Violent Cases

Violent Cases
Violent Cases, cover art by Dave McKean
Page count	48 pages
Publisher	Escape Books (1987) Titan Books (1991) Dark Horse (2002)
Creative team
Writer	Neil Gaiman
Artist	Dave McKean
Original publication
Date of publication	1987
ISBN	1569716064

Violent Cases is a short graphic novel written by Neil Gaiman and illustrated by Dave McKean. It was McKean's first published work in comics. Though drawn by McKean in shades of blue, brown, and grey, when it was first published by Escape Books in 1987, it was printed in black-and-white. Later editions have been printed in colour.

A narrator, who is drawn to look like Gaiman, tells of how, as a small child in Portsmouth, he was taken by his father to be treated by an osteopath who was once employed by Al Capone. The nature of the narrator's relationship with his father, the tales the osteopath told, and the disturbing events that followed, are partially obscured by the narrator's imperfect recollection, since he was not old enough to understand those properly at the time.

The book won the 1988 Mekon Award for "Best British Work", presented by the Society of Strip Illustration. It was nominated for the 1992 Harvey Award for "Best Graphic Album: Previous Released Material".^[1]

Both The Tragical Comedy or Comical Tragedy of Mr. Punch and The Ocean at the End of the Lane are also set around Portsmouth and employs elements from Gaiman's childhood. The three works can be seen as a loose trilogy.^[2]

• Edward Carey: Examining Gaiman's Violent Cases with Peter Sanderson - Comic Book Resources, February 7, 2007.
• Violent Cases at ComicBookDB

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