• Kevin might not be there, but check out all these other meet & greet or signing opportunites at the San Diego con:

IF you’re in the area, don’t miss your chance to meet these folks, we’ve met quite a few of them ourselves and they’ve always been very kind and gracious to us View Askew fans. Tell ‘em we sent ya!

• In the July edition of “PREVIEWS: The Comic Shops Catalog” on page 221 there’s an add for Brian Lynch and D. J. Coffman’s “Monkey Man Unleashed” that claims, “Fact! Any comic book by Frank Miller, Brian Michael Bendis, Kevin Smith or that Babylon 5 guy gives off radiation that makes you sterile!”
• We’re only mentioning this to stop the e-mail onslaught on it, as we usually don’t go into the gossipy type stuff – But reports are indicating that Affleck and Lopez are indeed in a relationship of some sort — Congrats to them both, we’re sure it can only help the Jersey Girl chemistry and we wish them lots of luck.
• This website apparently has replacement AIM (AOL Instant Messenger) icons such as Jay & Bob, the Buddy Christ, and more. We prefer Trillian here, so we haven’t been able to test ‘em.

• The Fourth Rail highly recommends Issue #15 of Green Arrow, the last written by Smith and illustrated by Parks and Hester! They give it a 9/10:

• Cinematographer.com has reported on Vilmos Zsigmond’s signing on to Jersey Girl, and gives an August 12th start date for filming:

First we’ve seen it called a “black comedy”, though. We heard it was gonna be more of a drama.

• Variety reports that Ben Affleck is negotiating to write “Gone, Baby, Gone” and may make it his feature directorial debut. “Gone,” a novel by Dennis Lehane,” is part of a series of five mysteries involving a pair of Boston private eyes named Patrick Kenzie and Angela Gennaro. The book was optioned this year by Paramount and producer Alan Ladd Jr. in hopes that Affleck would star, adds the trade. Ladd has the rights to another book from the series, “Prayers for Rain,” and the hope is that it will add up to another Paramount franchise for Affleck, who scored a hit in his first turn as Jack Ryan in The Sum of All Fears. This would be Affleck’s first screenplay since “Good Will Hunting”.
• NBC News channel 5 in Dallas had a trivia question on their “Early Show” program today: “In which movie did Brandy Svenning appear?”
• Clerks cartoon creator Chris Bailey will be at the San-Diego comicon previewing his 3-minute Major Damage CGI animation, and also likely to promote “Action Planet: Monstermans Two-headed Monstrosity Special”. Say hi and tell him News Askew sent ya!
• And finally today, here’s one for the books — Pringles has announced they are making a wider can so people will no longer get their hand caught reaching for the chips in the bottom!!! Even stranger, Jay Leno recently made a joke about the wider can, saying that Jennifer Lopez created the wider can first. See ya next time folks…

• It took forever and a day to finally put this game together, but here it is, folks — You’ve all been waiting for it, and now it’s here: The official News Askew “Jay & Silent Bob Strike Back Drinking Game”. This game joins the other 4 films and, like them, it IS possible to play this one all the way through the film (a tough feat, but one to be proud of).

We’ve seen rule suggestions coming in for months, especially since the video release, but most got lost in the shuffle. We would like to give a shout to the folks at One Step Beyond Radio who created their own version of this game recently, and from which we borrowed a few rules.

The game is subject to change and may, if you’ve got issues or suggestions with it please let us know — But keep in mind, while the events in J&SBSB lend themselves to an unlimited amount of rules, we’ve designed this one to be actually playable without killing yourself from start to finish.

As always, with any of our games, do NOT drive anywhere after playing — Use it as a nightcap and plan to stay the night afterwards — And of course, use caution. Don’t hurt yourselves. Enjoy.

