Kevin and Walt hosted a panel in San Diego last week about this fantastic series, which Comic Book Resources has a nice summary of. Here’s a sample:

…A fan asked when the start of the next miniseries was expected. “Volume two begins after the new year,” Smith said. Smith wanted to give himself enough time to write as he’d be shooting a film soon.

Another fan asked if the Joker will be featured more in the second volume. “I felt like since ‘Cacophony’ was such a Joker heavy book for us, I wanted to use him very sparingly in the first six issues. But he features a little more prominently in the next arc.”

“I still hear Mark Hamill when I write my Joker,” Smith added. “When I was reading comments online, people said that, ‘This Joker reads like the fucking ’90s Joker.’ I felt really complimented by it.” The writer added that while he likes Heath Ledger’s version from the film, his Joker remains the version from the cartoon series by Paul Dini and Bruce Timm.

Smith also said that he finds writing the Joker easy. “What’s the most fucked up thing I can write? Okay. Write that,” he said. “For me, I’m way more interested in writing Bruce Wayne and Batman than the Joker.”

The hardcover compilation of issues #1 – #6 isn’t due until Christmas…So we’d recommend seeking out issues 1-6 right now and catching up. An already cool series became legend with the issue 6 cliffhanger. Catch up now!

Eugene Hernandez: Its funny, you’ve been the poster boy for American indie film, through its high point and low points. I think that may explain some of the critics.

Kevin Smith: “I mean, lets be honest, the only indie film I made was “Clerks.”

Everything else somebody paid for. In fact, everything else a studio paid for, with the exception of “Zack and Miri” which was the Weinstein Company. Every interview I do I’d be like, ‘You keep saying indie filmmaker, its just not…’

Say cult. Say something. But, you know, it’s not something where you try to run from it. I don’t mind, but it just sets you up for people to be disappointed. Like, ‘I thought you were an indie filmmaker? That’s supposed to mean something.’ I’m like, ‘Well, I mean, I made ‘Mallrats’ too, I told you by the second film it was going to be a bumpy ride.’

I’m just glad it’s still a ride.

Eugene, ’94 it started. Now I’m 16 years in and it’s a cool job where you’re allowed to express yourself and that’s kinda of why I got into it in the first place. But, by virtue of the fact that the job has opened so many other doors it’s also opened so many other venues for me to express myself. So, like to me, the movies are great, but like SModcast is some of the most sincerely creative original, now I’m at this place in my career where I’m like, ‘Those movies suck dude, listen to SModcast, that shit’s the bomb’.

So for me, I’m just extending ways to have the conversation in case one day somebody’s like, ‘We’re not going to let you make movies anymore, you’re not good at it and obviously you don’t care about it’ or something like that. And I’ll be like ‘All right, I’ll have the conversation over here’, but for as long as they’ll let me do I’ll do it, I enjoy doing it.”

This is one of our favorite interviews of the year so far — Don’t miss it.

So, that means YOU Columbus, Ohio, will get the last live road SModcast for some time tomorrow, July 31st. Kevin then comes home to Red Bank on Monday, August 2nd, for his 40th birthday Q&A. Hope to see a lot of you there – We’ll be onsite for the big Red Bank event. Then, Kevin’s on to Australia for a historic 2 night stand at the Sydney Opera House.

What about the old standard, online SModcast? Kevin promises standard, brand new episodes for a few weeks until “Red State” is shooting. Once he’s busy on the set, the backlogged episodes recorded at the live gigs will start to fill in the weekly slot, to allow Kevin time to film and edit. ‘Til then, www.smodcast.com is the place to be. Lots going on over there, including the announcement that the great Jason Mewes will become a regular member of new show “Highlinds: A Peephole History”.

New announcements are coming at the new SModcast 3D website, which at minimum promises live SMod at the Castle. Could there be more road shows in the future? Never say never.

Stay tuned for more news on upcoming episodes, and round 2 at SModcastle!

Via @thecolecash “How is “Red State” coming along?” Dave & I storyboarded for a few hours today. Found this amazing actress for Cheyenne…

Via @filmthreat “Where’s RedState being filmed?” California, sir. Up Whittier way. 80% of it shoots behind maximum security walls. #srsly

Via @sonic43 “Did you decide if RedState was shooting digital or film” Last I heard from @ThatDavidKlein, RED will be shot on a @RedCamera.

Via @Billy3152 “spot for hockey guys Leary or Sandler in Hit Somebody?” Massive cast, but I’m looking to surround Seann w/ CANADIAN actors.

Via @njosnavelin714 “You really believe HitSomebody’ll be the best film you ever make” 100 pages in, before we shoot a frame, it already is.

Via @StephanieClark_ “when do you start shooting for Hit Somebody?” Hopefully mid-2011. So let’s stop talking about it. Getting blue balls.

Via @SansomJam “Hit Somebody a comedy or something akin to The Wrestler?” It’s funny, but I don’t know if I’d call it a comedy. s’like GUMP.

Via @cmatthes1 “MCM mode of #CopOut gives me hope for the new BluRay extras” It’s pretty entertaining. Watched opening w/crowd & it crushed.

Via @bigstunz “Walt killed it in latest Smodcast” He CRUSHED PrimaNocta TELL’EM LIVE. Ask @BryAndWalt to put that 1 up on Friday. Pure gold.

Me & @SMosier sang FAMILY TIES & this dude mixed it into TIE’s opening credits: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e5LIs5W5JpM&feature=related

Via @MasterBruceSHH “Just read Gyre #6. Best ish so far. kudos for the last twist” Walt & I have been waiting a year for that splash page…

Via @denmark116 “How long do we wait for volume 2?” GYRE Vol. 2 starts up after the first of the year. And it’s a MUCH more familiar Bats…

Via @pcraig20 “how long the Green Hornet run is going to be” 10 issues. Then, I start begging @jimlee00 to do HORNET/BATMAN crossover mini.

