EXTRACTS: Illustrators issue 15 © 2016 The Book Palace (96 PAGES in Full edition)

16 works were later adapted as a one-hour BBC radio dramas written by Gaiman and with music by McKean. They have also been adapted for the stage. In 1989 Dave’s painted artwork had also made a huge splash on another major graphic novel, 'Arkham Asylum', written by Scottish author and playwright Grant Morrison. It would also become one of the most successful graphic novels ever published. The very dark tone of the story took place in an asylum for the criminally insane within the world of Batman ’s Gotham City, where, as in an Edgar Allan Poe tale, the “patients” have taken over the asylum. In the wake of the book’s success, many other graphic novels would follow featuring the Arkham Asylum as a setting, including the aforementioned Black Orchid , and it has appeared in some of the later Batman movies, the TV cartoons, and even became a popular video game featuring Batman as well. With these early graphic novels, and the success they brought along, McKean’s work grabbed the attention not only of the readers, but the whole comic book industry as well. Dave has an individual style, which grew out of a basic love of drawing, and was honed during his four years at art school. His early comics were painted directly on paper, as opposed to the standard method of pencilling and having another artist ink over the pencils, and yet another apply the colours. Dave handled everything, including the design of the books. He would also use photographs as collage elements within his covers and comic panels, which would make his artwork distinctly different from those of the other comic book illustrators. He is probably best remembered for the many covers he did on Sandman , a series written and FACING PAGE: Poster for a multimedia performance piece created with poet Matthew Sweeney and Composer/saxophonist Iain Ballamy. A commission from the Manchester jazz and literature festivals (2015). Acrylic on collage. This work will eventually appear in Pictures That Tick 3. ABOVE: A drawing, published in one of an ongoing series of city sketchbooks. “This one is from Postcard from Barcelona (2007). So far I’ve done Paris, Brussels, Perugia, Vienna and Bilbao.” Ink. BELOW: A drawing from another narrative exhibition called Blue Tree . Later republished in Pictures That Tick 2 (2013). Ink. Dark Horse Press Hourglass/Allen Spiegel Fine Arts