• The great thing about all the merchanidse through the Stash is that most of it comes as a result of fan queries, demands, or ideas — The latest batch of stuff is a great mix of Clerks II promotional items as well as stuff that, well, you just ASKED for. Check out some of the NEW items just in (or coming in really soon) that we’re waiting to ship to your door — As always, top-quality, and the perfect gift for yourself or the View Askew fan in your life:

And hey, don’t forget we’ve got all those beautiful full size Clerks II posters, Clerks II t-shirts, mugs, armbands, that way cool Ranger Danger shirt, new Mooby’s swag, and MORE. This is by far our coolest batch of promotional swag for a flick yet. Get some in your mitts today.

• Kevin’s non-stop schedule continues post-Clerks II’s release: He’s now officially confirmed for Saturday, July 22nd at San Diego ComicCon for a Q&A. The posting:

As always, we recommend finding your seats as early as possible.

• We ran a newsbite on this earlier in the week, but so many of you must have missed it (scoops keep pouring in), so we’ll run it again — The episode of Amazon Fishbowl, hosted by Bill Maher and featuring our own Kevin Smith, can now be streamed up via your browser HERE. Kevin’s piece promoting Clerks II comes up right after Bill’s monologue. Amazon says:

Amazon Fishbowl with Bill Maher, presented by UPS and Cingular, is a weekly program featuring the brightest stars in film, music, literature, and television.

• Seems that Horrorfind Weekend in Maryland will have a double-bill Mallrats alum appearance next month: Priscilla Barnes will also be there due to her recent appearance in Rob Zombie’s “The Devil’s Rejects”. Now you can get TWO celebs to autograph your Mallrats stuff — Not bad!
• In addition to escaping the NC-17 Kiss of Death in the US, Clerks II has been given an MA 15+ rating by the Australian classification board, making the original ‘Clerks’ the only Kevin Smith film to receive an R 18+ rating, which is the rough equivalent of NC-17.

• This JUST in! Like we told ya, the Clerks II opening-day showing and Q&A sold out in mere hours…But guess what? The Arclight and Kevin have arranged for those of you who missed out to get a treat — TWO MORE SHOWS have been added to bookend the sold out 8:05 screening, both including a Q&A from Kevin himself. We’re guessing the hot ticket will be the 10:45 show (after all, as the last show of the night, perhaps it’ll run a bit longer than the rest), so we again URGE you to buy these up right away. They probably won’t last more than a few hours. The official notificiation:

Don’t miss these, folks. Stuff like this makes us hate living on the east coast. Your westerners have a blast, and be sure to let us know how your screenings go! Two weeks from today, Clerks II, in theaters everywhere! More news on the way later.

• With so many appearances coming up with Kevin and the cast on television and elsewhere in the coming weeks, we thought it’d be nice to keep track of all the latest in an easy way — So, check out the new table at the top of the news, which tracks everything that’s on the way, with a nice little countdown so you know how long you gotta wait for it. There’s some BIG stuff coming to air, including a VH-1 special and that G4 “Icons” program that will certainly be huge events — And of course, some major interviews that will gain a ton of good exposure for the flick. Kevin’s blog post about the first round of press can be found HERE. Watch our countdowns for the latest updates and additions, as well.

• We were having so much fun watching this over and over again when it came out that we forgot to mention it — Yes, an R-rated, or “Red Band” trailer of Clerks II is now available online. When watching the TV ads, it just proves how filthy the flick is, considering almost every line of every scene needs altered or trimmed to make G-rated TV. So this time, you can finally catch some of the uncensored dialogue the way it was meant to be heard and seen on the screen.

There’s a lot of spoilers in this trailer, so please stay away if you want to go in clean, which we do always recommend. It’s the third trailer down at this page. Two weeks until Clerks II hits screens folks!!! TWO!!!!

• Ok Arclight area residents – Tix for the big View Askew trilogy on July 18th, as well as the Clerks II premiere night screening, at which we believe Kevin WILL still appear. So go git’em! They won’t last!

• A July 25th release is still reported for “Tales From The Clerks”, which compiles all past Clerks stories and adds a new “Where’s The Beef” piece, the first View Askew comic Kevin has done in YEARS. It will bridge a gap of time in Clerks II. A highly recommended purchase and read before the film. We’ll let you know when the Stash has copies available, which we’re certain will be signed by Kevin himself.

