Despite the demands on his time as a hot writer/actor/director – and best-selling comic book writer – Kevin Smith is happy to appear at Wizard World East for the second year in a row.

“I spent about a half a year in Philly [filming ‘Jersey Girl’] and I kind of grew to love it,” he said, “so it’s pretty easy to go back when asked, particularly when there’s something like a con.”

Many fans of Smith’s movies (”Clerks,” “Chasing Amy”) have also checked out his comic book work on titles like “Daredevil” and “Green Arrow.”

As a popular comic book writer and store owner Smith openly admits his love for the medium.

“Comics are thought of as kid stuff, but usually only by people who haven’t picked up a comic in the last 10 years,” he said. “Yeah, there are a few titles for kids…but they’re not really written for kids anymore. They deal with more adult themes, and some of the best writing out there is in comics.”

Smith is currently finishing a long-delayed comic book miniseries starring Daredevil and Spider-Man. He’s not sure what he’ll do after that.

But he does know where he’d go for a cheesesteak if he had to pick between Pat’s and Geno’s.

“I’d have to go with Pat’s,” he said. “but it’s not fair because I haven’t tested every cheesesteak place in Philly.”

Not that he hasn’t tried.

“When we were doing Roadside Attractions [on “The Tonight Show with Jay Leno”] we did one from Philly and part of it was ‘Looking for the Perfect Cheesesteak’ and…we went from place to place. We hit the big ones: Pat’s, Geno’s and this other one…and I had two cheesesteaks at each place in the span of two hours.

“That’s six cheesesteaks in two hours, and boy, I loved every minute of it!”