Violent Cases

Neil Gaiman and Dave McKean's first collaboration, Violent Cases is a haunting, dreamlike one-shot from 1987 published by Escape Publishing. The story unfolds through a man’s memories of his childhood visits to an elderly, possibly unreliable osteopath who once treated Al Capone’s gangsters. McKean’s pioneering mixed-media art—a fusion of painting, photography, and collage—perfectly complements Gaiman’s meditative prose, establishing the atmospheric, literary tone that would define their later work. A seminal artifact of the late-80s British comics renaissance, it remains a quietly essential debut for both creators.