- Steven Brower at http://comicbooks.miningco.com recently added a review of Kevin’s comic work. It mentions both Jay and Silent Bob and Clerks, but the focus is on his work with Daredevil:
Kevin Smith: Daring the Conventions of Comics
Dateline: 10/14/98
For pretty much every fanboy on the planet, Kevin Smith lives the life ofwhich we dream.
Get this: In 1994, with a staggering budget of just under twenty-eightthousand dollars, the movie Clerks was released in theatres, and KevinSmith, a four-month film school dropout, was suddenly a major name inHollywood. He won the Filmmakers Trophy at the Sundance Festival that year,and the movie was acclaimed by many, including Roger Ebert.
And it’s part of this movie’s lore that Smith sold his comic collection tohelp pay for the film. That’s right — Smith reads comics. And now that he’sbecome a major talent, he gets to write them as well.
Smith’s first outings in comics were adaptations of some of his filmcharacters into Oni Press’ Clerks and Jay and Silent Bob. Of these titles,J&SB is the more interesting, telling the stories of the characters’ timebetween Smith’s latest film, Chasing Amy, and his forthcoming Dogma. Jay isa loud-mouthed, fast-talking, dim-witted wannabe drug pusher and sex fiend,and Silent Bob is his mute accomplice, keeping Jay only barely in check Thecomic is funny, with seismic dialogue and ridiculous scenarios.
This is a direct contrast to Smith’s most ambitious comic work: The newDaredevil title for the Marvel Knights line of comics. With smooth,full-bodied artwork from Joe Quesada and Jimmy Palmiotti, Daredevil grappleswith issues of religious faith and personal longing. Internal dialoguescarry on for pages at a time, which can be a risky practice in the age ofthe catch phrase. But the writing is so involving and character-driven thatyou find yourself glad to be reading a comic book again:
My apartment — while well appointed — isn’t what I’d call “lush” or “huge”by any means. It is, after all, a Hell’s Kitchen apartment. But given that,there are still rooms I haven’t been in for months. The bathroom off themaster bedroom is one.We designated that as “her bathroom.”
This morning, a guy who spends half his life as a “Man Without Fear” took anhour to summon the courage to use a brush in that bathroom. The bristleswere still tangled with her hair…
Daredevil is a challenging book to write, but many exciting talents haverisen to the task, including Karl Kesel, D.G. Chichester, and, most notably,Frank Miller. It took Kevin Smith writing and directing three whole moviesto get there, but now he can be added to that very exclusive list.
Dateline: 10/14/98
For pretty much every fanboy on the planet, Kevin Smith lives the life ofwhich we dream.
Get this: In 1994, with a staggering budget of just under twenty-eightthousand dollars, the movie Clerks was released in theatres, and KevinSmith, a four-month film school dropout, was suddenly a major name inHollywood. He won the Filmmakers Trophy at the Sundance Festival that year,and the movie was acclaimed by many, including Roger Ebert.
And it’s part of this movie’s lore that Smith sold his comic collection tohelp pay for the film. That’s right — Smith reads comics. And now that he’sbecome a major talent, he gets to write them as well.
Smith’s first outings in comics were adaptations of some of his filmcharacters into Oni Press’ Clerks and Jay and Silent Bob. Of these titles,J&SB is the more interesting, telling the stories of the characters’ timebetween Smith’s latest film, Chasing Amy, and his forthcoming Dogma. Jay isa loud-mouthed, fast-talking, dim-witted wannabe drug pusher and sex fiend,and Silent Bob is his mute accomplice, keeping Jay only barely in check Thecomic is funny, with seismic dialogue and ridiculous scenarios.
This is a direct contrast to Smith’s most ambitious comic work: The newDaredevil title for the Marvel Knights line of comics. With smooth,full-bodied artwork from Joe Quesada and Jimmy Palmiotti, Daredevil grappleswith issues of religious faith and personal longing. Internal dialoguescarry on for pages at a time, which can be a risky practice in the age ofthe catch phrase. But the writing is so involving and character-driven thatyou find yourself glad to be reading a comic book again:
My apartment — while well appointed — isn’t what I’d call “lush” or “huge”by any means. It is, after all, a Hell’s Kitchen apartment. But given that,there are still rooms I haven’t been in for months. The bathroom off themaster bedroom is one.We designated that as “her bathroom.”
This morning, a guy who spends half his life as a “Man Without Fear” took anhour to summon the courage to use a brush in that bathroom. The bristleswere still tangled with her hair…
Daredevil is a challenging book to write, but many exciting talents haverisen to the task, including Karl Kesel, D.G. Chichester, and, most notably,Frank Miller. It took Kevin Smith writing and directing three whole moviesto get there, but now he can be added to that very exclusive list.
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