Available at createspace.com ( https://www.createspace.com/3415444 ) and amazom.com ( http://www.amazon.com/Cage-Year-One-Melissa-DeJesus/dp/1449942512/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1263994100&sr=8-2 )
Hello ‘My Cage’s Army of the night!
It’s here!
Two years in the making! Just in time for…well, all future gift giving occasions!
Yes, the first ‘My Cage” compilation book is finally here!
For only $12.99 you can own our first year of strips! See how it all started! See how Norm got Squishy! See how Maureen started at McGuffin Inc!
You can’t NOT own this book!
That said…HOW DO YOU ORDER IT????
Good question, myself! Here’s the deal:
You can order it from CreateSpace (amazon.com’s POD company), where the price is still only 12.99, but Melissa and I make more money:
CreateSpace:
https://www.createspace.com/3415444
But, even if you have an Amazon account, they make you sign in as a first time user on CreateSpace, even though Amazon does own and run the site.
Or, you can order it from Amazon directly (again, for only $12.99) but we make less money:
Amazon:
Either way…ORDER THIS BOOK!
It’s a must have for any one who laughs, and enjoys laughing!
Then write us at mycagecomic@yahoo.com and tell us what you think!
Keep on Caging!
-Ed ‘The Head’ Power
Cage Writer
Hello again to My Cage’s growing ‘Army of the night’! 
So, where were we? Oh right. The Censor Sheep.
I gotta say, when we ran the Censor Sheep strip I didn’t expect the guesses of what happened would be so much more exciting than the actual story. 
First, I want to say that the strip in question was rejected by the syndicate and not the individual papers.
I also want to say the strip wasn’t rejected because the good people at King Features Syndicate are uptight. I know must people picture a syndicate as a bunch of ‘Men in Black’ types in suits using buzz words and having no understanding about comics. That’s fun to picture, but the truth is everyone at King Features Syndicate loves comics! If you walk around the offices, their book shelves are packed with classic comic strip compilation books.
In short, their work book shelves look like my home book shelves.
In fact, my editor is a 29 years old Colin Hanks look-a-like who self-publishes his own graphic novel anthology series, ‘Syncopated Comics’ (Check it out. It’s good).
Anyway…
Usually strips are rejected on one basis: To prevent negative letters from being written to the newspapers. Negative letters are death to new strips. Especially with the newspaper biz in the condition it’s in today sadly, where the papers need more than ever to keep readers happy and coming back.
All of that said, here is the rejected strip:
My plan was to introduce ‘Stumper the parapelgic bunny’ and have him become a regular. His personality was going to be that he was optimistic to the point of ridiculousness. I wanted to give Norm and the crew a ‘Linus’ and thought it be funny to see Norm whining to a character with an actual problem and watch ‘Stumper’ slowly lose it with Norm over time.
But the decision was made that it wasn’t funny enough to take the risk of it being misconstrued.
So what’s the deal with today’s strip? Well, contractually I can’t post today’s strip here today, but the last line is “Hope. The Carrot on the stick for the hopeless” or something. The original line was supposed to be “Hope. Crack for the hopeless”, but that was rejected itself.
My editor said ““Crack” is a little harsh for the comics pages”, which is odd since we used it at least 3 times that I can rememeber in our first year:
Aw well. Maybe people are more uptight these days. Or maybe I do work for an evil corporation and the pople I’ve met are just actors pretending to be the people I work with.
Hmmm…
Anyway, tune in next week and I’ll have the next part of ‘The Secret Origin of My Cage’ which will explain how I met Melissa (Hint: It involves prison! ).
Until then…Keep on Cagin’! 
-Ed Power, Cage Writer.
Wondering what’s the deal with Jeff and Cee Cee, the Censor-Sheep from today’s strip? Well come back here tomorrow and I’ll tell you the full story.
Why tomorrow? Because tomorrow’s strip is part of the story too.
See you here tomorrow…Same plat time…Same plat station…
Keep on Cagin’!
-Ed
PS: Happy New Year!
PSII: Yes, Jeff and CeeCee are named in honor of the FCC.
Hello to all the members of My Cage’s growing ‘Army of the Night’!
Are you interested in comic strip syndication? Interested in finding out behind the scenes information about ‘My Cage’? Just bored and need something to read?
Well, look no further!
Below I’m posting links to the first 3 parts of a series of essays I did on our old blog about how the strip came to be, entitled ‘The Secret Origin of My Cage’.
Why?
Because I’ll be posting the fourth part here soon, so I figured if I’d catch you up.
Click the below links if you’re interested. Hope you enjoy.
