Ted McKeever

Ted McKeever the painter.

Ted McKeever is an American artist whose first professional comic work appeared in 1986, when he published the first five parts of his series Transit (Vortex Comics), establishing his trademark style. This was followed in 1987–1988 by his 12-part series Eddy Current, a "12-hour book" that centers on an inmate’s escape from an asylum. The work is quintessential McKeever: darkly humorous, while showing an "ordinary" person caught up in extraordinary events. Eddy Current was nominated for the Eisner Awards for Best Single-Issue (#1), Best Black-and-White Series, Best New Series, and Best Artist (for McKeever) for 1988.

His thirty-plus-years career also includes such titles as Plastic Forks, a 5-part series (Epic, 1990) that explored the world of animal and human experimentation, albeit in a disturbingly surreal way. Metropol (Epic 1991–1992) a twelve-issue apocalyptic story of the fight between angels and demons amidst a pandemic plague, set in a modern industrial landscape. And The Extremist (Vertigo, 1993), a four-part tale written by Peter Milligan, about a woman who finds that her husband’s secret life, which she discovers upon his death, leads her into a shocking underworld of extreme sex and violence.

McKeever also created a number of works exploring alternative realities within the world of DC superhero comics. With Randy & Jean-Marc Lofficier, he produced an Elseworlds trilogy: Superman's Metropolis, Batman: Nosferatu and Wonder Woman: The Blue Amazon, all retellings of the DC mythos as seen through German expressionist films.

In addition to Milligan and Randy & Jean-Marc Lofficier, McKeever also has collaborated with comics creator Dave Gibbons and confrontationalist Lydia Lunch.

In 2010 McKeever began producing his darkly personal projects for Jim Valentino's Shadowline imprint. Starting with Meta4, he then continued between the years 2011 through 2016, where he produced the series Mondo, Miniature Jesus, The Superannuated Man, and finally the semi-autobiographical five-issue farewell series Pencil Head, before he walked away from the comics industry for good.^[1]

In 2017/2018, he self-published three limited-edition “absurdist manuals” titled Funky Porcini.

Since then, he’s gone off the grid, and apparently purely paints.

Bibliography[]

Comics written and drawn by Ted McKeever (unless noted otherwise):

• Transit #1–5 (Vortex, 1986–1987 — previously unfinished, but now completed in 2008 HC released by Shadowline)
• "Eddy Current" (Eddy Current prologue, in Splat! #3, Mad Dog Graphics, 1987)
• Eddy Current #1–12 (Mad Dog Graphics, 1987–1988)
• "New Act" (Eddy Current featured in Munden's Bar Back-up story, in Grimjack #47, First Comics, 1988)
• "Judgement" (Eddy Current's Nun short story, in Escape #16, Titan Books, 1988 – reprinted in A1 Bojeffries Terror Tome #1, Atomeka, 2005)
• "Fish Sticks" (written by Steve Moncuse, in Fish Police vol. 2 #8, Comico, 1988)
• "Dance of The Fetus" (in Clive Barker's Hellraiser #1, Epic, 1989)
• "Libretto" (art by Dave Gibbons, in A1 #1, Atomeka, 1989)
• "Survivor" (written by Dave Gibbons, in A1 #1, Atomeka, 1989)
• "The Talk Of Creatures" (in A1 #2, Atomeka, 1989)
• Ted McKeever’s #1–5 (Epic, 1990)
• #1–12 (Epic, 1991–1992)
• Metropol A.D. #1–3 (Epic, 1993)
• Eclipso #7–8 (written by Keith Giffen and Robert Loren Fleming, DC, 1993)
• The Extremist #1–4 (written by Peter Milligan, Vertigo, 1993)
• "The Creeper: A Cold Night In Hell" (written by Keith Giffen, in Showcase '93 #12, DC, 1993)
• Doom Patrol #75–79, 81–82, 84–87 (written by Rachel Pollack, Vertigo, 1994–1995)
• Industrial Gothic #1–5 (Vertigo, 1995)
• "Engines" (in Legends of the Dark Knight #74–75, DC, 1996)
• "Perpetual Mourning" (in Batman: Black & White #1, DC, 1997)
• Superman's Metropolis (written by Randy & Jean-Marc Lofficier & Roy Thomas, Elseworlds, 1997)
• Junk Culture #1–2 (DC, 1997)
• Toxic Gumbo (written by Lydia Lunch, DC, 1998)
• Batman: Nosferatu (written by Randy & Jean-Marc Lofficier, Elseworlds, 1999)
• #1–5 (Vertigo, 2000)
• "Grave Wisdom" (in Flinch #14, Vertigo, 2000)
• Vertigo Visions (Titan Books, 2000)
• Spider-Man's Tangled Web #18 (Marvel, 2002)
• Ultimate Marvel Team-Up #12–13 (written by Brian Michael Bendis, Marvel, 2002)
• "Memories of Green" (in Marvel Knights Double Shot #2, Marvel, 2002
• Wonder Woman: The Blue Amazon (written by Randy & Jean-Marc Lofficier, Elseworlds 2003)
• "A Life Less Empty" (in The Matrix Comics #1, Burleyman, 2003)
• "The King of Never Return" (in The Matrix Comics #2, Burleyman, 2004)
• Enginehead #1–6 (written by Joe Kelly, DC, 2004)
• Little Book of Horror: War of the Worlds (Amended by S. Niles, IDW, 2005)
• "Cuts" (written by F. Paul Wilson, in Doomed, IDW, 2006)
• The Nightmare Factory (graphic novel, Fox Atomic Comics, 2007)
• "Past The Mission" (in Comic Book Tattoo, graphic novel, Image Comics, 2008)
• Meta4 #1–5 (Image Comics, 2010)
• Mondo #1–3 (Image Comics, 2012)
• Miniature Jesus #1–5 (Image Comics, 2013)
• The Superannuated Man #1–6 (Image Comics, 2014)
• Pencil Head #1–5 (Image Comics, 2016)
• Funky Porcini #1-3 (Self-Published, 2017/2018)

References[]