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The cage / written and illustrated by Martin Vaughn-James ; with an introduction by Seth.

By: Material type: TextTextPublisher: Toronto : Coach House Books, 2013Edition: 2nd editionDescription: 190 pages : illustrations ; 24 cmContent type:
  • still image
  • text
Media type:
  • unmediated
Carrier type:
  • volume
ISBN:
  • 1552452875 (pbk.)
  • 9781552452875 (pbk.)
Subject(s): Genre/Form: Summary: First published in 1975, this work foreshadowed the rise of the graphic novel. While promoted by insiders in the years that followed, it is not well-known. Its relative obscurity may be due to the late Vaughn-James's devotion to his highly personal vision. Presented here are a series of black-and-white drawings, nearly clinical in their precision, detailing an enigmatic structure in an unspecified place and time. Accompanying the illustrations are bits of text, which are perhaps explicative in their unseen whole but as fragments offer only tantalizing hints of possible unity. Nonlinear in its approach to both space and time, the study mixes the banally familiar with the disturbingly alien. What emerges is not comprehensible in any mundane sense, but it presents enough of an illusion of a greater whole lurking just out of frame to be addictively engaging. It is a masterpiece, demonstrating a level of skill and insight very few have even aspired to in the nearly 40 years since its initial publication
Holdings
Item type Home library Collection Call number Materials specified Status Date due Barcode Item holds
Adult Book Adult Book Main Library Graphic Novel Vaughn- James Martin Available 33111007476944
Total holds: 0

Enhanced descriptions from Syndetics:

First published in 1975, The Cage was a graphic novel before there was a name for the medium. Cryptic and disturbing, it spurns narrative for atmosphere, guiding us through a labyrinthine series of crumbling facades, disarrayed rooms and desolate landscapes, as time stutters backward and forward. Within the cage's barbed-wire confines, we observe humanity only through its traces: a filmic sequence of discarded objects -headphones, inky stains, dishevelled bedsheets -scored by a deafening cacophony of breaths, cries and unsettling silence.

This new edition, which includes an introduction by comics master Seth, brings Martin Vaughn-James's nightmarish vision to a new generation of readers.

'I don't use the word "masterpiece" lightly. I think The Cage is a masterpiece of comic art.'- Seth

'Vaughn-James remains a significant figure in comics history because his work was singular, literate, experimental, and often unsurpassably good.' - The Walrus

'It is a masterpiece, demonstrating a level of skill and insight very few have even aspired to in the nearly 40 years since its initial publication ... this work is strongly recommended for every true fan of the graphic arts.' - Publishers Weekly (starred review)

First published in 1975, this work foreshadowed the rise of the graphic novel. While promoted by insiders in the years that followed, it is not well-known. Its relative obscurity may be due to the late Vaughn-James's devotion to his highly personal vision. Presented here are a series of black-and-white drawings, nearly clinical in their precision, detailing an enigmatic structure in an unspecified place and time. Accompanying the illustrations are bits of text, which are perhaps explicative in their unseen whole but as fragments offer only tantalizing hints of possible unity. Nonlinear in its approach to both space and time, the study mixes the banally familiar with the disturbingly alien. What emerges is not comprehensible in any mundane sense, but it presents enough of an illusion of a greater whole lurking just out of frame to be addictively engaging. It is a masterpiece, demonstrating a level of skill and insight very few have even aspired to in the nearly 40 years since its initial publication

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