We have a computer program here at the Moriarty Labs that can speed dial phone numbers randomly. We use it to make calls all day, all night, all the time, hoping we’ll stumble across an interesting number, and this week it finally paid off. After a few rings, the unmistakable voice of writer/Silent Bob/director Kevin Smith came over the line. The henchman assigned to monitor the program raced over, grabbed me, and got me to the phone just in time to start talking to Kevin as if the whole thing were planned.

Thankfully, I had just finished reading Kevin’s extraordinary run of DAREDEVIL the night before, so we had plenty to talk about. For those of you who only know Kevin from his films like CLERKS and CHASING AMY, I would urge you to run out and get issues #1 – 6 of the new DAREDEVIL. This is the most mature, adult writing Kevin’s done so far in any medium, and it’s extremely impressive. I would also say that anyone who is debating joining the Catholic League in their wrongheaded, deeply un-Christian attack on Kevin’s new film DOGMA should read these comics before deciding where they stand. Smith has managed to take one of Marvel’s traditional heroes and use him to explore complicated ideas about faith, love, and the basic struggle of good and evil. The work he does here ranks with some of the best efforts of Kurt Busiek, Alan Moore, Neil Gaiman, and Frank Miller. This is the kind of thing that brings new readers to comics and then hooks them by being so much better than expected. I’ve personally chosen not to read the script for DOGMA (one of the few I’ve opted to do this with) because I want to hear the film fresh when I finally get a chance to see it. I don’t want to get a picture of it in my head. I also don’t want to know anything further about the religious content of the film. I had a similar religious upbringing to Kevin, and the depth of the debate in DAREDEVIL suggests to me that these are real issues for him, something which he actively addresses in his life. This isn’t someone who’s taking shots at the church. This is someone who looks around at our world, then turns to the church as a way of making sense of things. Only someone with a profound comittment to their faith would be able to so effectively demonstrate why it’s important.

The other thing that really impressed me about the book was the phenomenal work done by Joe “Penciller” Quesada and Jimmy “Tracer” Palmiotti. I think all of Kevin’s films have a simple, uncluttered visual style that is fine, but not particularly memorable. In the comics medium, his words are suddenly given vibrant, explosive visual life. The imagery in the series is unforgettable, and this trio should definitely consider future collaborations.

Seeing how liberated Kevin’s storytelling seemed to be when freed of the constraints of live-action, the first thing I had to ask him about was whether he plans to move into animated films. I was suprised when he said, “No.” As he explained his position, I could understand what he was getting at. In a perfect world, Kevin could make a $35 million animated feature out of DAREDEVIL that would be what he wrote, and the company he made it for would be smart enough to market it properly, support it, and nurture themselves a solid financial hit. That won’t happen in the real world, though, since no studio in town has yet figured out that animation can be used for more than just children’s films. Even IRON GIANT won’t make that point abundantly clear, since Brad Bird has made a classic humanist fable that’s disguised as a kid’s film. That’s all the suits will see… “Look! Plush toys!” We debated the pros and cons of live-action superhero movies and whether they can ever really work. I agree with Kevin that there’s an inherent silliness to seeing two real guys in tights fighting. Animation can deliver all the exaggerated realism we’re used to without compromising it one bit. With a project like Alan Moore’s brilliant new LEAGUE OF EXTRAORDINARY GENTLEMEN (run, don’t walk, to a comic store if you aren’t reading it yet), there’s an opportunity to create a Victorian world that would be prohibitively expensive in live-action. As long as Disney drives the market, though — and TARZAN’s success suggests there’s no end in sight — we’ll never get a chance to see these other uses of the medium.

