ONI PRESS, GRAPHITTI DESIGNS, VIEW ASKEW & COMIC BOOK EXPO JOIN FORCES TO CREATE LIMITED VARIANT EDITIONS OF KEVIN SMITH’S JAY & SILENT BOB TOYS & COMICS EXCLUSIVELY FOR EXPO RETAILERS

Oni Press, Graphitti Designs, and View Askew Productions are teaming up with the San Diego Comic Book Expo to give retailers a special gift for attending this very important retailer conference. The first 500 preregistered, qualifying retailers attending the Expo will receive variant editions of both the first issue of the JAY & SILENT BOB comic book and the Jay & Silent Bob action figures, created to celebrate Kevin Smith’s appearance as the keynote speaker at the show.

Graphitti’s action figures are based on the popular characters Jay & Silent Bob, created by writer/director Kevin Smith and featured in his films CLERKS, MALLRATS, and CHASING AMY. The figures were designed by comics artist Matt Wagner, and they will become commercially available in September. Both Jay and Silent Bob will come with a variety of accessories, including interchangeable hands, speaking devices, and decals that will allow you to change the image on Jay’s T-shirt. While the regular editions will contain accessories that are more adult-oriented, this limited edition casting has been dubbed the “Semi-Politically Correct Version,” with the more suggestive aspects toned down for mass consumption. There will be 1,000 of this variant made, with 500 of the run being made exclusively available in this promotion.

In addition to the figures, the first 500 qualifying retailers will also receive two variant copies of the first issue of the Oni Press miniseries JAY & SILENT BOB, written by Kevin Smith and illustrated by Duncan Fegredo. Smith, a long-time comics fan, teamed his View Askew Productions with Oni Press earlier this year for the best-selling CLERKS comic book and a Jay & Silent Bob story in ONI DOUBLE FEATURE. Advance orders on the JAY & SILENT BOB comic have placed it squarely at #70 of the top 100 comics shipping from Diamond that month, making it one of the few black-and-white comic book besides SIN CITY to achieve this ranking in this decade. There will be two different variant covers available at the Expo. The first will be a photo of Jason Mewes, the actor who plays Jay, holding the oversized prototype of the Silent Bob action figure; the second will be a photo of Kevin Smith, in his Silent Bob persona, holding the prototype of the Jay action figure.

“Retailers have been tremendously kind to us in our first year,” Oni Press Publisher and Editor Bob Schreck said of the promotion. “This is our chance to let them know that their efforts have not gone by unnoticed or unappreciated.”

This special gift package will be limited to one per store, and they are only available to qualifying retailers who actually attend the 1998’s Comic Book Expo in San Diego. They will be given on a first come, first served basis to the first 500 preregistered attendees at the show. The Comic Book Expo will take place in San Diego, CA, on August 10-12, and will be followed by the Comic-Con International on August 13-16, the country’s largest gathering of comic book and genre fiction and film fans.