• IGN, who seem to really be doing a TON of View Askew stuff lately, have psoted a new interview with Kevin. Looks like this one’s got more of a comics flair to it, so if you’re looking for the man’s insights on the books he’s done and has lined up for the future, this is the place to be.

IGN Also lists Clerks as their #10 Guy movie, by the way:

• This may be very GOOD or very BAD news depending on how you take it…So, the GOOD news is — Jay & Silent Bob’s Secret Stash is now a FULLY SECURE online ordering site! This means that if you’ve got a credit card and a mailing address, you’re all set to hit the website and drop some major dough. The BAD news? Well – With ordering View Askew stuff now made THIS easy, how are you gonna pay your OTHER bills?

• Howdy folks…Sunday update for ya. As predicted, things have calmed down considerably, and we’re using this time to begin the move of files over to the new server. We’ll let you know when it’s complete just in case you experience any weirdness when we flick the switch – The move may not take place until the end of this week though.

A new poll’s been added, thanks to Renee. Last week, it was a CLOSE race — While a great deal of you checked in saying that while you weren’t DD readers before, Kev’s great story along with J&J’s superior artwork have gotten ya hooked. A slightly LARGER number of you said you didn’t read the book, though — All we can say to that is, “WHY NOT”? You’re missing some great stuff.

• The Mallrats DVD is number THREE behind two of the WORST films released in recent history, “8mm” and “Virus”, for the week of 7/18 in the Best Buy top 15 DVD list. We expect the disc to be at the top of the charts for quite a while. Congrats again to JM & Vincent on a job well done.
• Tired of those boring hourglasses? How about a new busy cursor for your Windows operating system? Here’s an animated “Chronic” symbol — Bluntman coming soon, we’re told. Hit Files Askew for this and all your VA File needs.
• Cinescape did a small bite on Kev’s confidence in the Clerks Animated Series today. From what we’ve heard, we totally agree with the guy, it really does sound like it’s gonna be a hilarious show:

• Cinema Classics (Between 1st & 2nd Avenues in New York City) is holding a very fun-sounding Contemporary Writer-Director’s Festival. Clerks will be featured at this dates/times:

The festival’s got a TON of great stuff going on, so if you’re a film fan in that area, don’t miss it. They’re even holding”Midnight Mockery” sessions, where you can watch a bad movie and ridicule it as much as you’d like. MST3K, eat your heartout.

• Finally today, some Askew trivia. Know who Scott Schaiffo is??? If you did, you’re better than us…We had to look itup!

Scott played the infamous Chewlie’s Gum Representative in “Clerks”, and now has a part in a new indie flick called“Zero Stress”. Set in New Jersey, the movie’s about 2 Brothers who set up Theraputic Massage Parlours. They have to pay insurance money to Carmine (Schiaffo) and a group of crooked cops. It’s about how their parlour gets involved in a murder,and how everything all escalates. Our scooper who saw the flick was quite taken with it, we’ve yet to catch it.

Enjoy your weekend, everyone. Drive safe.

• We’ve read some good interviews with Kevin in the past, but we’ve got 2 for you today that take the cake. After the Mallrats signing, John Couture got on the phone with Kev to discuss everything from the Mallrats DVD, to comics, to the web, to Dogma. Not only is this a very well-written and structured piece, but it’s laid out beautifully on the web with lots of photos from the flicks and the set itself. You really gotta surf over here and read this.

Also of interest today, DVD.COM has done an interview with Kevin covering the recent release of the Mallrats DVD, among other things. Like John’s piece, this again is the way to do an interview folks — Ask all the questions that fans want to know. You’ll read about Kevin’s love as laserdisc as he grew up, devotion to DVD due to all the “extras” it allows on home releases, the impending Chasing Amy DVD, as well as his plans for the Dogma DVD (Which we predict will set the all-time record for the MOST extra material ever packed onto a home video release).

If you’re as close a follower as we are, a lot of the stuff in thse 2 interviews may not be new to you, but the beautiful layout and great Q&A make them totally worth your while. We’re going to work on getting permission to keep a local copy of these pieces for posterity, but for now, surf over and check them BOTH out.

