Rod McKie
Encyclopedia
Cartoon
A cartoon is a form of two-dimensional illustrated visual art. While the specific definition has changed over time, modern usage refers to a typically non-realistic or semi-realistic drawing or painting intended for satire, caricature, or humor, or to the artistic style of such works...
ist residing in the UK. He began drawing gag cartoon
Gag cartoon
A gag cartoon is most often a single-panel cartoon, usually including a hand-lettered or typeset caption beneath the drawing. A pantomime cartoon carries no caption...
s for Britain's national press whilst still at school.
In the early 1980s he became one of Punch
Punch (magazine)
Punch, or the London Charivari was a British weekly magazine of humour and satire established in 1841 by Henry Mayhew and engraver Ebenezer Landells. Historically, it was most influential in the 1840s and 50s, when it helped to coin the term "cartoon" in its modern sense as a humorous illustration...
magazine's youngest cartoonists. In the same year he created, drew and wrote, the comic character Skid Kidd
Skid Kidd
Skid Kidd is a comic strip by Rod McKie. It appeared in the IPC comic book Buster.- Plot summary :The central character, Mike Kidd, is sitting around one day when out of the blue a large crate, containing a bike, lands in his garden...
for IPC
IPC Media
IPC Media , a wholly owned subsidiary of Time Inc., is a consumer magazine and digital publisher in the United Kingdom, with a large portfolio selling over 350 million copies each year.- Origins :...
's Buster
Buster (comic)
Buster was a long-running British comic which carried a mixture of humour and adventure strips, although the former increasingly replaced the latter...
comic. McKie made it clear from the start that he wanted the character, initially an ongoing serial rather than a self-contained weekly story, to look like 'key' scenes from an animation storyboard rather than a conventional comic page. The character and the backgrounds were drawn flat, with a rigid, inflexible nib, in order that the eye of the reader should not be distracted by thick and thin lines.
These days his work appears in publications as diverse as The Wall Street Journal
The Wall Street Journal
The Wall Street Journal is an American English-language international daily newspaper. It is published in New York City by Dow Jones & Company, a division of News Corporation, along with the Asian and European editions of the Journal....
, the Harvard Business Review
Harvard Business Review
Harvard Business Review is a general management magazine published since 1922 by Harvard Business School Publishing, owned by the Harvard Business School. A monthly research-based magazine written for business practitioners, it claims a high ranking business readership among academics, executives,...
, Reader's Digest
Reader's Digest
Reader's Digest is a general interest family magazine, published ten times annually. Formerly based in Chappaqua, New York, its headquarters is now in New York City. It was founded in 1922, by DeWitt Wallace and Lila Bell Wallace...
(USA), Ellery Queen's Mystery Magazine
Ellery Queen's Mystery Magazine
Ellery Queen's Mystery Magazine is an American monthly digest size fiction magazine specializing in crime fiction, particularly detective fiction...
, Prospect
Prospect (magazine)
Prospect is a monthly British general interest magazine, specialising in politics and current affairs. Frequent topics include British, European, and US politics, social issues, art, literature, cinema, science, the media, history, philosophy, and psychology...
(UK), The Phoenix
The Phoenix (magazine)
The Phoenix is Ireland's best selling political and current affairs magazine. Inspired by the British magazine Private Eye, and a source of investigative journalism in Ireland...
, and a range of other titles. He has a number of cartoons in the recently published National Lampoon
National Lampoon Inc
National Lampoon, Incorporated is a company formed in 2002 in order to use the brand name "National Lampoon" in comedy and entertainment. In the words of its prospectus, the role of the company is to "develop, produce, provide creative services and distribute National Lampoon branded comedic...
s Favorite Cartoons of the 21st Century.
Recently, Rod McKie appeared as himself in DC Comic's Albion series. The series, created by Alan Moore, was written and illustrated by Leah Moore, John Reppion and Shane Oakley.
At present McKie is working on 3 graphic novels.