ONI PRESS EDITOR IN CHIEF VOWS TO GET BOOKS ON TIME

Since taking over the editorial reins a month ago, my life has been fraught with scheduling problems. Due to the turmoil of the last couple of months, particularly the departure of Bob Schreck and moving our offices, a significant number of our books have fallen way behind.

We all hear the grumblings about publishers and their late books, and believe me, no one hates to hear those more than the publishers. Late books aren’t any fun – for any of us. While your shelves are sitting empty waiting for the latest Jay and Silent Bob and Grrl Scouts, you aren’t making any money, and neither are we. In fact, it means my time is spent making phone calls, reorganizing schedules, and generally worrying about future issues that are way behind before they are even started. It takes the focus of my job away from what it should be – making great comic books – so that I can deal with the fall-out from the delays.

So, I am publicly going to make a promise to all of the retailers, fans, and myself to do everything in my power to get all the Oni books back on track. Joe Nozemack and I have been assessing the company’s past mistakes, seeing where we have jumped the gun and why certain decisions haven’t been in the best interest of the books. We hope to learn from those mistakes, and once we get our books back on time, we want to keep them on time.

You may be wondering why I am choosing to make this commitment in this forum. I believe for Oni Press to continue to be a successful company, we need to keep the lines of communication open between ourselves and our supporters. It was important to me that everyone understood that we don’t take late books lightly. Also, by making this public statement, it means I have to live up to it. I could fail – it’s happened before – but if I fail this time, you all will be watching and will know it. Can you think of a better incentive than that?

Sincerely,

Jamie S. Rich
editor in chief
Oni Press

Where Time hailed Star Wars as a “subliminal history of movies,” filmmaker (and Star Woid) Kevin Smith remembers encountering classical mythology in school and assuming that the Greeks had ripped off Lucas.

Director: Kevin Smith
Title: “Chasing Amidala”
Pitch: Young adult Anakin Skywalker is infatuated with Queen Amidala. She just wants to be friends, and doesn’t really swing that way. Anakin threatens friendship with wisecracking Obi-Wan Kenobi, who makes wry, unnecessary comments about future films in series. Ends in threesome with handmaiden Amidala and Queen decoy.

I saw the Dogma one-sheet this past Monday, at least the first one made, and it is a beauty. It is a space background, with the Earth in the middle, about 3/4ths down, with the cast behind it in a semicircle, in halos. The title is bathed in a white-blue light across the bottom. It is something else.

ONI PRESS RAIDS THE CLERKS TOMB FOR ITS LOST TREASURES

This August, Oni Press is once again teaming with Kevin Smith to publish CLERKS: THE LOST SCENE. The story that became CLERKS was too large to be contained in just a couple of reels of film. Many scenes had to be cut for the sake of time, and for the first time ever, you can see one ofthem in glorious, comic book black-and-white. Kevin Smith, the writer and director of the film, has returned to his original script and rescued the crucial funeral parlor sequence. Finally, this is your chance to see the events at Julie Dwyer’s funeral that send Dante and Randal running!

“This is one of the most talked about sequences from the original film,” commented Oni Press editor in chief Jamie S. Rich. “Dante and Randal go in, and the next second, they are running out. Everyone wants to knowwhat happened in-between.”

“Kevin is such a creative writer, he always has more great material than the confines of whatever form he is working in can handle,” added Oni publisher Joe Nozemack. “Most things aren’t cut out of his scripts because they aren’t as good as the rest, they’re cut for space alone. There are tons of gems lying around on the cutting room floor, and it’s exciting to be showing one to the world.”

“The funeral parlor was a scene we didn’t have the wherewithal to shoot back when we made CLERKS,” Smith said, “so it got cut out of the earliest drafts. There’ll be a nice sense of closure to having it reach an audience now. It may not be twenty years later, and there may be no digital Jabba added, but it’s kind of restoring the original vision of the flick . or something like that.”

Joining Smith for this excursion are artists Phil Hester (SWAMP THING, THE WRETCH) and Ande Parks. Duncan Fegredo, the artist of JAY & SILENT BOB, provides an all-new cover. In addition to the main story, Smith will be writing a brand-new introductory sequence with Jay & Silent Bob.

“I’m ecstatic about getting involved with this project,” Hester said. “Kevin’s writing has such a wit and energy to it, I can’t wait to try to capture it on the page.”