Part 1:
http://mycagecomic.blogspot.com/2008/05/at-lastthe-secret-origin-of-my-cage-pt.html
Part 2:
http://mycagecomic.blogspot.com/2008/05/secret-origin-of-my-cage-pt-ii.html
Part 3:
http://mycagecomic.blogspot.com/2008/05/secret-origin-of-my-cage-iii-once-and.html
Part 4 is coming soon! Especially since I know the site is actually being read.
Keep on Caging!
-Ed, the writer
Merchandise: http://www.cafepress.com/mycagecomic
Twitter: http://twitter.com/mycagecomic
Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/pages/My-Cage-comic-creators-Melissa-DeJesus-and-Ed-Power/173608630827
Seriously. I may be nuts.
I swear as a kid I remember being in a CVS store in Woodbridge Mall (in Woodbridge, NJ for you non-NJ-ers) and while my mom was doing something in the aisle, I noticed either a Mad, Cracked, or Crazy magazine on the magazine rack. Now it must’ve been 1980/81 (making me 8 or 9 years old) because I swear in it was a spoof of ‘The Empire Strikes Back’ in which the Peanuts characters were cast as the Star Wars cast.
Now, since the dawn of the internet (man’s greatest invention EVER!) I’ve been able to find everything I remember about my childhood mentioned online. Everything, that is, except this Peanuts/Star Wars mash-up.
Nothing. Not a peep. Not a mention. I’ve even posted myself on my favorite geek sites if anyone remembers it, and…NADA! Nothing! Zip! Zero! Zilch! No one knows what the hell I’m talking about.
Did I dream it? If so, I want to know…because it was clever and I would be impressed I could be that clever at 8 years old. Plus, I’d like to do it if it wasn’t already done.
Here is what I may or may not remember (and if this isn’t already published…mine! Mine! MINE!):
• Linus was Luke. Now this was before we knew Leia was his sister, so Lucy may have either been Leia or Vader (who we did know was his father at that point). He used his blanket to escape Vader after his hand was cut off.
• Charlie Brown was Han Solo.
• Snoopy was Chewbacca and kicked Charlie Brown into the carbonite chamber when he took too long to say good-bye.
• Franklin was Lando. No surprise there, but…
• Surprise! Schroeder was Lobot (Lando’s right hand man). And the thing he had wrapped around his ears had musical notes coming from it, as if he were listening to Beethoven over them. I thought this was a good gag, and was what I would be impressed with if I came up with at 8 years old.
And, that’s all I remember.
Now, does ANYONE out there remember this or have proof it existed? Anyone?
If not…I have a free/for fun webcomic to publish.
Best,
-Ed (the writer)
Hey! I just signed up for stats on this page, and it turns out people are actually coming here! Like, a really good amount! Thanks!
So, knowing we have company I will will keep the place tidier. Note the new header by Ms. DeJesus and the updating of strips.
More of stuff like that to come.
And don’t forget, you can always contact myself or Melissa at mycagecomic@yahoo.com .
We always love to hear from our readers!
Keep on Caging!
-Ed, the writer
Yeah, Ok. We broke down and opened a twitter account:
http://twitter.com/mycagecomic
I’m still not sure about this whole ‘twitter’ thing, but I’m generally a curmudgeon-y kind of guy and used to feel the same way bout facebook which I’m now addicted to.
Speaking of facebook, I’ll be putting our accidently deleted facbook page back up soon too.
Oh, and hopefully we’ll have some news on an on-demand book of the first year of strips soon. Hopefully. It’s taking a biot longer to work out than originally thought.
That’s it. I’m working on a blog about how I met Melissa too.
Keep on caging! (Yeah, that’s annoying…but if it catches on in a tongue and cheek way, I’ll be happy )
Later!
-Ed
One of the most unexpected things about doing ‘My Cage’ is that we occasionally get the odd angry accusation about being a ‘furry strip’, which apparently some people don’t like because they see ‘furry strips’ as being some kind of perversion or something.
I dunno.
To tell you the truth, I never knew there was such a thing as a ‘furry’ until I started researching potential artists for the strip about 5 years ago. I was actually kind of surprised by the concept, and when I asked friends and family if they’d ever heard of it, they hadn’t either.
Truth is I’m a ‘funny animal’ fan. Growing up I loved all the anthropomorphic cartoons and puppets on TV. Everything from Disney to Looney Tunes to Hanna Barbera to the Muppets. Even on the comics pages I enjoyed Snoopy and Woodstock more then I did Charlie Brown and Linus (and I LOVED me the kids in ‘Peanuts’).
Anyway, in 1982 at the ripe old age of 10 I discovered the comic strip Pogo (thanks to the movie ‘Pogo for President’ airing on HBO) and a little comic book known as ‘Captain Carrot and his Amazing Zoo Crew’ was first published by DC Comics. Both did something that had never occurred to me…they got rid of all the ‘less-interesting-than-the-anthropomorphic-animals’ human characters. I was sold. I suddenly started doodling only in cartoon animals.
