Strange Attractions 2

The first Strange Attractions post seems to have amused. I’m guessing it was the wrestling foetuses that caught the eye. Nothing so lurid today, alas, but my attempt to convey the appeal of comic books continues. When Dave McKean’s graphic novel, Cages, first appeared, I wrote: “At 500 oversized pages and with a £50 price tag, Cages is a large and formidably expensive book; but one worth every inch and almost every penny.” Thankfully, the book is now available via Page 45 in its original, more affordable, US edition. Cages was McKean’s first major solo project and arguably remains his most ambitious. The overwrought prologue is probably best avoided, but the book has plenty of wonderful scenes – the alarmingly frail and wheezing removal man who slowly crumples out of sight beneath an enormous packing crate; and a butter-fingered mute who communicates with captioned cards until a hole in his pocket leads to a farce of malapropism and dislocated grammar. But I thought I’d share a more abstract moment, when, after 150 duotone pages, McKean deploys the first rush of colour.

 

More McKean here.