At least, we won’t see them on the bigscreen. Right now, whatever risks are being taken in American animation are being taken on TV. That brought our conversation around to Kevin’s newest project, the animated series version of CLERKS for ABC. The show should be on in March as a midseason replacement, and it sounds like work is well underway. Kevin says they’ve got three finished scripts, with two episodes already recorded and ready for animation. Kevin’s working with three other writers on the show (Dave Mandel, Brian Kelly, and Steve Luckner), and he says one of the things about the process that he’s really found interesting so far is writing with that many other people. The round table format is new to him. I can imagine the adjustment. With everything else he’s done so far, Kevin’s been the sole voice. When he’s been rewritten, like with the SUPERMAN fiasco, it’s been without his participation. Now he’s actually knocking ideas back and forth with people, tossing jokes around, really collaborating. He seems to be enjoying it, though, and he’s proud of the fact that they’ve managed to be outrageous and funny without relying on the shock value of extreme language. He says the scripts are PG-13 at best, and that they’re definitely not going to try and one-up shows like SOUTH PARK. Instead, they’re exploring the bigger than life potential of animated stories. I don’t want to spoil any of the stories this far out from air date, but they sound fun and surreal, much like the Oni Press comic stories.

I was surprised when Kevin told me that there were no protests whatsoever around the release of the DAREDEVIL story. Even though it delves seriously into issues of faith and actually contains a violent massacre in a church, there was total silence. Why? Well, maybe it’s because Marvel Comics isn’t as attractive a target for the Catholic League as Disney. After all, when you’re trying to raise funds, you use the biggest names you can, right? Even though Disney and Miramax are no longer associated with the film in any way, William Donohue and his group are still calling for Disney to dump Miramax completely. They continue to weild the title DOGMA like a bat of some sort, even though they’re yet to see the movie. I guess what really blows my mind is that anyone could consider the Catholic League to be even remotely on the side of right in this particular instance. They’re so far wrong that I would expect the Church itself to take a stand and distance themselves from such nakedly ambitious zealots. The worst part of it all is the need that View Askew suddenly has for extrasecurity. Remember, folks… the people who are threatening Kevin are doing so because of God. Seems like to some people, the New Testament is only convenient when it’s easy. They’ll throw it out to suit their own purposes at a moment’s notice. Somehow, I don’t think that’s how it’s supposed to work.

It’s a shame that this particular film and this particular writer are ground zero for this. For his part, Kevin seems to have his head on straight about all this. The theatrical trailer for the film is the one that Scott Mosier and Kevin cut before any of this happened, and it doesn’t play off the controversy in any way. I’ve heard some people say, “This is going to be great for business,” but I agree with Kevin that it could be bad for the film. If someone goes into this pro-Catholic, pro-faith film expecting to see the Church get beaten up, they’re going to be bitterly disappointed. That could lead to confused word-of-mouth on the picture, and that could hurt it. Oddly, that discussion reminded both Kevin and I of SIMPSONS moments, but different ones. He brought up the episode when Bart and Milhouse went to see BARTON FINK just because it was R-rated, and they were chanting excitedly before they went in, “BARTON FINK! BARTON FINK!” The scene I thought of was when Bart got a fake ID, and he and the other boys went to see NAKED LUNCH, sure that it would be great with an R-rating and that title. On the way out of the theater, a disgusted Bart growls, “I can think of at least two things wrong with that title.” I hope people are made aware of what DOGMA really is with the ad campaign once it kicks in. Lion’s Gate is looking like the leader in the distributor sweepstakes right now, and we should expect an announcement soon.

By the way, if you want to see some clips from DOGMA, check out www.newsaskew.com where they’ve posted three clips in Streaming Video. Very interesting stuff. I was particularly impressed by Alan Rickman’s angel wings. I’d like to thank Kevin for his time, and I’d also like to congratulate him on the birth of his daughter, Harley Quinn Smith. His announcement on viewaskew.com is very funny and very sweet. I hope that he, Jen, and Harley are healthy and happy. I also want to take a moment to congratulate my own sister on pulling off the same miracle this past week. Somewhere out in the world right now, Moriarty has a new Evil Nephew named Marcus. Pretty damn cool.