After years of filmmaking, director Kevin Smith will see you in the funny pages.

With the success of indie flicks such as Clerks and Dogma under his belt, director Kevin Smith finally has the clout to do what he’s always wanted: write comic books. While working on preproduction for his next film, the once and future Silent Bob broke his vow and talked about his upcoming stint as a writer of DC Comics’ superhero series Green Arrow.

Maxim: Do you think it’s a step down to go from films to comic books?

Kevin: I think it’s viewed that way. Most people are, like, “Are you hurting for cash?” I have to explain that it’s not about paying the rent. It’s fun, and something I wanted to do. I see writing comics as the fulfillment of a dream and as good practice. It lets me flex muscles I don’t normally get to flex. There isn’t a dick joke every five minutes.

M: But why Green Arrow? He doesn’t even have any superpowers.

K: It’s the same appeal as Batman, who also doesn’t have superpowers. He’s a dude in a suit. There’s an identification factor. You could never picture yourself being Superman; he’s a god. But Green Arrow is just an exceptional archer, and if you tried really hard – or were Geena Davis – you could be an exceptional archer.

M: You were tapped to write a new Superman movie, but the project couldn’t, um, get off the ground. What happened?

K: I wrote a script that was very conventional. It was classic Superman, and based on that Nicolas Cage and Tim Burton signed on. But once Burton joined, he said, “I want to bring my own writers.” Who knows if the studio ever said, “What about Kevin?” I doubt it. “We’ve got Tim Burton. Fuck the Clerks guy.” At that point I was history.

M: Nicolas Cage as Superman: What the hell were they thinking?

K: Not my call. I was just the writer. One day they told me he was interested, and I was, like, “Ohh, as Brainiac, the villain” – but they said, “No, as Superman.” And that was it. But I like Nic Cage. Nic Cage can do shitty movies for the rest of his life if he wants, ’cause he was in Raising Arizona.

M: People are already salivating over the Spider-Man film. What’s your take on it?

K: I think it’ll be great. Sam Raimi is a really great action director. I mean, this is the guy who made Evil Dead 2 -how could he possibly fuck up Spider-Man? Of course he won’t. Tobey Maguire is a fine casting choice as Peter Parker, and Willem Dafoe as the Green Goblin is even better. I mean this is the guy who played Jesus.

M: Your Daughter, Harley Quinn Smith, is named after a Batman villain. How’d you talk the wife into that?

K: She just loves that character, so when she got pregnant I suggested the name. Then we had the kid, and in the hospital room I said, “Giving her that name is the worst thing we could do to this child.” But my wife said, “I don’t care what people call her. I think it’s a great name.”-Interview by Paul Semel

Also there was a side panel:

Hero Worship

Kevin Picks his top four all-time favorite comics you probably never heard of.:

Grimjack by John Ostrander

“Grimjack was a marshal doomed to live forever in this weird city that would slip in and out of phase with reality. Great comic, wonderful writing. I’m not doing it justice.”

JLA by Grant Morrison

“Some writers take on a character and say, ‘Everything you knew was a lie. And he has a new costume.’ Morrison took the Justice League characters and just told a really good story.”

Mage by Matt Wagner

“It’s the story of a simple man in a world without heroes who discovers he is something of a hero himself. It’s a precursor to Unbreakable in many ways.”

Sandman by Neil Gaiman

“This was the first time literature and comics melded so perfectly. Even if you took out all the pictures, you’d be left with one of the best works of fantasy literature”