Imagining: An interview with Dave McKean on the early years

Surrounding his early work in art and comics, this 2020 interview conducted with Dave McKean investigates his first years within the comics community with comics luminaries such as Neil Gaiman, Grant Morrison and Karen Berger. In it, McKean reflects on his early years in the world of art, those first meetings with DC Comics alongside Gaiman, and their inculcation into the ‘independent spirit’ of the Vertigo aesthetic and brand. McKean offers direct remark and commentary on his work on books such as The Sandman, Black Orchid and Hellblazer. In the end, even many years later, he still remains somewhat ‘conflicted’ and ‘undecided’ about DC’s editorial department and Karen Berger in her capacities as an editor, or, at least, as his editor.