• As we’re in a news lull before the major Jersey Girl news starts to pour in, we’re making some improvements here at the site that will hopefully make your experience even better. Today, we’re happy to announce the availability of a “wireless-friendly” version of News Askew. The site is a very basic layout, and only in test phases now, but will feature the last update in complete form aside from pictures and links. This will allow those of you with any wireless devices such as PDAs or cell phones to read the latest stories while you’re on the go!

With the possibility of multiple updates per day on the way in the coming months, this will be the perfect way for you to get your News Askew right away, even if you can’t be in front of a PC. Look for more improvements to this system as well, as we have time to work on it. Until then, set your PDA or Cell Phone bookmarks HERE for News Askew Wireless!

If you’d like to set this up as a channel on your PDA directly, read this page http://newsaskew.com/wireless/ for more info or bookmark it on your home PC for details when you’re ready to go. Any probs, complaints, comments, let us know.

• Great news — The FINAL Kevin Smith written issue (which wraps up what’s been an outstanding mini-storyline) of GREEN ARROW #15 ships TODAY to stores everywhere in the USA! Cover price is $2.50. GET IT!
• Affleck talks about some small Daredevil filming delays at Scifi.com. There’s also a rumor running around that he and Jersey Girl costar Jennifer Lopez are now an item, according to Infobeat. Take it as a rumor though, as it’s stemming from a kind ad that Affleck ran in a Hollywood trade paper after having a great experience working with her on “Gigli”.
• This digital art “comic” has a very vague Askew reference to an Affleck line in “Jay & Bob”.
• MTV aired that beach house thing today with the New Jersey Governor James E. McGreevey requesting a Jennifer Lopez video due to her involvement with “Jersey Girl”. We ran the newsbite announcing this last week.
• Some folks are getting quite talented with their Macromedia Flash abilities — One fan has taken a fun scene from one of the Clerks cartoon episodes and made his own version. Pretty nifty. Check it out at Newgrounds.
• In the latest issue of Toyfare magazine, their back section features one of those “Separated At Birth” comparisions between Kevin Smith and a professional wrestler. We hear that the likenesses aren’t quite dead-on, but some come close.

• Finally today, a fan took a cheap “Homies” action figure from a gumball machine and turned it into a Silent Bob. Just goes to show ya what 25 cents and some free time can do these days…

• We’ve got good news! Details have been released for the upcoming VULGAR DVD from Lions Gate (Trimark Home Video) and they look pretty good! It does indeed look like they’ve got the Dogma Documentary on there, and even a new commentary track. Here’s the full rundown:

* 16×9 Widescreen
* Dolby Surround
* Controversy Behind DOGMA
* Trailer
* Deleted Scenes
* Production Commentary
* Stills
* Interactive Menus
* Scene Access
* English & Spanish Subtitles

We’re very pleased to see they’ve enhanced for 16×9 and even included some deleted stuff. We’re looking forward to this one even more now! Looks like another great disc in the long line of excellent View Askew products.

A Vulgar DVD containing only the trailer and film itself is making the rounds, sent out for review and promotion, though we’ve yet to see one. We’ll hopefully have an advance copy of the entire DVD ahead of time though. If you’ve yet to see the film, it’s a must-see, especially for a View Askew fan (and why else are ya here?) and we can also say that the Dogma doc is also quite good and something you can’t miss (you’ll even hear a couple familiar webmasters get a mention in it). We’ll keep you posted on this as we learn more.

One more thing: TWO DVD editions are being released on the 3rd of September– One will be the 84 minute R-Rated Version (Catalog Number: VM8127D) and the 87 minute Unrated Theatrical Version (Catalog Number: VM8120D). Make SURE you pick up the UNRATED!

