''Cages'' is a ten-issue

comic book A comic book, also called comicbook, comic magazine or (in the United Kingdom and Ireland) simply comic, is a publication that consists of comics art in the form of sequential juxtaposed panels that represent individual scenes. Panels are of ...

limited series by Dave McKean. It was published between 1990 and 1996, and later collected as a single volume. Cages is a story about artists, belief, creativity and cats, illustrated in a stripped-down pen and ink style.

Publication history

The first seven issues of the series were published by American publisher

Tundra In physical geography, tundra () is a type of biome where tree growth is hindered by frigid temperatures and short growing seasons. The term ''tundra'' comes through Russian (') from the Kildin Sámi word (') meaning "uplands", "treeless mou ...

(December 1990 - June 1993) and the last three by Kitchen Sink (August 1993 - May 1996).

Plot

Collected editions

Tundra collected the first three issues into one trade paperback in June 1991 (ISBN). ''Cages'' was eventually completely collected as a 500-page hardcover volume by

Kitchen Sink Press Kitchen Sink Press was a comic book publishing company founded by Denis Kitchen in 1970. Kitchen Sink Press was a pioneering publisher of underground comics, and was also responsible for numerous republications of classic comic strips in hard ...

in 1998 (), and in a new edition by

NBM Publishing Nantier Beall Minoustchine Publishing Inc. (or NBM Publishing) is an American graphic novel publisher. Founded by Terry Nantier in 1976 as Flying Buttress Publications, NBM is one of the oldest graphic novel publishers in North America. The compa ...

in 2002 ().

Dark Horse Comics Dark Horse Comics is an American comic book, graphic novel, and manga publisher founded in Milwaukie, Oregon by Mike Richardson in 1986. The company was created using funds earned from Richardson's chain of Portland, Oregon comic book shops know ...

published a softcover edition in July 2009 () and a hardcover in October 2010 ().

Awards

''Cages'' won two

Harvey Awards The Harvey Awards are given for achievement in comic books. Named for writer-artist Harvey Kurtzman, the Harvey Awards were founded by Gary Groth in 1988, president of the publisher Fantagraphics, to be the successor to the Kirby Awards that we ...

, for "Best New Series" in 1992, when it was also nominated for "Special Award For Excellence In Presentation" and "Best Artist", and "Best Graphic Album of Previously Published Work" in 1999. It was also nominated for the "Best Finite Series" Eisner Award in 1993 and in the same year McKean was nominated for the "Best Cover Artist" Eisner Award for this work on ''Cages'' and ''

Sandman The Sandman is a mythical character in European folklore who puts people to sleep and encourages and inspires beautiful dreams by sprinkling magical sand onto their eyes. Representation in traditional folklore The Sandman is a traditional charact ...

''.

Film

McKean revealed, via his

Twitter Twitter is an online social media and social networking service owned and operated by American company Twitter, Inc., on which users post and interact with 280-character-long messages known as "tweets". Registered users can post, like, and ...

account, that he has been in talks concerning adapting ''Cages'' into an animated film.Dave McKean Reveals Animated 'Cages' Film In The Works
Splashpages, MTV, October 21, 2009

Notes

References

* * * {{DEFAULTSORT:Cages (Comics) Harvey Award winners for Best New Series 1998 graphic novels Ignatz Award winners for Outstanding Graphic Novel or Collection