4.5. stars!A very musical, lyrical piece of art that confronts some very big ideas! I found myself getting lost in Dave Mckean's work, and being a deep thinker myself this was definitely food for thought..Full review here.

I bought this on a pure whim today when I should have been doing other things. But, in addition to working on a resume and keeping up, barely, at a Sisyphean hamster wheel slog of a job, I do try to remain something like social.So with a friend I suggested a brief sojourn at our local comics shop. And whereas he purchased a massive door stopping Jack Kirby omnibus I elected for this strange little volume. I hadn't known much of McKean outside of his cover work for Neil Gaiman and Morrison's Arkh...

Visually, "Cages" is a tour-de-force and anyone interested in the 'graphic' part of graphic novels should check it out. McKean's drafting and design skills are hugely impressive, continually pushing the boundaries of how much can be done with a few expressive lines. But then there's the story. It reminded me of a quirky foreign film from the '80s, where a bunch of artists happen to be neighbors and how their idiosyncratic lives intersect as they discover truths about life and love and the univer...

Cages is a weird and cool comic highly inspired by Neil Gaiman. I'd best describe it as a metaphysical noir love story loosely framed within a magical realism context. I was trying to tell a friend about Cages and everything was going well until he asked me, "What's it about?" The question socked my brain. I stumbled over my thoughts. Cages doesn't have much in terms of plot: an artist moves into a city and meets strange people living around his apartment--and there's a black cat that visits eve...

At first, the book looked artsy fartsy, pretentious to me. The opening chapters, prose on the creation of life, seemed to confirm this. When the sequential art begins on page 28 I quickly discovered this book to be something very special, a mix of art and writing styles, various themes, bitter drama and dry humor, music, ... there's so much to be discovered in these 500 pages, yet in some weird, genius way it makes sense. McKean doesn't convince me on every page but when I see where he succeeds

fascinating look at creative process; not always the best writing or page layout in the world - hit or miss (when it hits, its really brilliant). But the art and ideas are great. Some absolutely gorgeous silent vignettes. Interesting comments on God - cycles of creation (god created us, we create gods); all is connected. Seems very pessimistic for most of it, but creativity (and the patterns of the universe) act as some measure of hope.

McKean is a fantastic artist. In this book he employs a linear illustrative style that at first may seem simple, but quickly elevates itself into a true artform.And hey, not only does he gift us with some fine illustrations... he actually gives us a wonderful story.

I hated this graphic novel. A lot of people said they liked the art, but I wasn't seeing it. The cat was the only character I liked and probably because it didn't have any dialogue. This was like the graphic novel version of Waking Life (I hated that movie, BTW). It would ramble on and on and then practically break the fourth wall turning to the reader, winking as if to say 'That was deep, right? Super deep, right?'. Ugh. At one point it goes on for pages, PAGES, with some old lady flipping thro...

Wow.Dave McKean, you need to do more solo work, because this was spectacular. As an artist, McKean has a keen (no pun intended) eye for composition and a skilled hand for form; every page is beautifully crafted and stylistically evocative, seamlessly blending a number of techniques, materials, and moods to tell an intricate visual story. His linework strikes a difficult and haunting balance between fine weightlessness and heavy schizophrenic uncertainty, while his broader brush strokes serve alt...

Ugh...I didn't hate it, per se. However, it is a bit pretentious, tautological vortex of melancholy and profane ruminations about life and death and existence. It's not bad, but it's not amazing, script-wise. Visually, it's beautiful, in a stark, haunting, contrast-y way. This is my first solo Dave experience and perhaps i'm too whatever to truly appreciate it in this place and time. I still think he's a phenomenal artist, it's just the story is a little...well, a bit been there, done that.

Reading Cages is like reading Dubliners in an empty, darkened gothic cathedral on some sort of pleasant psychedelic drug. Peyote, maybe. I've never done peyote, but I imagine if you're comfortable in this scenario (let's say you're at home in darkened gothic cathedrals) and on the peyote it would only enhance the mysteriousness of the read. That McKean's art is so sweeping in its blurry majesty is to be expected. I know him from his work with Gaiman, which was always special and individually str...

this book felt more like a piece of music than a story. i love his art, too, but he's not for everybody.

I feel as though I may be lynched for disliking this book. I love graphic novels and Dave McKean's vision and style yet this work lacks all but a slight cohesiveness and completely failed to elicit any type of emotional reaction from me. I felt not a single connection to any of the characters. Since the characters sharing an apartment and how they interact is the entire point of the book, I barely feel justified rating 2 stars. I am doing so only because of that vision and style I mentioned befo...

Ok, this book is a tome of genius. Dave McKean's linework, humor, philosophizing, musical interest, and thoughts on religion are intriguing, heartbreaking(specifically the non-text panels)brilliant, sometimes rough(I find the religious bits kind of clumsy) but then-aren't we all kinda clumsy on this topic! Most of it reads as drawn from life (excuse all punning explicit or implicit here!)and I like all the scenes in the club. It isn't one to read in one sitting (all issues), but after getting th...

I liked this quite a lot. I wasn't sure at first, its all about cats going through life with the illustrations in black and white. I'd only read coloured graphic novels before but soon realised it didn't matter.It was good fun to read, the illustrations were excellent and even though it was long it was fast to read. Something a bit different from the usual superhero book.

Huh. McKean's magnum opus. But it's not really that good. It is long... I didn't find the artwork all that strong. I do like McKean's sketchy style though. I found myself enjoying some of the storylines but other stories went on too long. It was all plagued by pseudo-philosophical babble... but that can be interesting. I don't regret reading this, but it was certainly nothing fantastic.