos for Buckethead, Izzy and Lowcraft. While these are generally unpublished videos, copies of The Ballad of Buckethead exist, and the CD single of Lowcraft's One of Us contains the beautiful McKean video in digital format, if you can get your hands on it. I suggest searching UK sites, as that's where I found mine. Unknown is the fate of Whack!, a short film (which has a few published stills elsewhere) that was worked on after The Week Before.
With most of McKean's creative energies going into the less accessible (or simply less collectible) world of film, a DVD compilation of his work would be ideal next to my Brothers Quay animation compilation DVD.
After film comes comics, which has a bunch of pages dedicated to McKean's various and more mainstream works, though still out of chronological order. Arkham Asylum (with the Joker painting that more or less gained him fame), Violent Cases, Mr. Punch, Signal to Noise (the last 3 being written by Gaiman), and Cages (written by McKean, who shows himself to be an author of subtlety, depth and grace). Also pictured are 4 pages from his last book, a large hardcover compilation of his harder to find short narrative pieces, Pictures that Tick, and finally, pages from the 2 children's books that he illustrated (also written by Gaiman), The Wolves in the Walls and The Day I Swapped My Dad for Two Goldfish. Omitted are his images for a slew of other short comic narratives, such as his work on Hellblazer, Hellraiser, Breakthrough, Phobias, Black Orchid and numerous other bits and pieces. You can't catch it all, of course, but it's a curious absence. Though probably impossible to find, I'd also have liked to see some pages from McKean's first self-published comics, a short series called Meanwhile.
Finally, the barrage of commercial work, a mix of a bit of everything. Of note is the artwork from the four released ASFA label CDs, which contain a bunch of excellent and bizarre jazz tunes, as well as a reading of Gaiman's Signal to Noise. Each of these CDs is packaged in a beautiful, thick box.
Overall, the book spans everything convulsively, not even in a cohesively stream-of-consciousness fashion. Throughout its choppiness, it's not disjointed or disorganized, but it draws connections between the previously disconnected and segments sections of time and implants them elsewhere.
It's an inspiration for all media - film, pen and ink, photography, graphic design, painting, sculpture. McKean does them all, and he does them all elegantly.
It's a must-have book for any art book collection that's short on McKean. For the McKean collector, it offers few new pieces that are worth the 30 dollar price tag, but the rest of it has been seen before, all in a clearer and larger format. If you're interested in finding a larger sampling on McKean's work online, please check out Allen Spiegel Fine Arts and Dreamline, both excellent McKean resources.
Five points out of five. I adore this book. I'll be funny next time.