Kevin Smith’s first feature film, Clerks (1994), was shot after closing time at the convenience store where he worked in Leonardo. After winning prizes at
the Cannes and Sundance film festivals, this low-budget, black-and-white, cheerfully vulgar independent film was picked up for distribution by Miramax.
Since then, writer/director Smith and his production company, View Askew (based in Red Bank), have released Mallrats (1995), Chasing Amy (1997) Dogma
(1999), Jersey Girl (2004), and Jay and Silent Bob Strike Back (2001). This last film’s title characters, played by Smith’s boyhood buddy Jason Mewes and
Smith himself, have appeared as minor characters in all of Smith’s other films. New Jersey’s suburban convenience stores, malls, highways, and amusement
arcades are also perennial settings in Smith’s films; in the controversial Dogma, God relaxes by playing Skeeball on the boardwalk in Asbury Park. Besides
films, Smith’s other major interest is comic books. The main characters in Chasing Amy are comic book writer/artists; Smith himself has written for the
Batman and Spider-Man series, among others, and he owns a comic book store, Jay and Silent Bob’s Secret Stash, in Red Bank.