5 Neil Gaiman & Dave McKean first editions are documented on this shelf, from Violent Cases (1987) to Coraline (2002) across 5 different publishers. Each linked guide gives the points of issue that separate a true first printing of that Neil Gaiman & Dave McKean title from later printings and book-club copies — the publisher and year to expect, the number-line or edition-statement conventions, and the tells that show up in online listings.
Identification only, per the house rule: no prices and no appraisals here. Checking a Neil Gaiman & Dave McKean copy in hand? Type the title into the First-Edition Checker or photograph the copyright page with Snap & Sort.
- Violent Cases — 1987 · Escape / Titan BooksFirst Gaiman/McKean collaboration; the original UK edition (1987, ISBN 0950956864) is a 48-page volume with an introduction by Alan Moore. McKean's artwork, executed in shades of blue, brown and grey, is reproduced in black-and-white in this first printing (the distinguishing feature versus the later colour reworkings) under a colour cover. Signed copies are typically inscribed by Gaiman in silver ink. True first is the 1987 UK black-and-white edition. Publisher attribution is genuinely split in the sources between Escape Books and Titan (Titan under Mike Lake published/distributed it), so the dual Escape/Titan attribution is appropriate. Later colour editions (Tundra 1991, Dark Horse, and the 30th-anniversary edition) are later first-thus. Colour and anniversary editions are later first-thus, distinct from the 1987 black-and-white first; the black-and-white reproduction of McKean's blue/brown/grey art is the tell for the true first printing.
- Black Orchid — 1988 · DC ComicsThree-issue prestige-format squarebound series with full-color painted covers and interior art by Dave McKean, running Book One (dated 1988) through Book Three (dated 1989), each carrying a cover price of 3.50. Book One / #1 (1988) is the true first appearance. Collected as a trade edition in 1991. Gaiman's first sustained work for DC; the true first is the prestige-format Book One / #1 (1988). The 1991 collected edition is a later first-thus, not the first appearance. No book-club issue applies to the original comics. Later collected printings and the Deluxe Edition are reprints of the 1991 collection rather than the original three-issue series; identify the individual 1988 Book One for the true first.
- Signal to Noise — 1992 · Victor Gollancz / VG GraphicsFirst book edition: Victor Gollancz (VG Graphics imprint), London, 1992, collecting and revising the serialization that ran in The Face. Issued the same year in both a pictorial-board hardcover (ISBN 057505140X; no dust jacket was issued) and a softcover (ISBN 0575052848), with an introduction by Jonathan Carroll added for the book. The US Dark Horse edition also appeared in 1992. First printing identified by…. Originally serialized in The Face magazine beginning in 1989; the 1992 Gollancz/VG Graphics book is the first book edition, with a near-simultaneous US Dark Horse edition the same year. The expanded Dark Horse edition (2007) is 'first thus.'. No book-club edition.
- Mr. Punch (The Tragical Comedy or Comical Tragedy of Mr. Punch) — 1994 · Victor GollanczThe true first was published in the UK by Victor Gollancz in 1994 as a trade paperback (ISBN 0-575-05318-6). The US edition, published the same year by DC's Vertigo imprint, appeared as a hardcover (ISBN 1-56389-181-6) and is the first US edition; a US Vertigo trade paperback followed in 1995. The UK Gollancz 1994 trade paperback is the true first edition. The original record described the true first as a hardcover, which is incorrect: the UK first was a paperback, and the hardcover form belongs to the first US Vertigo edition. Later Vertigo printings and subsequent editions are reprints, not the first edition.
- Coraline — 2002 · HarperCollinsBoth the US HarperCollins and UK Bloomsbury hardcovers were published in 2002. The US HarperCollins first printing carries a full number line ending in 1 and includes the Dave McKean interior illustrations; the UK Bloomsbury first edition omits the McKean illustrations. Both editions are dated 2002 and precedence is genuinely debated among collectors; the US HarperCollins first is the one most often cited as the true first, in part because it carries the McKean illustrations the UK edition lacks. Signed and limited editions exist. Book-club and film-tie-in editions are later; gift and anniversary editions are first-thus for their format, not the first edition.
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