Kevin Smith doesn’t need to live vicariously through his on-screen characters. At least not when it comes to his passion for comincs. The 27-year-old-writer-director, who made the two lead guys in Chasing Amy comic-book artists and had Marvel Comics impresario Stan Lee play himself in Mallrats, is turhing out his own comincs almost as quickly as his movies. Smith is currently shooting his fourth flick in five years – Dogma, a religious satire starring Matt Damon, Ben Affleck, and Chris Rock. Meanwhile, Oni Press recently published Jay and Silent Bob and Clerks (The Comic Book), both of which Smith scripts. And he has inked deals to write six issues of Marvel’s Daredevil and an undetermined number of DC Comics’ Green Arrow, due to start hitting racks in late ’98 and early ’99, respectively.

“I started reading (comics) when I was in grade school,” Smith says. “But in high school (Henry Hudson Regional in Highlands, N.J.), I thought there were more important things…like chaising tail and keggers.” Just before graduation, Smith befriended a metalhead, Walt Flanagan, who-by introducing Smith to titles like The Dark Knight Returns and Watchmen-proved that comics weren’t just for kids. “(I thought) if a dude as hardcore as Walt could be into comic books, then certainly I, not being hardcore in the least, could be into them, too.”

Last year, Smith attempted to bring his two loves together in a big way when he was hired to write the screenplay for Superman Lives. And though the script was initially accepted by Warner Bros., Tim Burton-who later signed on to direct-tossed it. “It’s a shame it went down the way it did,” Smith says. “The reaction I got was like 95 percent overwhelmingly positive…. And from what I understand, there’s still a lot of my story in the movie.”

In a related venture, last January, Smith bought a comics store in hishometown/head-quarters, Red Bank, N.J. “It kind of came out of laze,” Smith admits, laughing at his tendency toward convenience-the local shop was closing down, and he didn’t want to commute 15 minutes from his View Askew production offices to the next-closest joint. And where better to peddle his new books than his own place, rechristened Jay and Silent Bob’s Secret Stash? “It’s like a clubhouse,” Smith brags of the shop (which buddy Flanagan now manages) where he spends much of his time. “Business does get done, yes, but it’s really just a place to hang out and jaw.” — Tricia Laine

Oni Press is proud to announce that it has been chosen as New Publisher of the Year 1997 in the 1998 Diamond Gem Awards. The Diamond Gem Awards are voted on by the more than 3500 retail accounts serviced by Diamond Comic Distributors. Oni Press began publishing in December 1997 with Bad Boy and, since then, has released books on a monthly basis including Oni Double Feature, St. Swithin’s Day, Eno & Plum, and Clerks: The Comic Book.

“This is a great honor and quite a shock” exclaimed Oni publisher, Bob Schreck. “We only put out one book in 1997, Bad Boy by Frank Miller and Simon Bisley in December, and to have this recognition after only 5 months of publishing… wow! Our sincere thanks to Frank, Simon, Angus McKie and my co-editor on the project Diana Schutz, for helping us get everyone’s attention in such a grand style!”

Joe Nozemack, Oni Press publisher, had this to say in response, “We’d liketo thank all the retailers responsible for this incredible show of support. This is a very plesant surprise, and I only hope we can live up to the title in 1998 and beyond.”

The Kevin bit is from an article called “Oscar’s Redheaded Stepchild” by Paul Zimmerman. These are the two Kevin-related paragraphs (as you can see, nothing new on this topic):

There’s also a picture of Kevin, standing at the podium with his award and looking mighty proud.

Jason Lee wins the award for Best Supporting Male for his role in “Chasing Amy.” He gets a hug from Kevin Smith. “I’d like to thank Kevin Smith because he saw that I can act somewhat and cast me in ‘Mall Rats,’ which most of you haven’t seen.” He gets a little tongue tied — “Oh, man, I’ve never done anything like this before” — but winds up remembering about fifteen people to thank. Jason Lee, fresh from his win for “Best Supporting Actor” approaches our intrepid reporter. A very handsome young man indeed! A woman later threw her arms around the “Chasing Amy” star and let him know, “I love you so much!” After much hard thought, we’ve considered the possibitily that there’s a slight chance that the woman could maybe have been his girlfriend.

Joey Lauren Adams was briefly detained by security for lacking an “all access” pass. She was truly miffed, chewing her gum with gusto, but posed sweetly for our intrepid reporter.

Having sold through a 30,000 copy first printing and a 10,000 copy second printing, totaling 40,000 copies sold out, Clerks: The Comic Book is now going into a 10,000 copy third printing. “The second printing of Clerks: The Comic Book is now sold out from us,” stated Joe Nozemack, Oni Press publisher. “In order to prevent a lag time in availability to the retailer, and thus the public, we are going into a third printing now,” Nozemack added.

Bob Schreck, Oni Press publisher commented, “We want this story, in fact, all our stories, available. We continue to show our commitment to doing so, with the second printing of Oni Double Feature #1, and the second, and now third, printings of Clerks: The Comic Book.”

Marketing director, Shannon T. Stewart stressed, “Clerks is available right now from your distributor. It is sold out from us, and in order to meet upcoming demand, we have committed to another printing now. What this means to the distributors, retailers, and ultimately, consumers, is that in a few weeks, when the second printings have sold through, third printings will already be available. This way, no one will have to back order our comics. They are, and, for the foreseeable future, will always be readily available, in one printing, or another.”

In response to the third printing and Oni’s commitment to keeping their books in print, Marty Hyder, comics department manager for Criminal Records in Atlanta, Georgia, had this to say, “Great! We sold through our 100 copy initial order in only a few weeks and Clerks continues to sell on a daily basis. As long as you keep it in print, and I keep it in stock, I don’t have to worry about lost sales. The phenomenal thing about this book is that new customers, people from outside the [traditional] comics buying public, are picking it up. I have high hopes for Jay & Silent Bob [the upcoming limited series].”

Like all books that Oni Press goes back to print on, the Clerks: The Comic Book third printing will feature a color change to the cover art. “Oni’s practice of altering the covers with each printing of a comic is great. It helps collectors differentiate between printings at a glance, and doesn’t discourage casual readers in the least,” said Debbie Fagnant, manager of Excaliber Books and Comics in Portland, Oregon “Its a nice little perk,” she added. In addition to the cover color changes, all printings of Oni comics contain printing information in the indicias inside the comic.

Clerks: The Comic Book is available to retail accounts through Diamond Comic Distributors, FM International Distribution and Cold Cut in the U.S. and Red Route in the U.K., and to the public in finer comic shops across the globe.