Via @jace1013 “looks like #CopOut did well: http://bit.ly/9R3DyO #1 on every list” Congrats to the Movie Formerly Known As A Couple of Dicks

Via @lunchboxfett “When can we hear SModcastle opening night?” Not for awhile. Lots of banked shows to get up first: Philly, Billings, SF…

Via @dimmke “Can you stop making movies & just do #SModcast every day” Working on it, sir. Once we’re done with HIT SOMEBODY, s’possible…

@omfgitzjay “Will WYSMC be on SModcast Network?” No: to be a part of SModcast.com you’ve gotta know me REALLY well. Wanna know why? SModcast.com isn’t just weekly podcasts by me & my friends; it’s actually a more ambitious, ongoing project: SMod’s my autobiography.

This is my 10,000th Tweet. I’m using it to thank all y’all for following. You’ve given me enough juice to jump start the Act 2. Many thanks.

Our particular favorite Twitter highlight from the last week is a run that Kevin did on historical photos and posts back on July 20 and 21. If you didn’t see it, go back and seek out this stream. Tons of great photos and links in there.

Here’s a look at a few more Kevin sightings from last weekend as we wrap-up our San Diego coverage for the year:

• From IFC News: Film critic Alonso Duralde chats with Kevin Smith, the (contested) king of nerd prom, also known as San Diego Comic-Con. Smith, who’s been coming to Comic-Con ever since he test-screened “Mallrats” there in 1995, talks about what’s changed at the convention and what hasn’t, Stan Lee, getting to talk to the audience and why he’d make a lousy cosplay Silent Bob.
• Bleeding Cool caught a CNN video that featured Kevin in a few quick snippets throughout.
• Finally, enjoy a bunch of pics above from Kevin’s panel, including Mewes, and a couple who used their mic time to get engaged instead of ask Kev a question. Thanks to photographer Jeff Zimmerman for the bunch.

More con wrapup as we’ve got it — If anyone’s got any stories, photos, or tales from the con with a View Askew slant, send ’em on.

“I’m right now on Page 81 of the script. It’s big. I mean big in terms of long; it spans a life. We go from 1950 to 1980, and Seann William Scott is going to be my guy, the guy that plays the lead. It’s based on the song that Warren Zevon recorded that Mitch Albom wrote the lyrics to. (The song is on “My Ride’s Here,” Zevon’s 2002 album.) …

We’re shooting in Detroit, too. I reached Warren’s estate about the song, and they said, “You’ve got to talk to Mitch Albom because Mitch Albom controls that song.” I said, ” ‘Tuesdays with Morrie’ Mitch Albom?” So I got in touch with Mitch first by e-mail, and then he came to New York while I was there shooting “Cop Out.”

So he came and we hung out for about two hours, went downstairs and ate at the Ritz-Carlton down in Battery Park. At the end of it, he goes: “I gotta tell you, man, I felt like it was important to be face to face with you if I was gonna hand over the song. It’s a big deal.” He was like: “I don’t know how else to explain it, and I know there’s business deals and stuff later on. But I just feel like I wanted to see your face and to hear you talk about it.”

…

“…A lot of (the film) is going to take place in the ’70s. Detroit looks like it stopped in the ’70s, so we literally don’t have to set-decorate or set-design. We just turn on the camera and there’s an old building. It’s a great place and hopefully we’ll do it justice.

It’s almost like, for me, the closest parallel to it is “Forrest Gump” and not in terms of we’re gonna have all these amazing special effects in it. It’s just you follow one very simple person in a life that just touches everything throughout history and the sport, so it’s kinda like that. It’s ambitious, we’re not gonna be as good as “Forrest Gump,” but it’s ambitious.

It’s funny, but it’s not the comedy that I do. Like right now, honestly it’s still PG-13, there’s no cursing in it.”

“Hit Somebody” is planned to shoot following the completion of “Red State”, which goes in front of cameras in August.

Crave Online does a nice video chat with Mr. Smith on “Cop Out” and the awesome Maximum Comedy Mode on the Bluray. Trust us, you gotta see MCM. Lots of great stuff here featuring Kevin talking about his love for extras going all the way back to laserdisc.

Want more? Reelzchannel also spent a few moments with Kev to talk about the Bluray’s MCM mode.

…In “The Crucible,” O’Halloran finds himself in 1692 Salem, Mass., as the Rev. Parris. “One night he finds that his daughter and niece are nowhere to be found,” says O’Halloran. “When he goes out and finds them dancing naked, he’s none too pleased.”

O’Halloran stops to laugh. “Funny; from ‘Clerks,’ I’ve become known for male debauch comedies. I’ve been given that label of sassy and comedic. The thing is, I’m 40 now and old enough to be playing fathers who get outraged.”

If there’s one thing that O’Halloran understands, it’s parental disapproval. “My parents both came to American from Ireland, so they were conservative people,” he says. “My father died when I was a teenager, so my mother had a very cautious view of life. Imagine how she flipped out when I quit my job in the early ’90s to act. I had spent years working at ShopRite, clearing over $500 a week, which was a lot of money in those days. As she always pointed out, a grocery store will always be in business no matter what happens.”

Tickets are $20 and well worth the cost — You can catch one of the last three shows this Thursday, Friday, and Saturday night.

“…That’s good. I want those things to work, but I’m out of touch. I have no idea. I never saw the original Office. I never saw this Office. I never even saw Clerks. Like I never saw, what’s-his-name, Larry David’s show.”

Read the entire interview at the GQ website.