KEVIN SMITH & DUNCAN FEGREDO TO CREATE A FOUR-ISSUE JAY & SILENT BOB MINISERIES BEGINNING IN JUNE 1998

Hot off the heels of the smash-hit success of Clerks: The Comic Book selling out of its first printing in less than two weeks of its release, Oni Press has announced plans to publish an all-new, four-issue comic book mini series titled, Jay & Silent Bob, to be written by creator/director Kevin Smith, and illustrated by fan-favorite artist, Duncan Fegredo (Enigma), it was revealed today by marketing director, Shannon T. Stewart. The mini series will be released monthly beginning in June, 1998.

Best known for his internationally-acclaimed work as writer/director/actor on his counter-culture, hit films, Clerks, Mallrats and Chasing Amy, Smith will be writing the all-new tale which will follow his infamous characters, Jay & Silent Bob, from the point where they last appeared in the film, Chasing Amy, and by the comic book series’ end, to the point in the upcoming Dogma, where the characters will make their first screen appearance. Thereby making this comic book series the perfect bridging-device between Chasing Amy, and Smith’s next feature film release, Dogma, which is currently in pre-production as of this writing.

“I’m ecstatic about how well our comics are doing, especially in the current, jaded marketplace,”Smith commented. “A lot of readers have been heaping tons of praise upon me, Matt Wagner, Jim Mahfood and Oni Press. It’s nice, and even a little disconcerting, to realize that you’re having the time of your life doing something you’ve always wanted to do, and then people actually thank you for it. All I can do is thank them back, for their support and kind words, and I still feel a little guilty, afterward. Life should always be this tough.”

The first issue of Jay & Silent Bob will feature two, different covers. One cover is illustrated by the extremely popular art team of penciler, Joe Quesada, and inker, Jimmy Palmiotti. The other cover will be a photo-cover of the big screen, title characters, themselves, as portrayed by Kevin Smith and Jason Mewes. Each cover will be shipped in equal quantities to all locations, meaning that if a store orders ten copies, five will be photo covers and five will be by Quesada & Palmiotti.

Quesada commented, “Kevin’s a great guy and having worked with him previously by providing art work for Mallrats and Chasing Amy, there wasn’t a heartbeat between our being asked to do the cover for this new project and our full-on thumbs-up!”

“It took several weeks of location scouting, rehearsals with our cast and working with my producer, Scott Mosier on the storyboards for Dogma, before I could fully flesh-out the story arc for this new mini series,” Smith added. “It’s all there, now, and I’m excited to see what Duncan will do with my script. I love his stuff and it’s a real trip to be working with him. And Joe & Jimmy have always been perennial favorites of mine.”

When asked about his involvement with the project, Fegredocommented, “It was a very happy end result to what could have been a very bad week, indeed! I had just discovered that a project for another publisher which I was assured was “in the bag,” suddenly was “out of the bag.’ After a few days and a couple of phone calls, I was speaking with Bob Schreck and being offered this project.” Fegredo added, “I was already about to embark on a project that many would have considered a real departure from most of my previous comics work, which is something I had made a concerted effort to achieve, and this Jay & Silent Bob mini series certainly qualifies as just that. Kevin’s a great writer with a very keen wit, and I’m looking forward to working with him.”

The cover to second issue will be illustrated by Mike Allred (Madman/Red Rocket 7), while the third issue’s cover is illustrated by Jamie Hernandez (Love & Rockets/New Love). The fourth cover will also be released by Oni Press to retailers, as a full-color, painted promotional poster by Duncan Fegredo, well in advance of the series debut, in an effort to get the word out and stimulate consumer interest. The poster will have both covers for the first issue featured on it, as well as the other, previously released Smith projects, Oni Double Feature #1 and Clerks: The Comic Book.

Meanwhile, tentative plans are in the making to premiere Smith’s film,Clerks, on the Independent Film Channel this June, with Smith hosting a 24-hour, “Open All Night,” marathon.

Jay & Silent Bob #1 is created and written by Kevin Smith and illustrated by Duncan Fegredo. Each 32-page issue will be presented in black-and-white and will begin shipping on a monthly basis as of June, 1998. Each issue will have a retail cover price of $2.95 U.S. $4.15 Can.

As always, kudos to Oni Press. Our Oni Pages have all the latest on the books.