In the week leading up to the 2017 Will Eisner Awards voting deadline this Friday, the Comics Beat will feature a series of “For Your Consideration” posts highlighting a number of the nominees as a celebration of their well-deserved acknowledgement. We’ll feature some never-before-seen behind the scenes content and some of the books’ gorgeous interiors. We encourage all of our readers to check these titles out and all of the eligible comics industry members to vote for the titles they think best exemplify what make comics great.
Anyone who’s read comics knows the work of Dave McKean. Hell, plenty of people who haven’t read comics know the work of Dave McKean. Perhaps most recognized for his covers on Sandman, McKean stands out from most comics artists because he has an unparalleled ability to create a sublime feeling of horror and awe. His work crosses from medium to medium, seamlessly blending found objects with oils, 3D modeling, and more.
In his latest book, Black Dog: The Dreams of Paul Nash, McKean has once again outdone himself. The book tells the story of Paul Nash an army officer who became an official war artist during World War I. He was struck and mortified by the horrors of combat, which informed his surrealist style. As the official summary by publisher Dark Horse states, “The Dreams of Paul Nash deals with real soldiers’ memoirs, and all the stories add up to a moving piece about how war and extreme situations change us and how we deal with the resultant pain—in Nash’s case, by turning his landscapes into powerful and fantastical ‘psychoscapes.'”
To fully capture Nash’s genius, McKean himself delves even deeper into surrealism than his previous works ever have. The pages twist and turn as Nash’s mind is realized in its full, breathtaking scope. Last year, McKean even orchestrated a multimedia concert based on Black Dog at the Tate Modern to further push the boundaries of his work.
Black Dog is up for the Eisner for Best Graphic Album– New. McKean is up for the Best Painter/Multimedia Artist award for his work on the title.
Check out of all of our 2017 Eisner coverage.
