excerpted from The Comics Journal #196
CHRISTOPHER BRAYSHAW: You talked a bit with Leo De Fritas about your childhood, characterizing it as pretty ordinary, in ordinary surroudings. I'm particularly interested in artwork or narrative literature you would have been looking at as a child. It seems to me that in your work, I don't see many of the influences that many American comic creators have described as being present in their childhood surroundings, like growing up with a dose of American comics.
DAVE McKEAN: Sure.
BRAYSHAW: Can you maybe talk a little bit about things you were looking at as a kid, or your earliest experiences of dealing with visual art?
McKEAN: I was looking at all sorts of things. I have always picked up comics, so even as a kid, I think, I was given comics initially. And they'd be run of the mill stuff. In England, you used to get reprints of American comics so there'd be those. There'd also be, Warren, they were at the time, magazine, like Creepy and Eerie and stuff like that. Which would reprint all kinds of bits and bobs from around Europe and South American artists.
There's never been much of an industry in England. There's always been one or two comics. I was never one to pick up 2000 AD or any of the English Comics. I don't know why. It just never appealed. And I've always sort of bobbed around a bit. I mean, I've stayed with... you know, as a kid I liked traditional sort of, I suppose Marvel Comics they were at the time. And then just bobbed around. I remember picking up odd things like E-Man. And I remember picking up Haunted. And these odds, there was a place that sold, what would they be? Charlton Comics, or something like that.
BRAYSHAW: Mm-hm.
McKEAN: Then I found Heavy Metal and more European comics. Again, I'd stay with 'em for a few months and then look around and see what else around.
BRAYSHAW: Were you able to find European graphic albums, say either by Dargaud or Casterman? Were they available in Britain, and did you have access to them?
McKEAN: No, not at all. No. Everything was some reprint package or another. So the first I saw was Heavy Metal, I'd suppose. Umm... and then later on, trips to Europe, I'd start to see the odd thing. Very little, to be honest. There'd be one or two newsstands in England, little news agents, together with the newspapers and magazines who would have a bottom rack of assorted stuff. Often discounted and, I mean, bulk shipped, I got the feeling that this stuff was shoved in packing boxes around the important stuff, You know, it ended up on the bottom shelf selling for sixpence.
BRAYSHAW: Yellowed and smelling of seawater.
McKEAN: Yeah, and they were beaten up, and so that was it, really. And I had no idea which comics belonged to which company or none of that. It was just stuff. And I never really knew what was going to be there the next week.
BRAYSHAW: Did you find yourself particularly drawn to certain artists or to certain titles? Did you recognize affinities between kinds of art that you were making at the time, and particular drawing styles that you saw in any of these titles?
McKEAN: I have odd memories of it, really, because I don't have some sort of abiding memory of one thing or one chracter or one artist that I followed at all. Unlike things like film, where I do remember seeing a film or a thing on television that has really stayed with me. My attituded has changed to it. But I've always loved it. So, you know, film and television stuff has really stayed whereas comics have always...You know, I really wasn't paying attention to artists' names, so I wouldn't know if the next week's comics were by the same guy. They were very sort of ephemeral. They just came and went. And I loved them with that sort of ephemeral passion that you get at that age. And it's the best thing you've ever seen that week. And then you move on to the next thing.
BRAYSHAW: How old would you have been about this time? Early teens?
McKEAN: No, I'm talking about like seven, eight... nine... By the time I was in my teens, I was I guess more involved in music rather than art. So I was playing in bands, and doing that side much more. I always drew. All the time. And would always pick up the odd comic. But by then, I guess I was more interested in music.