• In the July 02 issue of INC magazine, there’s a feature article on celebrities’ favorite stores. Ben Stein’s, for example, was his favorite barber shop, Dilbert creator Scott Adams’ was his favorite gym. Kevin’s, of course, was the Secret Stash — A nice little article and picture accompanies:

• Congratulations to TROOPER CLERKS — Lucas Films Ltd. and Atomfilms.com have partnered up over the past two years to host a slew of fanmade short films based on the Star Wars franchise. After months of negotiations with this “Official Star Wars Fan Film Network”, Studio Creations has snuck in their underground parody cartoon “Trooper Clerks: The Animated One Shot” into this Star Wars legacy. The cartoon (part 1 of 2) follows the exploits of two Stormtroopers as they attempt to secure their Cashier positions at the Death-Stop Convenience Store which is located on the planet killing DeathStar.

Long time News Askew readers will remember the original cartoon as being foul mouthed and hilarious. This new version is just as funny, just with muzzled bleeps and squeaky toy noises so the movie can be prime time viewable. Watch it HERE!

• A new site called “The Askew Crapper” has opened — It’s a site designed for View Askew WWWBoard posters and other fans can write and post their own weekly/monthly columns. We’re told it doesn’t hafta be about View Askew, it’s just a nice place for fans with that common bond to trade stories and such.
• Mallrats will air (cut, of course) on the USA Network this Saturday, July 27th. Check your local listings for the time.
• Those of you who really dug the Daredevil teaser may want to check this out — There’s one up for sale on 35MM over at eBay. The official site also posted some new stills today, according to Dark Horizons.
• Here’s a new photo of Jason Lee with Marilyn Manson — The two recently attended artist Gottfried Helnwein’s first L.A. show.
• A slight clarification: The Mallrats article we posted last update isn’t from a Star Wars “fanzine” — It’s from a Lucasfilm authorized magazine called Star Wars Galaxy Magazine. It was published by Topps back in the mid 1990’s.

• We realize it’s been quiet around here, but things have been rather slow, and with the summertime comes the occasional vacations or long weekends as well — Normally one of us is around to cover for emergency updates and such, however this weekend was definitely one of the slowest in quite some time, though we’re expecting a pretty big pick-up into August when Jersey Girl kicks off.

Got a chance to check out an early screening of “Signs” – Been waiting to see that one all summer. It’s a darn creepy flick, should have a lot of folks jumping in their seats this August. Not quite as original or elaborate as it could have been, but it’s worth your 7 to 12 bucks.

Alright, let’s gather up a few NewsBites for today’s small update…

• Thanks to all who sent in that Nickel & Dime scan from “Powers” — Turns out there’s not really much of a Bluntman & Chronic reference at all, they don’t resemble them in our opinion. So we’re just gonna skip that one.
• At Krockathon (an outdoor music festival in central New York) a band “Non Point” played “Jay’s Rap 2001” as they took the stage — A fan in attendance chatted with the band and discovered they’re all big fans of Kevin’s work.
• In another episode of “Booty Call” over at TheRomp.com, Jay and Silent Bob can be seen in the crowd at the party in the mansion for Jake’s Birthday Party. As always, parental discretion is advised.
• A scooper caught camera crews at Penn Station in Baltimore filming Chris Rock’s new movie “Head of State.” late last week. In the recent past, they scouted Hampden as a location for Rock’s character’s apartment as well. Hampden is the neighborhood made famous in many of John Waters’ films (most recently, “Pecker”).

• And finally today, just cuz it’s been so slow, here’s a News Askew retro item for ya that we never posted — From way back in the Mallrats days, a small piece/interview with Kevin from a Star Wars fanzine to promote the flick. In it, Kev chats up “Empire Strikes Back”.

• Bids, get those bids in! Yep, some more rare stuff is up for grabs over at Auctions Askew this week — We hope those of you that took some of that RARE stuff last week are enjoying it. This week’s crop is super cool as well, with some framed or frameable prints of a classic Chasing Amy article and a reprint of yet another Mallrats comic cover. There’s also a shirt from Clerks so rare we’ve never even seem ‘em. Our favorites this week though hafta be two more actual pieces used with Jay & Silent Bob – One, a sign used in the bungalow window to locate the offices, and another, some actual set blueprints! As always, best of luck, and may your pockets be deep…