Cages

(Atomeka)
™ and ©1991 Dave McKean

Dave McKean is well-known as the talented artist whose work includes Batman: Arkham Asylum and Sandman. In Cages, McKean handles not only the artwork, but the story as well. The result is an intense, brilliant story in ten parts.

In some ways, this series is about the cages we build for ourselves, as seen in the lives of the people who occupy a city apartment building. One man in particular, a reclusive writer who lives upstairs, has built the tightest cage of them all. Two years ago, he channeled all the pain and grief in his life into a book critical of religion and its effect on people. That book was “Cages,” and the author was Jonathan Rush. Much like real-life author Salmon Rushdie, he was attacked by religious zealots. To this day, book-burnings of “Cages” are still held, and Rush is forced to live his life as a fugitive. But just as the caged bird is said to sing the most sweetly, his pain (and that of the other residents) is seen here with a certain poignant beauty.

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