”It would free up a bunch of very talented writers,” says Joe Quesada, editor in chief of Marvel Comics. ”One would hope that if there were a strike, any Hollywood writers who have roots in comic books might think it would be fun.”

Quesada has talked to filmmaker John Singleton (Boyz N the Hood), and has a wish list that includes The Sixth Sense’s M. Night Shyamalan and Steven Spielberg (whom Quesada calls ”the grand poobah”).

They would join Hollywood writers already dabbling in comics:

* Kevin Smith, writer/director of such films as Clerks and Dogma, has written Daredevil comics for Marvel. He is now doing a series of 12 comic books on the superhero Green Arrow for DC Comics….

But Smith, who once tried to persuade Quentin Tarantino to write some comic books, says any Hollywood-comics crossover would be limited.

”The widely held stigma is that comic books are a children’s medium,” he says.

But the biggest problem, he says, is money. ”Comics don’t pay enough for many big Hollywood types. You’re talking about $300 to $400 a page for top writers. A book is 22 pages. You do the math.”

Was driving home from work today listening to Don and Mike, a nationally syndicated radio program that deals with various bits of pop culture as well as topics in the news and entertainment industry (an excellent show in my opinion).

Through the third quarter of their opening segment, a fan of Kevin’s called in and asked Don Geronimo (the host in case you couldn’t put two and two together) if he had seen the movie MALLRATS.

In response, Don basically stopped the show to announce that he had not seen MALLRATS however he felt that “Kevin Smith is a genius…he is what Spielberg should be…Dogma is one of my favorite movies…he’s thinner than Jim Belushi…about the same size as John Belushi, but less sloppy…” They also mentioned JAY AND SILENT BOB STRIKE BACK and how much they are looking forward to the film. Went through the rest of Kev’s catalogue and gave favorable reviews to each (except for CHASING AMY, which Don has not seen) Sorry for the quotes being as muddled as they are but I was driving through horrible afternoon traffic while listening to this segment.

It appears that these guys are fans, and their show is national so Kev got some major positive publicity today.

…And we turn a corner and there’s Kevin Smith. Geez! How about that for a sign from above? Someone I actually felt I’ve been mean to on occasion … and there he is!

Kevin and I have sat together. He knows who I am. I could see as our eyes meet that he didn’t want to say, “Hi.” My fault. And so, in the name of karma (not dogma), a big “Hey ho howdy” to Kevin and his gorgeous wife. And a promise to keep telling the truth, but to try not to be mean in the future.