If you’re going, don’t forget your camera — Send us a few photos and your line reports from any of the signing events you attend. It’s not every day (or even YEAR) that Kevin’s got a new book out, and Comic-Con signings have been rare lately, so don’t miss these. With a busy year of movie-making ahead, this is your big chance.

Kevin was a call-in guest on popular NPR talk show titled “Wait…Wait…Don’t Tell Me!” this weekend — The program quizzes its guests on current news and entertainment-related events. Not only was he charming as ever, he also fared quite well. You can listen to the entire program as well as take the quiz along with Kevin and the panel as you do so. NPR’s excellent site will also allow you to skip right to Kev’s segment if you like. Good stuff.

And finally, the man himself was an in-studio guest on XM’s Opie & Anthony program today. As usual, we’ll have audio online as part of the archives shortly. Kev was in studio to promote both his new book and tomorrow’s appearance on Letterman. The biggest revelation, however, came at the end of the show – Yes, Kevin might be getting his own show on XM Radio’s Virus channel! They may also rebroadcast SModcast as part of the deal. You can bet that we’ll keep on top of this exciting breaking news.

Never underestimate the power of goofy energy, which elevates this pilot a cut above most recent “nerd as hero” concepts. Learning that your parents sold your soul to the Devil makes for a bummer of a 21st birthday, but it’s a clever series set-up, albeit one that risks becoming “Buddy the Vampire Slayer” on an episodic basis. Still, “Reaper” enjoys terrific satanic support from Ray Wise as You Know Who and, if it can keep conjuring up a broth of humor and action, could become a new cult hit for CW, which would probably sell its corporate soul for one.

With a perfect mix of humor, action, romance, and drama, we’re picking “Reaper” as our favorite new show of the Fall TV season. It’s hitting the CW’s airwaves this Tuesday at 9 PM.

Alright, alright…Can’t wait until Tuesday? Yahoo is presenting the show’s complete first act, streaming live via their website. Just look for the little grid of white boxes in the lower right corner of the page’s splash graphic. You’ll see a preview of “Reaper” but then below will notice you can click an option to play the entire first act. You’ll be hooked.

HUGE thanks to Ming for his patience and assistance with our server, and to all of you for sticking with us through the construction. Next week, we’ll be debuting our new SuperSearch function that will give you even more precise access to our 10+ year news database. Live Archives continue to present a visual look at our new categorized news system. And of course, the front page and all of our special features should now be just a couple of seconds away. Scoops can now resume in the old scoops box. You can submit a scoop (or find more information on doing so) at the contact page.

We hope that you enjoy the speedier, spiffier News Askew. More surprises and enhancements are on the way.

Remember that Jay and Silent Bob’s Secret Stash West book signing we were gonna have as the store’s swan-song on Monday, October 1st at 5pm? Well because I got so many people bitching about the signing being on a Monday night, we’ve changed the event to SATURDAY, OCTOBER 6th, starting at noon.


So clear your Saturday and cruise on down to the Westwood Stash to peep the place out one more time (or for the first time) before we shutter that bitch permanently.


Also, if you’re into Hold ‘Em, we’ll be hosting a poker tournament at the Stash right after the signing ends. If you’re interested in rolling some cards with me and Mewes and trying to take our money (which was probably once your money), email your inquiries to donkey@viewaskew.com. It ain’t cheap, so be prepared.

“Saturday night, if you’re in the Ithaca area, come hang out at my Cornell Q&A. The show starts at seven, and some tickets are still available right here, at the website. This’ll be the first time I’ve been back to Cornell since we shot the first “An Evening with Kevin Smith” there, so it should be a fun show.”


“…I head back to the house for a meeting with Liz, Dawn, and Joe (or is it Jeff?) about tomorrow’s Fox pitch. Liz has an idea for sitcom that I’d produce and direct the pilot for (kinda like what I did on “Reaper”). The meeting is really just an excuse to finally meet in person before we head into the belly of the beast together, tomorrow morning.”


“…We meet up with Liz, Dawn and Co. then head in to pitch Liz’s show. It winds up going very well, and Fox picks it up to go to the next stage (a script), with an eye toward shooting it pre-January if they dig the script.”

As always, visit the official blogs for the complete story, what we’ve got here just scratches the surface. Kevin recently asked for last-minute SModcast questions via the Myspace blog this week, so it’s smart to subscribe and keep a close eye on those spots.

For more online commentary, you can also peep out FilmBuff Newsreel. And of course, don’t miss your chance to check out the full trailer at Yahoo Movies in all flavors of Quicktime, including that beautiful 1080p HD!

“…I’d written Dogma before I wrote Mallrats, but even in Dogma, I was bringing Jay and Silent Bob back, just ‘cause I like Jason Mewes a lot. He’s funny, and I thought those characters would be a nice way to keep that movie from becoming too heavy-handed. So I knew I’d use them again when I got to Dogma, but actually since Mallrats was the next movie, I started thinking about whether or not I’d want to include them in Mallrats, and I decided to go for it. Since Jay and Bob were in it, at one point they were the only touchstone, the only reference point, and then we wound up re-shooting the opening to Mallrats. After the movie was done, we test screened the movie, and the opening was long. It took about half an hour to get to the mall, so we just decided to shoot a new opening for it. That referenced the Julie Dwyer in the pool thing, and that really tied those two movies together in a subtle way. I mean, Jay and Silent Bob obviously in a very overt way too puts those two movies together, but the fact that the characters in Mallrats were referencing incidents from Clerks, and a character that we never even saw in Clerks, was a subtle reference to that movie. That kicked off the domino effect of including something in each film that tied it back into that same area, the same few towns.”


“…I guess I do have regional pride in that aspect of a state. South Jersey is more like North Pennsylvania to me and north Jersey is more like the south of New York. But central Jersey is in the dead center of the state, it’s where the shore is. Predominantly, it’s where the shore is. It’s what everyone thinks of when they say “down the Shore.” But really it didn’t come from that aspect of New Jersey that makes it the best; it’s just where I was raised. Like if I was raised in north Jersey, I would probably be a bigger fan of north Jersey. Same for south Jersey. But since I was raised where I was, it’s all I knew for like 22 years, so familiarity bred that loyalty I think more than anything else.”

This is one you’ll want to check out from start to finish, so make a click over to The Cornell Sun for a look. It covers a lot of background and history, some of which you may know, some not — But we dig the way it’s not all about the latest projects (which is rehash of what we already know) and takes a more personal approach. Don’t miss the Q&A in Ithaca on Saturday, if the recent Red Bank session is any indication, Kevin’s got some fantastic new tales to tell, IF you ask the right questions, of course…