Honour for award-winning illustrator and designer

The accolade was presented to Dave McKean by the School of Art & Design at a graduation ceremony at Wolverhampton Grand Theatre.

The Honorary Degree of Doctor of Design was awarded in recognition of Dave’s considerable contribution to British graphic novels.

He said: “It's a wonderful surprise, and really positive for graphic novels generally to receive academic recognition in this way.”

Dave McKean is an award-winning illustrator and designer spanning books, comics, music and film.

His works have included ground breaking books and graphic novels such as The Magic of Reality (Richard Dawkins), The Homecoming (Ray Bradbury), Varjak Paw (SF Said), The Savage and Slog's Dad (David Almond), The Fat Duck Cookbook (Heston Blumenthal), What's Welsh for Zen (John Cale), Arkham Asylum (Grant Morrison), Wizard & Glass (Stephen King) and Mr. Punch, Signal to Noise, and Coraline. He was also responsible for the Newberry and Carnegie Medal winning The Graveyard Book (Neil Gaiman). His self-penned Cages has received several awards for best graphic novel.

Dave has illustrated hundreds of book and comic covers including Neil Gaiman's influential Sandman series, as well as his own written work, Pictures That Tick which is a collection of short comics, and an erotic novel Celluloid.

Outside of the world of publishing, Dave has also created well over a hundred CD covers for a diverse list of artists including: Michael Nyman, Alice Cooper, Altan, Bill Bruford, Bill Laswell, Tori Amos, Frontline Assembly and John Cale.

Dave has designed characters for two of the Harry Potter films and directed five short films and two feature films: MirrorMask and Luna. He is currently editing his third film, The Gospel of Us with Michael Sheen.

His paintings, drawings, photographs and narrative works have been exhibited across the world in America, Europe and Japan.

The University’s graduation ceremonies are being held at Wolverhampton Grand Theatre from Thursday, 1 September to Friday 9 September 2011.

ENDS

For more information please contact Vickie Warren in the Media Relations Office on 01902 322736