“With each project of Kevin’s, we like to establish a new look,” Rich added. “Phil and Ande have a clean style that stands firmly between cartoony and realistic. I think their fluid linework is going to really appeal to Kevin’s fans, and hopefully should carry over to other projects between these three.”

“People have accused us of milking the View Askew line, but I think the continual quality of our books refutes that,” Nozemack concluded. “This material still has so many fresh possibilities, it should surprise you and make you laugh just like the first time you saw CLERKS or CHASING AMY. This is no flash-in-the-pan, but a real, bon-a-fide universe full of hilarious stories. CLERKS: THE LOST SCENE will be another cool comic you’ll want to add to your collection.”

The CLERKS: THE LOST SCENE one-shot ships August 20, 1999, and retails for $2.95. It has 32 pages of black-and-white story and art with a brand-new full color cover. It features harsh language and mature situations.

A disappointing sequel, “Fletch Lives,” was released in 1989. “I didn’t like it at all,” Chase says. But the original’s enduring popularity led Universal to approach indie filmmaker Kevin (“Chasing Amy”) Smith to develop a “Fletch 3.” But, according to Chase, Smith never came through.

“Kevin has never called me,” Chase says. “He promised to write a ‘Fletch’ for two years but never called me. Then, after two years, he told a friend he wasn’t going to do it. It’s Hollywood-type crap treatment, so rude. I could have been writing a ‘Fletch’ with someone else during that time. There’s no hard feelings, but I’ve never done that to anybody.”

Ah, Chevy. I knew you were a back-biter.

Here’s my history of the ‘Fletch’ project.

1) I meet with Universal after ‘Amy’. They as if I want to do anything with them. I say that they’ve got ‘Fletch’ and I’d write a ‘Fletch’ flick for them, if they wanted (not only did I dig the first flick, but I was a huge fan of the series of books by Gregory McDonald). They said “Hmmmmm…” Then they said “Who do you see as Fletch?” I looked at them blankly, then said “Chevy Chase, of course.” They said “Isn’t he too old?” Then I said “No – he’s the man when it comes to Fletch. You can’t make a Fletch flick without him.”

2) I’m sent to meet with Brian Grazer of Imagine Entertainment to discuss project further. He comes on as Producer. We meet with Alan Greisman (sp?) who was a producer on the original ‘Fletch’ flicks. He says Chevy is excited, and I should meet him and grab lunch, etc.

3) I meet Chevy Chase who – over the course of an hour lunch – procedes to take credit for anything funny that ever happened on the planet. Ever. He tells me the whole flick was ad-libbed, and that that’s how he’d like to do the next one. I tell him that I’m all about the script. He nods politely, as I’m a neophyte in this biz. I mention that we’re doing a flick called ‘Dogma’, and ask him if he’d want to come down and do a day or two (as Glick; I’d wanted Carlin, but his manager passed on the script; George and his manager later changed their minds). He says “Send me the script.” I do (he calls the office twice to ask about the ‘Fletch’ script; ‘Dogma’ is never mentioned again).

4) I get bogged down doing ‘Dogma’ and twenty other things. My agent asks if I’ll ever get to ‘Fletch’. I say “Yes, but in about a year and a half; after all this ‘Dogma’ stuff.” He says that Uni and Grazer are only as high on the project as I am (they’re not really interested in being in the Chevy Chase business anymore), so if I’m not passionate about it right now, we should let it go. I take the advice of counsel, and the project goes away.

That’s it. There was only going to be another ‘Fletch’ flick because I brought it up during a meeting with Universal. They were only considering Chevy Chase because I was fighting for him (even told them there’d be no point in doing the flick without Chase). I wanted to call it ‘Son of Fletch’, and cast Joey as his daughter. Lee was going to play her beau. I wanted to get Goldie Hawn for a cameo. But things got too hectic, and something had to give. ‘Fletch’ gave.

Now, the assertion that Chevy had to find out about it too late from a friend is assinine. The studio knew a year ago. I’m sure someone passed the message onto him way earlier than he lets on in the Post piece. But if he’d rather think I let him down, that’s cool. Hell – he’s let me down dozens of times (‘European Vacation’, ‘Christmas Vacation’, ‘Vegas Vacation’, ‘Cops and Robertsons’, ‘Oh Heavenly Dog’, that Jonathan Taylor Thomas picture, etc.).

When all was said and done, at least I got to meet Chevy Chase, I used to think. Now I’m sort of regretting it.