Cages is a ten-issue comic book

Comic book

A comic book or comicbook is a magazine made up of comics, narrative artwork in the form of separate panels that represent individual scenes, often accompanied by dialog as well as including...

 limited series

Limited series

A limited series is a comic book series with a set number of installments. A limited series differs from an ongoing series in that the number of issues is determined before production and it differs from a one shot in that it is composed of multiple issues....

 by Dave McKean

Dave McKean

David McKean is an English illustrator, photographer, comic book artist, graphic designer, filmmaker and musician....

 between 1990 and 1996, later collected as a single volume

Trade paperback (comics)

In comics, a trade paperback is a collection of stories originally published in comic books, reprinted in book format, usually capturing one story arc from a single title or a series of stories with a connected story arc or common theme from one or more titles...

.

Cages is a story about artists, belief, creativity and cats, illustrated in a stripped-down pen and ink style influenced by José Muñoz

José Antonio Muñoz

José Antonio Muñoz or simply Muñoz is an Argentine artist. He is most notable for his influential black-and-white artwork...

 and Lorenzo Mattotti

Lorenzo Mattotti

Lorenzo Mattotti is an Italian comics and graphical artist as well as an illustrator. His illustrations have been published in magazines such as Cosmopolitan, Vogue, The New Yorker, Le Monde and Vanity Fair...

.

Publication history

The first seven issues of the series were published by Tundra

Tundra Publishing

Tundra Publishing was a Northampton, Massachusetts-based comic book publisher founded by Kevin Eastman in 1990.-Overview:Tundra was meant to provide a venue for high-quality work by talented cartoonists and illustrators. Its publications were noted in the trade for their high production values,...

 (December 1990 - June 1993) and the last three by Kitchen Sink

Kitchen Sink Press

Kitchen Sink Press was a comic book publishing company founded by Denis Kitchen in 1970. Kitchen owned and operated Kitchen Sink Press until 1999. Kitchen Sink Press was a pioneering publisher of underground comics, and was also responsible for numerous republications of classic comic strips in...

 (August 1993 - May 1996).

Collected editions

Tundra collected the first three issues into one trade paperback

Trade paperback (comics)

In comics, a trade paperback is a collection of stories originally published in comic books, reprinted in book format, usually capturing one story arc from a single title or a series of stories with a connected story arc or common theme from one or more titles...

 in June 1991 (ISBN). Cages was eventually completely collected as a 500 page hardcover volume by Kitchen Sink Press

Kitchen Sink Press

Kitchen Sink Press was a comic book publishing company founded by Denis Kitchen in 1970. Kitchen owned and operated Kitchen Sink Press until 1999. Kitchen Sink Press was a pioneering publisher of underground comics, and was also responsible for numerous republications of classic comic strips in...

 in 1998 (ISBN 0878166009), and in a new edition by NBM Publishing

NBM Publishing

NBM Publishing is an American publisher of graphic novels. The company specializes in non-superhero comic genres and has translated and published over 150 graphic novels from Europe and Canada, as well as several works by Americans...

 in 2002 (ISBN 1561633194). Dark Horse Comics

Dark Horse Comics

Dark Horse Comics is the largest independent American comic book and manga publisher.Dark Horse Comics was founded in 1986 by Mike Richardson in Milwaukie, Oregon, with the concept of establishing an ideal atmosphere for creative professionals. Richardson started out by opening his first comic book...

 published a softcover edition in July 2009 (ISBN 1595823166) and a hardcover in October 2010 (ISBN 1595823166).

Awards

Cages won two Harvey Awards, 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

Eisner Award

The Will Eisner Comic Industry Awards, commonly shortened to the Eisner Awards, and sometimes referred to as the Oscar Awards of the Comics Industry, are prizes given for creative achievement in American comic books. The Eisner Awards were first conferred in 1988, created in response to the...

 in 1993 and in the same year McKean was nominated for the "Best Cover Artist" Eisner Award for this work on Cages and Sandman

Sandman (Vertigo)

The Sandman is a comic book series written by Neil Gaiman and published by DC Comics. Beginning with issue #47, it was placed under the imprint Vertigo. It chronicles the adventures of Dream , who rules over the world of dreams. It ran for 75 issues from January 1989 until March 1996...

.

Film

McKean revealed, via his Twitter

Twitter

Twitter is an online social networking and microblogging service that enables its users to send and read text-based posts of up to 140 characters, informally known as "tweets".Twitter was created in March 2006 by Jack Dorsey and launched that July...

account, that he has been in talks concerning adapting Cages into an animated film.