As for why ‘My Cage’ is drawn in an ‘anime-esque’ style? Well, that’s another story all together. And one I really should tell.
But anyway, now that that’s explained, there are probably people out there wondering about my opinion on ‘furries’. Truth is, I don’t really have one. I’m mean, it’s not my thing, but I’m not a judgmental person either. To me, if you’ve found something that makes you happy and doesn’t hurt anyone, good for you. We only have about 80 some-odd years on this world, so if you can go through it happy, all the better.
Now, if you’ll excuse me, I’m going to watch my daughter’s new favorite cartoon with her…”Krypto, the Super-Dog”.
Be happy.
-Ed Power
Cage Writer
Ok, so today I figured I’d update not only here, but on our blog as well:
http://mycagecomic.blogspot.com/
I figured I’d use this site to blog about comics, and our blogspot to blog about random stuff that pops in my head.
Today (as you probably guessed from tht title) I’m going to suggest some comics to read.
I read a few webcomics everyday (Medium Large, Gill, Zorphbert and Fred), but these are some I’ve jeust discovered.
1. Sandra and Woo - Great little strip! It’s about a young girl and her pet raccoon having adventures. It reads like a modern day fable and manages to do both single strips and longer running stories equally well, as well as manitaining a webcomic sensibility with a subtle sweetness that keeps it from the ‘cynical-ness’ of a lot of webcomics. In short, it’s sweet without being ‘cutesy’ and poignant without being overtly pointed.
The art is amazing also, combining the best of Manga and Walt Kelly’s Pogo.
Check it out:
2. Minimum Security - Now this strip is just weird…and I love it.
It’s a strip about enviornmentalism and the state of mankind, but it’s characters are so flawed in their own thinking that it’s never preachy.
I can’t really explain it too well in words because…well, it’s not like anything I’ve ever seen before, so words (and comparisons) fail me.
The best I can do is say it’s kinda like someone woke up and drew a dream they had about worrying about the enviornment, during a nap they had after reading a bunch of fairy tales…and maybe taking acid.
Anyway, check it out and…well, just surrender to it’s strange world:
http://minimumsecurity.net/blog/
PS: If you don’t fall in love with the militant bunny character, Bunnista, you don’t understand comics.
3. The Fart Party - Wow. Just wow. This strip is everything an underground/indy comic should be.
The plot is simple, it’s an autobigraphic comic about the girl strip’s creator, but it’s just one of those truly great indy comics that makes me feel under-literate, overly suburbanized, and ashamed to be doing a commercial comic strip for ‘the man’. (Just kidding, ‘the man’)
It’s the kind of strip that recalls the underground comic movement of the 60’s rather than the modern webcomic movement.
I first came upon the strip because it’s creator, Julia Wertz, was on a panel I attended at the Mocca Festival in NYC this year. Out of all the panelist, Julia stuck out like a sore thumb because a. She’s hot, and b. She was the funniest member of the panel.
So, I checked out the comic and found myself tearing through the archives so fast I had to slow down so I wouldn’t run out.
I don’t want to oversell it because the understatement of the strip is part of what makes it great, so I don’t want you to go in expecting to have your mind blown, but…my mind? It was blown away by the understatement of the strips.
Not bad for a comic titled ‘The Fart Party’.
Check it out too. You’ll be glad you did:
Later!
-Ed
(PS: Buy ‘My Cage’ stuff: http://www.cafepress.com/mycagecomic, and WRITE YOUR ****ING PAPER! )
Ok. I admit. I haven’t been keeping up the site.
It’s hard when you have 2 kids, a job, and working wife, and a day job. But I will try to do better.
If I do however, I want you to do something too:
WRITE YOUR @#$%&*~ PAPER!!!!
Ok, I’m being ‘cheeky’ as the Brits say, but I’m serious. If you read ‘My Cage’ write your paper about us.
I know…you don’t read us in a paper. You read us on “the internets”. OK, but is the site you read us on a site for a newspaper? Then WRITE THEM!
Oh sure…you’re young, you’re internet savy. If that site drops us you’ll just read us somewhere else. Well guess what? Our Syndicate bases whether they keep publsihing us on our NEWSPAPER SALES, so if enough papers drop us, we’re canceled. And you like ‘My Cage’ don’t you? Why else would you be reading our website?
Well, except irony maybe.
But barring that, all you non-ironic fans, for the love of…well…this strip:
WRITE YOUR @#$%&*~ PAPER!!!!
End transmission.
-Ed,
The Cage Writer