Pictures That [Tick]

Pictures That Tick #1

by Dave McKean

Pictures That Tick is a collection of McKean's groundbreaking short comics stories from the 1990s and early 2000s.

Genres: Comics, Graphic Novels, Art, Comic Book, Short Stories, Graphic Novels Comics, Fiction

184 pages, Hardcover

First published November 30, 2001

About the author

Dave McKean is a world-renowned artist, designer, and film director who has illustrated several books for children, including The Savage by David Almond, and Coraline, The Day I Swapped My Dad for Two Goldfish, and The Wolves in the Wall, all by Neil Gaiman. Dave McKean lives in England.

Reviews

[Sofia · Rating 5 out of 5]

Background: I had never heard of this book until I got it as a gift for my birthday last month, but I have been a huge fan of Dave McKean's work since I discovered it around four or five years ago, so it was a really nice surprise. I first became aware of his work through the graphic novel Black Orchid, which he made with Neil Gaiman. I remember marveling at the beautiful panels in that book and wondering who this amazingly talented artist was. After that, it was only a matter of time until I got acquainted with the rest of his illustrative works. This, however, is the first book I got that wasn't made together with other authors, which got me curious.

Review: Let me be a bit unorthodox and start this review with a conclusion: go buy it. Seriously. You won't regret it, if you're a fan of his work or of the comic / graphic novel genre in general, specially if, like me, you like to see the boundaries of a medium being explored to the limits. That being said...

Pictures That Tick is a collection of short stories, some made of words and images, others of only images, some drawn, some painted, some photographed, some all of the above. The author includes a short introduction to each of the stories, which in itself I found very interesting. In some of them he would allude to what had inspired him to make it, including some references to other artists such as Duane Michals (who happens to be one of my favourite photographers), while in others it seemed like I was staring at written versions of his scattered thoughts. In fact, many of the short stories felt like that - a materialized string of ideas, or stream of consciousness, rather than a story per se - and this is particularly notable in the stories in which he uses no words.

The artwork itself is nothing short of amazing. Dave McKean seems to have mastered many different mediums in a way that many other people can only aspire to. If you're familiar with his work you probably already know this, but it still came as a surprise, to see so many mediums intertwined in such a lovely manner in one single book. The highlights, for me, were "Ash", a story about a girl with a tree growing through her, and "His Story", which follows the life of a boy who had listened to his father's story. It sounds rather simplistic when I put it down in words, but believe me, it's everything but. The book is full of metaphors and word play and little pearls of wisdom which sometimes come in the form of an image. This quote, from "Ash", particularly struck home with me:

She looked out at the other trees, and she realised that her life was one of thousands, any one of which could have been her, she had grown wherever her life had taken her, she had drifted wherever the wind had blown her.

This is a gorgeous, thought-provoking book and I am infinitely glad I came across it. It showcases Dave McKean's talent not only as a visual artist, but also as a skilled storyteller.

What's Next: Some of these stories touched me deeply and still linger in my mind. I now have all his books (including the ones he worked on with other authors) on my wishlist. I sincerely hope he makes another one with short stories such as these.

[Sarah · Rating 3 out of 5]

I'm a big fan of McKean's art, but I was not particularly impressed with the text in this collection of comics. The prose seemed a bit forced, as if he were trying desperately to write in someone else's voice, but not really succeeding in it. I also thinks he suffers from a problem many of us have, which is the illusion that other people are as interested in our dreams as we are.

There were a couple of stories I liked, but I think that was mostly because they referenced art that I am personally attached to (for instance, a story that centers around The Abortion: An Historical Romance, 1966 by Richard Brautigan, which is a book I know and love), and not because they were particularly well crafted.

[D.M. · Rating 5 out of 5]

I don't know how many times I've read this book at this point, but it fell into the casual-reading pile just recently and I was again blown away by it.
I know this is an awful stereotype, but as a long-time comic snob I've come to believe artists shouldn't write. McKean, unsurprisingly perhaps, proudly shatters this prejudice for me. Every one of these short stories is exquisite, although occasionally a little...obtuse. His illustrative abilities are beyond compare, and these stories tend toward the rougher end of his spectrum (there's none of the photo-realistic painting he's shown in Signal To Noise and Black Orchid, for example) but are still breathtaking.
I'm always looking forward to an eventual (and rumoured) Volume Two.