• Kevin conducted a phone interview with The Vancouver Province Newspaper about Superman, for which there’s a few new quotes — You can click the pic for a scan of the piece.
• View Askew vet alert: Catch the always friendly Michael Rooker at the Horrorfind convention, Aug 11th – 13th in Hunt Valley, MD. Info can be found HERE. We’ve always heard great stories from View Askew fans who chat about Mallrats with him, so it’s a worthy trip, for sure.
• Newsarama reports that comics fan (and Clerks II star, natch) Rosario Dawson will appear on a panel at the San Diego ComicCon, day one, Thursday, July 20th (the day before Clerks II!) to promote her debut comic series, Occult Crimes Taskforce.

• Unfortunately, it seems there was a mix-up when the Arclight announced the big View Askew event scheduled for later this month. The July 18th trilogy, where Kevin was set to appear, MAY still happen, but Kevin will be unable to attend due to east coast press commitments. Please keep in mind the trilogy is still not even definite, though we ARE hearing Kevin won’t be able to show up on the 18th.

We are hearing that Kevin WILL still attend the premiere night screening at the Arclight on July 21st. Clerks II will screen, followed by a Q&A following the prime evening show of the film. Again, this is only tentative until we can get final word, but promise you as soon as we can confirm (or deny) anything, you’ll hear it right away. Even if Kevin’s not in attendance, you can’t do much better than the Arclight for a View Askew flick. Get your tix reserved no matter what.

Tickets will likely sell out fast via the Arclight website when they go on sale July 7th. Mark your calendar and watch the site for your chance to grab seats at both events!

• Brian and Jeff continue to travel the country promoting Clerks II, state by state! Here’s a couple more shots from Kansas City to kick things off today. You’ll find our duo and a shot of our scooper and the guys with his B&W clerks figures. Brian also graciously signed his customized Dallas Cowboys jersey, #37 with Silent Bob for the name on the back. We hear that Jeff made fun of him for it.

In addition, our frequent loyal scooper Gareth conducted a one-on-two interview with the boys recently. Here’s some interesting cool snips of interest that we haven’t seen in any other interviews:

• Seems that some life-size cutouts of Jay & Bob are making their way across America for the www.clerksforever.com site, now titled “Clerks II Across America”. Seems that MGM is running the site, posting photos of folks in major cities who are willing to get snapped with Jay & Bob (or Photoshopped in). Tons of photos already, with more cities and visits on the way. Be sure to stop on by and see if they’re coming to YOUR city.

• Fox News 411 mentions Kevin’s blog and the Clerks inaction video that was recently posted regarding the new Superman movie. The blog mentions the video and Kev’s previous involvement in the Superman script years ago.
• Kevin will appear on Bill Maher’s chat show “Amazon Fishbowl” on Amazon.com TOMORROW, July 6th, to discuss Clerks II. This is a streaming video, much like YouTube, and is pre-taped then made available at any time. Watch for it at 8 PM Pacific Time tomorrow!
• Check out episode TWO of the new Clers inaction shorts, exclusively at Quick Stop Entertainment. This nugget, titled “Break Up To Make Up”, is billed as “A tale of love lost, regrets, and a boom box”.
• Just a slight correction to the bit we ran on the band “Supernova” last week — The new band on “Rock Star” is actually being sued by the REAL Supernova, who did the song “Chewbacca” on the Clerks soundtrack. Let’s hope the little guy can prevail in this one, though chances are corporations may win over again. The band on the TV show is Tommy Lee, Jason Newsted, and Gilby Clarke. It still appears as they will get the name, despite already having the “Chewbacca” Supernova on the Clerks soundtrack over a decade ago.
• The film “Bottoms Up”, starring Jason Mewes and Paris Hilton, will be released to DVD on September 12th, 2006.
• Once again, Kevin Smith plays a role in JoBlo’s weekly “The Ten Spot”! This time around though, instead of being part of the Top Ten colum, the Jay and Silent Bob teaser poster for Clerks II, plays a role as the cover image.
• You can (for now) exclusively see the trailer for Hollywoodland at YouTube. Check out Affleck in that hat and glasses! Current rumors have a September 8th release planned for this one, but no official word just yet.
• Catch a big screen showing of the original Clerks at the Marcus Orland Park Theater, Orland Park, IL, Sunday, August 13th at 9:30 PM. They typically play classic comedies on Sunday nights, and charge around 5 or 6 bucks for admission.