Dave McKean

Dave McKean is an English illustrator, comic book artist, photographer, graphic designer and film maker. (phew!) I really love his comic work shown here because they have a very painterly style which is so different to traditional forms of comic strips that are normally in a cartoon style.

It makes the much more dynamic and exciting, and due to the rather obscure story elements, the comics wouldn't have the same effect if it were in a cartoon style.

The images are rather disturbing, but intriguing and they really make me want to read more which is good for a comic obviously. Its quite hard to see whats going on in the individual frames and often I'm at a loss as to whats happening but again, that makes it more interesting and almost as if they are standalone images in their own right. 

Im never going to hope to replicate something like this as its very different from how I work, but it hives a little insight into how less illustrative styles can be blended into a comic strip really well and maybe even have a better effect or impact. Its also worth looking at the composition of the comics too.

I like the four panel thing going on, it keeps the action confined to very narrow frames which makes it more intense and also look more like a triptych [but 4 panels instead of 3] and therefore again make it more of an art piece than 'just another comic'