[Alex Sarll]

Short pieces by McKean, many of them at once filmic and the sort of thing uniquely achievable in comics; a couple are even a kind of music video on paper (for the Residents and jazz, respectively, which makes perfect sense but still comes as a surprise when you think how thoroughly his aesthetic was something which fellow-travelled with goth for so long). Familiar McKean motifs recur - fish, birds (and there's one especially beautiful silent piece revolving around a hawk's view of an English minster town) but the most haunting story is the conclusion, which comes up with a uniquely gruesome but also very true image with which to express the pain of ageing, memory and generational inheritance.

[Joshua · Rating 5 out of 5]

Dave McKean makes image and moments which last memory and dream and haunt me ever after. Ever since I read Batman: Arkham Asylum I've been obssessed with the man's work, but this was the first time I ever got to read his actual comics. While not always the most coherent narratives McKean shines in this collection because he allows the narrative structures of the comics medium to do so much of the work for him. Every page is a unique vision and I found myself finishing these stories faster than I thought I would.

Any fan of Dave McKean must read this wonderful book. ANy fan of comics must read this book. Hell anyone with a soul must read this wonderful book.

[Terri · Rating 5 out of 5]

An amazing collection of short stories by remarkable artist Dave McKean. Some of the stories are serial graphics with no words others use words and art together. The whole collection is absolutely amazing. McKean's imagination is enviable and the range of artistic mediums he uses in this collection - from mixed media collages to basic black and white line drawings- are impressive. Recommended for any fans of visual art and emotional storytelling.

[Rocco Ricca · Rating 4 out of 5]

Pictures that Tick feels as if you're reading a dream journal, taken right off of Dave McKean's bedside table. This book is full of small, strange stories that are beautiful, sad, and thought provoking. I feel this book may not be for everyone but has something for anyone. I think anyone that is curious and has time should sit down and flip through and see if at least one of the stories resonate with them.

[Lucas · Rating 3 out of 5]

McKean is someone I admire in particular for his inventiveness and experimentation, and the way he reimagines himself with every book. And that's very much on display here. One story introduction even explicitly states that as being one of his life goals, taken after Miles Davis' philosophy of life.

But this was a little too out there for my liking. Some stories had funny bits, others had heartfelt or unsettling ones.. But almost all of them were abstractly obtuse. I don't mind putting in some effort to understand a story, but you do have to give me a little something to latch on to. I just felt utterly lost through most of this..

And even with the constant and wondrous experimentation going on in this book (genuinely, some of it is just him messing about with his kids' color copier and making meta comics out of cutouts and random objects, it's great), a lot of it was just plain ugly to me. Like, it was still obviously the work of a great cartoonist, with top notch storytelling and creative shots and all that. But the art was incredibly unappealing at times. And I guess that comes with the territory of experimentation and reinvention.. Everything can't be a hit with everyone. But I felt like to little was

Also, while I love multimedia art and it led to some beautiful and poetic stories, I don't think putting text next to photos makes for very compelling comics...

I think at the end of the day, I'm still glad I read it. It's a fascinating piece of art. But I don't think I really liked a lot of it

[Guilherme Smee · Rating 3 out of 5]

Dave McKean é um artista inglês conhecido por seu fotorrealismo e seu irrealismo fotográfico, tendo colaborado inúmeras vezes com o escritor best-seller Neil Gaiman. Ele é o destaque do FIQ 2018 - Festival Internacional de Quadrinhos, que ocorrerá em Belo Horizonte/MG entre maio e junho deste ano. Esse trabalho, que em inglês se chama Pictures That Tick (algo como Imagens em que se pode confiar), teve dois volumes, mas apenas um saiu no Brasil pela editora New Pop. Esse livro, não possui um fio condutor que estabeleça a que ele veio. É mais um compilado de várias histórias – muitas delas algumas pessoas não consideram quadrinhos – com um impacto irregular no leitor. Tanto visual como em conteúdo narrativo, existem muitas discrepâncias entre o que se está vislumbrando nesse livro. Algumas histórias são geniais como o conto de Ash, uma menina que tem uma planta crescendo dentro dela, e a bela história muda (o) – símbolo de um olho -, mas outras são pura e simplesmente um laboratório de experimentos que explodiu. Aqueles que gostam de experimentos visuais e narrativos, entretanto, poderão se deleitar com a narrativa visual pós-moderna de McKean.

[StrictlySequential · Rating 3 out of 5]

2.5 rounded up.

I finally FORCED myself to read this. I've had it since February 2018 and I've cringed every time seen it since.

It's so difficult for me to continue -let alone finish- reading something that I barely understand. Books like these wouldn't be a nightmare for me if I forced myself to sprinkle glue on the pages that I turned BEFORE each minute-per-page alarm jarred me forward.

