Nicolas Cages Voodoo, Cynopsis Slips
This happened a while ago, but I just can’t stop thinking about it.
If you haven’t already heard, Nicholas Cage is writing a comic book with his teenage son Weston called Voodoo Child, which comes to us from the hotter-than-hot Virgin Comics - which isn’t at all suprising, as the comic book company, part of the record label of the same name, has brought a number of high profile Hollywood names to the comic industry in recent month.
Nor is it any surprise Nicholas Cage is involved. A long-time comic book fan, Cage - who, depending on who you talk to, may or may not have borrowed his name from Luke Cage, finally got his shot at a comic book movie with Ghost Rider. He’s also named as a producer on Sci-Fi’s adaptation of the Jim Butcher hit, The Dresden Files.
Here’s where it gets interesting. By this point I’ve already heard about this, but a news clips comes up again in Cynopsis, an e-mail newsletter I read to keep abuzz about entertainment news. After summarizing the Cages’ comic book premise - about ghost boy in New Orleans, murdered by seccessionists, revolving around the investigation of several missing girls - the Cynopsis article reads - and I quote - “Clearly this is not for younger kids.”
Now, Cynopsis is right on in its observation, but why do they think its for kids at all, younger or older? In fact, why is this even listen in Cynopsis Kids in the first place? There’s nothing about this story which particularly screams kids except for - here it comes - the dreaded comic book stigma, which may be alive and well even amidst the recent comic book film explosion.
Then again, Cynopsis could have assumed kids implied teens as well - but that’s a stretching assumption at best. Most comic books are written for a teen audience - that’s just the best place for the material of the medium in the mainstream. So why are comics still assumed a strictly for-kids-affair?
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