• Now THIS is the story we’ve been waiting MONTHS for! In a nutshell, the Disney machine (inlcuding Miramax, Buena Vista, & Dimension) have finally broken their code of non-anamorphic (16:9) DVDs. As a widescreen TV owner, I couldn’t be happier! Shakespeare In Love will be the studio’s very first anamorphic DVD, streeting next month in a standard edition, with a Special Edition somewhere down the road.

In addition to THIS news, they also announce that they’re working on a Chasing Amy Special Edition! Yes!!! Could this mean we’ll see all that great SE material from the Criterion disc, maybe even MORE, AND a 16:9 transfer for Amy??? We sure as hell hope so! In a recent interview, Kevin himself was quoted as saying that Buena Vista were attempting to buy the rights to the Criterion disc to put out their own version of Amy (Since Criterion wanted to release the disc as-is, with no widescreen enhacement or additional features).

At any rate, here’s the full story, courtesy of The Digital Bits:

• Kevin appeared on Howard Stern’s morning radio show this morning, from around 7:45 AM until 8:30. The appearance was full of great stuff, including the famous Jon Peters story (explaining the troubles with the Superman script) as well as, for the first time we’d heard (other than his post), all the dirt on Chevy Chase and what happened with Fletch 3. Kev plugged Dogma (saying again that the film will be out the second week of October – We’re guessing OCTOBER 15th), DareDevil, & The Stash, as he gave Howard a very cool-sounding DD statue and the Jay & Silent Bob figures.

Our local Stern radio station’s (105.7 THE X) power source is a hamster on a wheel, so we basically get crappy reception even though we’re about 15 minutes from the transmitter…Regardless of that, the broadcast is still quite listenable at RealAudio Quality – We were able to clean it up pretty good. We’ve broken the appearance (approximately 45 mintues total) into 2 segments: The “Mike Walker Game” segment where Kev plays along and tries to guess the false story from the National Enquirer’s editor, and the actual interview segment. Enjoy!
Kevin Plays The Mike Walker Game With Stern & Crew
RealAudio Clip (15:16)

Howard Stern Interviews Kevin Smith
RealAudio Clip (27:52)

• It’s a great day in the Askew realm! Not only is it Friday (thank goodness…I need a beer or two or three…) but Kevin’s just come off a fantastic appearance on the Howard Stern show (details below) PLUS we’ve even got some cool news from the DVD realm that may answer the question so many of you have been asking: Where’s Chasing Amy?

By the way, a TON of you e-mailed us about the AICN story on Dogma’s distributor today — Keep in mind that this is all still speculation on that site as well as our site’s part. We’re 99% sure the distributor is Lion’s Gate, it’s been the only name mentioned at all over the past month or so. But Kevin, View Askew, and Lion’s Gate have yet to make any official (or even UNofficial) announcement on the subject. Kevin HAS confirmed there indeed IS a distributor, and that the film will hit U.S. theaters the second week of October (we guess OCTOBER 15th), in its current 2 hour version. When the OFFICIAL announcement gets made, we’ll be sure and let you know right away.

Alright, let’s get on with our Friday update…

• Kevin’s back in New York City today and took a minute to drop in with some thanks, some news, and the skinny on the Howard Stern Show reschedule (for tomorrow!):

We’ll be listening…Should be an exellent appearance. We’re sure Kev will have a ton to chat about.

• Here’s just a summary of the cool and new items that came out of conversations people had with Kevin at Wizard World last weekend:

• There will be four “Clerks” action figures hitting the market : Dante, Randal, and updated versions of Jay and Silent Bob. (read : “cleaner” versions, toning down the drug paraphernalia, and they will also have diaramas, ie, Randal and Dante in the Quick-Stop, and Jay and Bob in the video store. These figures will be available commercially, and will probably be shipped in larger quantities than previously sent out commercially.
• The Clerks cartoon is due out in March 2000, on ABC as a mid season replacement. The gang hopes to release UNCUT versions of the episodes for home video. The show has 6 episodes contracted with the network. If they don’t renew, Kev quipped that UPN might be the next stop, where he will be “King of UPN” because “they have nothing on.”
• There is a new View Askew magazine coming out courtesy of Oni, that will be like the ‘Star Wars Insider’ of the View Askew Universe, called “Vulgarities”. Perhaps someone will ask us to write for it! Expect it late this year or early in 2000.
• Kevin confirmed that he will indeed work on a Green Arrow series later this year.
• Kev can sign a shitload of stuff in a weekend.