• Today’s update at JoBlo.com features a story that summarizes Kevin’s 1 & 1/2 hour Q&A session in San Diego this past weekend. The most recent stories and news items are summarized there, so if you haven’t seen Kevin live in a while, you’re likely to find something new there. For those of you that attended Kevin’s Q&A in Philly, it sounds like a lot of the same questions were asked, and thus, many similar answers. Check out the summary though, as there’s certainly a joke or perhaps a bit of news that you may have missed.

• View Askew vet Mike Allred seems to have provided Kevin with an appearance in this week’s X-Statix #11 from Marvel. New team recruit ‘El Guapo’ is hanging out at the X-Statix mansion, and while he’s talking to team financier Spike Freeman, a certain director sits at a table in the foreground. Check out the scan right here.

• Aint It Cool runs a small, mixed review of Jersey Girl today. It’s short, but contains some minor spoilers, including a commentary on the film’s ending, so we’d recommend those of you that like going in cold avoid it. For those who spit in the face of that notion, read away HERE.
  Latest rumors have indicated that some interesting changes have been made to the beginning of the film since we’ve seen it in the Sherman Oaks test screening, as well as additional scenes featuring Jason Biggs appearing later on. We’re still debating on posting our review of the film so early in the process, but may do it in a non-spoiler way (as best we can) for posterity’s sake. Again, chances are the film will please one type of View Askew fan and turn off some others, but stands to be the biggest success in View Askew so far (our prediction). Stay tuned.

• Paul Dini, one of the best writers in the comics biz and a personal favorite here at News Askew, has announced some details on his new upcoming animated series for The Cartoon Network, “Duck Dodgers”. One of those details revealed that Kevin will be voicing a classic comic hero in what sounds to be a very amusing storyline. Comicon.com had the story:

Sounds spectacular. Can’t wait for that one to premiere. Watch for it!

• Rejoice, Kevin Smith / Star Wars fans: Kevin’s mug appears on the front of starwars.com today, in their splash graphic promoting SDCC’s 2003 wrapup. They say:

• Speaking of Kev at the con, here’s another small pic, courtesty of Variety, featuring Kevin and 2 familar-looking hobbits.
• And yes, even more con-related stuff: Today’s edition of web comic Real Life Comics has a story surrounding attempts to get Kevin to visit a certain booth at the show.
• Good news if you’re in the LA area…”Drop Dead Roses” (starring Brian O’Halloran) will be playing sometime between the 19th and 28th of September, brought to you by the NYIIFV festival. The show time hasn’t been set yet, but the schedule will be posted on the festival website at www.nyfilmvideo.com on August 18, 2003. We’ll likely remind you here as well.
• eBay has an auction up for what looks to be a very rare Jay & Silent Bob Strike Back script. Bid and get more info HERE.
• Chris Rock’s memorable entrance in Dogma is played as a clip on VH-1’s “200 Greatest Pop Culture Icons”. Oh, and Rock clocks in at #179. We knew a couple of you completists must have been wondering.
• The August 19 issue of The Advocate is the Summer Sex Issue, and readers voted on Young Hollywood’s sexiest men and women. Coming at #1 among women was Eliza Dushku, and under “Gayest Moment” it reads: Dushku’s girl gang in ‘Jay and Silent Bob Strike Back’ was supposed to be read as lesbian.” Coming in at #5 among men was Ben Affleck, and his “Gayest Moment” is “Kissing Jason Lee in ‘Chasing Amy’ or kissing Kevin Smith on the 1999 MTV Movie Awards.”
• And finally today, article at IGN FilmForce claims that Ben Affleck is being considered to star in “Truth, Justice, and the American Way”, a biopic of George Reeves, the star of the 1950s “Superman” TV series.

• After years of inquiry regarding that comfy coat that Silent Bob wears and loans to Rufus in “Dogma”, it looks like one clothing company has taken the matter into their own hands.

AbbyShot Clothiers Limited, who specialize in recreating custom coats from the film world, are in the process of gathering the fabrics necessary to mass-produce the coats. They’ve already got a spec version done, which you can see above, as well as more shots at their website.

AbbyShot uses top of the line fabric and custom builds each coat BY HAND, to your exact measurements. The ‘sample’ you see above is yet unfinished. The finished coat will have topstitching, smiley face button and other finishing items. The production sample coat (and hopefully the future production coats) is made with Tight dense-weave Wool which is suited for ‘hard-wearing’ outerwear garments. They aren’t prepared to offer this coat as product yet, as they still need a reliable fabric source and a better estimate of demand. That’s where you come in.

