Hey kids,

Melissa and I are doing a new project together:

“DRACULA VS. SANTA”!!!!

It’s up on Zuda Comics right now.

For those of you who don’t know what Zuda comics is, it’s DC Comics’ webcomic division. Each month they hold a competition between 10 webcomics, and this month Melissa and my entry of ‘Dracula vs. Santa’ was excepted! If we win we gat a contract with Zuda!

Here are some instructions on how to vote:

1. Go to http://www.zudacomics.com/
2. Click on the words ‘Sign-up!’ in the upper right hand corner.
3. Fill out the information and hit ‘sign me up’. They will now send a letter of acceptance to the e-mail address you just filled out.
4. Sign into the given e-mail address. There should be a ‘welcome’ e-mail. It will contain a link to sign in to zuda (http://www.zudacomics.com/user), your user id name, and a temporary password.
5. Open the e-mail and click the link to accept. It will bring you to a screen that will ask you to confirm your e-mail address and the temporary password that was in the e-mail
6. It will bring you to a screen with a small square with a little red star, next to which will be your age.
7. Above the red star with your age, there will be a banner with the words ‘competition’, ‘submit a comic’ and ‘explore comics’. Hit ‘competition’. This will bring up a list of comics in competition.
8. Read the comics!
9. Now pick a comic to vote for and go back to that story.
10. To the right of the story is a square with with the picture/icon of the comic you have chosen, and big ‘check mark’ button with the word ‘vote’. Click that button to vote for your comics.
11. Under the vote button is a place where you can give the comic a ‘star’ rating. Give a rating between 0 - 5 stars.
12. Under comic’s icon/pic is red and white ‘+’ sign with the phrase ‘add to favorites’. If you want, click the ‘+’ symbol to add us the comic to your favorites.
13. Leave a comment to the creators while you’re there!
14. BONUS: Under the ‘Add to favorites’ + symbol is a read and white pic of an envelope. This e-mails the comic to a given e-mail address icase you want to send it to a friend.

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