This is your ONLY CHANCE to catch Kevin in Jersey (or on the east coast for that matter) as part of this book tour, and it’s an absolutely perfect Fall day outside — So what are you waiting for? Get yourself over to the big book signing in downtown Red Bank NOW!

GN TV: So is [Heroes: Origins] completely self-contained or are you going to have any of the regular character in it?

Smith: No, self-contained. No characters from the series. The origin of Origins so to speak, is that last year Heroes went off the air for a month to catch up with their production schedule. It’s a big show, it’s tough to just churn it out because they’re essentially making a feature a week. So, what they wanted to do was kind of have a series to plug in for that moment when they need to go off the air for a mini-hiatus to catch up with their production schedule. So, Tim was like let’s do a show that kind of introduces new characters that might possibly be on in the next season. So it’ll still be Heroes but at the same time it won’t be Heroes “proper.” But it will take place in the Heroes universe. So the idea is that if I went in and was like “I want to use Hayden, Quinto and Ali Larter,” they’d be like “You’re high, dude. The whole reason we’re doing this spin-off is so that we can concentrate on Heroes without losing air time.” So no, the short answer is no. There won’t be any of the main characters in my show. However, it takes place, at least in my episode, and I hadn’t really even thought to ask because it really sounded like they need their cast. But what I’m doing is set firmly in their universe and it’s tied in by reference points, but I’m not going to be using that cast when they’re busy on the main show.

IGN TV: What kind of “hero” are you working on? Can you give me a hint without getting in trouble?

Smith: Girl.

IGN TV: Girl?

Smith: I’m doing a girl. That is the most I can say at this point.

IGN TV: So are you thinking that you’ll go back and do some more Reaper? I know you have two features in the works.

Smith: Yeah, hopefully. Based on the reception to the pilot it looks like the show might catch on. I hope so, for the girls’ sake. If that’s the case I would totally go back. I think right now they’re on episode six, so I think if I was going to do it I would get involved in the later half of the season. If it goes to 22. If we’re knee deep in Zach and Miri or Red State at that point, if we can get that done before a strike, I would hope to wait until the beginning of season 2 and do the first episode there. But that’s kind of up to them. I told them I’m happy to come back whenever.

So let’s summarize! A FEMALE hero from Kevin! Too cool. We can’t wait. And that’s the first we’ve seen a definite confirmation that he WILL go back to “Reaper” if the show continues into a full season. COOL! Of course, don’t miss the entire start-to-finish of this interview, courtesy of IGN. Part two ends with two full pages of “Red State” discussion, which we’ll leave for you to discover, as it’s good but nothing revealing that hasn’t already been reported here. We’ll summarize part 3 and let you know when it’s up.

First up, the Toronto Star prints a nice little article on the tour, the book, and “Reaper” today. It’s short, so let’s run it all:

Boring-ass life? Not this geek

Wearing his trademark “Silent Bob” black overcoat and Vans deck shoes with an image of Homer Simpson imprinted on them, Kevin Smith makes a sit-down chat turn into an exploration of all things geeky.

What else would you expect from the writer/director/actor who’s been letting his nerd flag fly high ever since he broke onto the scene with ’90s indie hit Clerks?

Smith, 37, has inspired a fervent cult audience for whatever he decides to do – from comics he’s written to guest-starring on Degrassi: The Next Generation, one of his favourite shows.

The pop culture vulture has two movies in development, directed the series pilot for the devilishly good new series Reaper and started work on an episode of Heroes: Origins, the upcoming spinoff of the NBC hit series Heroes.

Then there’s the reason he’s in town, doing a media blitz for his new book, My Boring-Ass Life: The Uncomfortably Candid Diary of Kevin Smith, a collection of blog entries from Smith’s website, ViewAskew.com.

“It’s kind of nice to back into a book, but I was like `who’s going to buy it when you can read it for free online,'” Smith said yesterday at the Toronto offices of publisher Random House.

“They said, `well, not everyone has a computer.’ Like really, everyone I know has a computer. So at the end of the day I didn’t have to do much for it, as it was already written.”

Smith has been posting to his website since 1996. He says the blog/book started after one of his fans asked how he spends his days. So he started cataloguing everything he did.

“It moved beyond the initial question, where I was like, I would like to have all this, so 20 years down the road I can look back and know exactly what I was doing on a specific day – and look at it how much I wasted my youth.”

But like most bloggers, the idea of feeding the online beast became an issue.

Documenting his life from March, 2005 to November, 2006, My Boring-Ass Life begins with daily writings that evolve into longer, more sporadic posts as time goes by.

If there is a highlight, Smith says it’s the almost 70 pages called “Me and my Shadow,” where he details the journey of best friend Jason Mewes (Jay from the Clerks and Jay and Silent Bob movies) as he battles drug addiction.

“He’s actually lived through something, as opposed to me. I am pretty boring,” Smith said. His fans wouldn’t agree, but it’s all on the page for anyone to judge.

In January, Smith starts filming Zach and Miri Make a Porno. Afterwards he hopes to start on Red State, which he describes as “a political horror movie.”

Other projects Smith is working on include a weekly podcast with friend, producer Scott Mosier – they call it a Smodcast – at quickstopentertainment.com.

As for Smith’s take on this age where all things geek have gone very mainstream, he’s sanguine about it.

He doesn’t think that there will be a backlash, but rather “people will just sooner or later just become disinterested.” Perhaps, but his career is solid evidence to the contrary.

Kevin’s interview on the CBC’s “The Hour with George Strombolopoulos” can be seen on its website. Be sure to check out the hilarious cold open of the show featuring Kevin doing a “bit of business”, as he often likes to say. There’s other guests on the program, so you may need to skip in a bit to see Kev’s bit — The show streams in several pieces, so be patient, you may need to wait a few seconds here and there to let it catch up with you, depending on your connection speed.

One fan was nice enough to break out a camera and film a few minutes of what went down at a pre-book signing Q&A this week, too. Watch the shaky cam though, it’s a little rough. Sounds like a HUGE turnout for the signing there, though – Canada loves Kevin! Check out a couple short clips, direct from Canada, via YouTube : Canada Book Signing, 9/27/07 – Part One and Canada Book Signing, 9/27/07 – Part Two.