If you’d be interested in a coat, be sure to e-mail them and let them know, via this Question Form at their website. If demand is high, it should allow them to obtain fabric in the quantity they need to keep the price as low as possible. Right now, estimates have the coat under the $500 mark, which may seem a bit pricey to some of you, but considering the uniqueness and quality build of the coat, which should last a lifetime, it’s sure to interest some of you, perhaps for your 2003 Christmas wish lists.

We’ll keep you posted on the status of the coats, until then, feel free to check out this thread at their forum to learn more about the company and what they do.

• Our sincerest congratulations go out to the team behind “Trooper Clerks: The Animated One Shot: Part 1”. The short won “Best Animation” at the Official Star Wars Fanfilm Awards at this past weekend’s San Diego ComicCon.

• The Day 3 gallery at TheOneRing.net features a couple photos of interest from San Diego — One of Kevin intervewing a couple of Klingons, and, if you dig deeper, some more Jay & Bob look-alikes.

• A HUGE Ben/Jen interview is up at MSNBC.com. No mention of Jersey Girl except for the text at the end, but we thought some of you might be interested to read it, all the same.

• Friday’s edition of popular webcomic “Drawing The Line” references Clerks very overtly. Check it out HERE.

• A News Askew reader was lucky enough to win the autographed bra signed by Jennifer and Kevin Smith — He was kind enough to send us a photo of the item framed with note of authenticity. That must have been a fun conversation at the framing shop. We’ll catch ya next time, folks. Happy Monday.

• Wanna see something REALLY cool? A surprise display item at the currently-happening San Diego Comicon took us by surprise. Dogma inaction figures! Not all the figure models have yet been completed yet, but for those they’ve got cardboard cut-out models on display (don’t worry, they’re not going to be so inactive that they’re FLAT). Yes, soon we’ll all be owning Jay with Uzi, Human Loki, Bartelby with Wings, and, our personal favorite, the immense Golgothan. The cut outs include Silent Bob w/ hockey stick, Metatron, and, of course, God (because what would a set of Dogma inaction figs be without God?). A new shot of the soon to be released (this October) Mallrats action figures is also on display, which includes Renee, Willam, Brodie, Jay & Dork Knight. And don’t forget, San Diego is currently the ONLY place to get your exclusive Steve-Dave and Walt figures!

Click the shots above for a better look, and thanks to Ming and his snappy digital camera for getting us these exclusive images.

• Jersey Girl continues to have the occasional test screening — A recent one held in the state for which the film gets its name inspired a couple folks who saw it to send us some reviews. We’ve edited out the spoilers so these are safe to read. It sounds like a few more edits and changes are being made, and the film is testing better than ever:

There ya have it, folks. The film continues to please. We’re anxious for the day that you all can see it.

• Meet Clerks artist Jim Mahfood this Friday night (the 18th) in downtown Chicago at the Comic Con Funk Party! Check out the Mahfood-designed flyer HERE , which has all the details.

• A custom made Askewniverse action figure is up for auction over at eBay — A one of a kind “Leonardo Leonardo”! Check him out and place your bids, but remember, this isn’t our auction, so bid at your own risk. Right now the figure’s at a very affordable $5.99, though we expect that’ll go up from this mention.
• Commercials are now airing everywhere, but you can also see the Gigli trailer in Quicktime HERE. Ben & Jen appear on tonight’s Dateline (NBC) to promote the film (and maybe even get a mention of Jersey Girl out there!).
• If you show up at a bad link at this NCAA football site, the Buddy Christ apparently lets you know.
• Want to LISTEN to “Clerks” in its entirety? The Lab 360 website gives you a chance to do just that, as well as the same for other films. Could be something to pass the time on a slow workday if you’ve got headphones. Catch ya next time. Thanks for stopping in today.

• We’ve got a bunch of scans and photos here for ya today. You know the drill. Click ‘em for a better look. Let’s start it off with some photos from the fun at the Stash late last week. Kevin was on hand to film a portion of the latest Roadside Attractions for Jay Leno, and even stuck around to chat and sign autographs for all the fans who came around to watch and hopefully get their mug on national late night TV.
  View Askew’s own StashCam was online that evening taking its regular shots, many of which have been catalogged online HERE.

We’ve also got some exclusive photos of Kevin as he appeared for the taping. Click away.

• Next, we’ve got direct scans from The Aquarian of that article we mentioned back on the 10th. It’s a spotlight on The Stash.

• And last, but certainly not least, Jay & Silent Bob get spoofed in MAD Magazine, as #6 in the 50 worst things about movies.