He is without-a-doubt an "iconoclast" with his own brand of brilliance so I can't -not- read his stuff but I hate doing so unless he's creating FOR someone else's story. He is BRILLIANT with writers like Neil Gaiman and Grant Morrison but on his own he's a confusing downer. When I read his solo work I'm CONSTANTLY struggling to understand the appropriate depression that he's vaguely conveying in the "artsiest" possible ways.

I think the guy is completely full of himself but is unaware and gets off on fooling himself and his audience into whatever misery seems apt for his artistic genius.

[Jaimie · Rating 5 out of 5]

Like a fever dream you wake from to see a bright light breaking through the gap in your curtains - only to find it’s an orange-d full moon reflecting light from a distant star. A reminder of life’s slightly off kilter, but nonetheless lovely, moments of incredulity. Wonder and merriment, grief and confusion, all can be found within these pages of pictures that do, indeed, …[tick]...

[Travis Cook · Rating 3 out of 5]

Haunting images and words - but there's no sense of cohesion to it all. Which is fine - wonder is an important part of any person's life.

[jesse · Rating 3 out of 5]

anthologies and thick book collections of an artists work and stories are wonderful, i do not particularly get on with all of mckeans image style, but god is it inspiring.

[The_Mad_Swede · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is a collection of short comics narratives by artist Dave McKean. While it has its ups and downs, like most collections and anthologies, the entire volume is infused with McKean's recognisable visual paradigms and offer a variety of strange, surrealist dreamscapes of story.

Highlights include the longer piece "Ash" and the shorter pieces "The Truth is Spoken Here", "Dawn", and "His Story".

All in all, this is mayhap not every comics reader's cuppa, but fans of McKean will likely not be disappointed. There is also a follow-up collection entitled Pictures that Tick 2, which I will definitely be picking up.

[Tyler · Rating 4 out of 5]

One of the most unique books I've ever read. It's a collection of short stories by Dave McKean, many of which are stream-of-conscious kind of things. The art is, of course, beautiful - McKean might be my favorite artist. I really enjoyed reading all the stories, however, it is a little hard to read at times and I'm sure I didn't understand all of his metaphors etc. An excellent book to read just because it is so different,as well as the art, but maybe not my favorite read.

[Mikael Kuoppala · Rating 3 out of 5]

A beautiful but cacophonious combination of unique, even brilliant visual expression and somewhat underwhelming textual storytelling, “Pictures that Tick” is a fascinating collection of Dave McKean’s artistic stories. The book is very memorable and different, but obviously one that doesn't contain the substance to do justice to the style. Extremely good on the eyes, but it left me intellectually hungry.

[Andrew Pixton · Rating 4 out of 5]

A collection of bizarre, quirky stories. Some are funny, some are scary, some are sad, some are just open to interpretation or make zero sense. Some boggle the mind. Though none are really deep into any of it. It's more of an innovative abstract artbook with some story taglines. If your into any kind of visual art or deep abstraction I recommend it for you.

[Ryan · Rating 4 out of 5]

Seems like a lot of rambling overtop of awesome pieces of art (the usual for McKean) and even the hand-drawn art I'm not usually so fond of with only a visual narrative was pretty cool (this takes up a good portion of the book.) It's a quick read but a good one... waiting for Volume 2.

[Lisa]

Pictures That Tick by Dave McKean (2009)

[Kate Maddalena · Rating 4 out of 5]

I wish that I had never read _Cages_ so that I could read it again brand new...

[Gordon McAlpin · Rating 5 out of 5]

"Ash" from this book is my all-time favorite short-form comic. McKean's visuals and writing are blended together so perfectly; it's one of the purest distillation of the comics medium I can think of.

[Kate · Rating 5 out of 5]

I am not usually a fan of short stories, but these were amazing. Plus, the artwork could have stood alone.

[Daniel · Rating 4 out of 5]

I like battering my brain against this stuff.

[Shayla Fish · Rating 5 out of 5]

I can't remember how I exactly stumbled onto this book, however I am thankful it happened. This is the most unique book full of such visually striking imagery.

[Gwen · Rating 5 out of 5]

Beautiful.

[Pedro Balduino · Rating 5 out of 5]

Touching in a truly unique way. Honest and sad, but still full of hope. A breaking way of watching the world and the arts. Great artist.

[Jay Westermann · Rating 4 out of 5]

One of those books where the pictures tell the story. It's great!

[Bernardo · Rating 4 out of 5]

You probably know Dave McKean from the Sandman. And, if you are like me, you don't know much of his other works. This book is the best way to start fixing that mistake.