Astonishing but true: Filmmakers moonlight as comic book writers

By Scott Bowles, USA TODAY

Hollywood has been plundering comic books for material for decades. Now it’s time for revenge.

The adventures of Dante and Randall continue in director Kevin Smith’s comic book version of Clerks, his first movie.

The comic book industry, once populated by anonymous, low-paid writers and illustrators, is luring big-name Hollywood talent to write some of its most popular comics. And at least one book is lampooning studios for their portrayal of beloved villains and superheroes.

Filmmakers say writing for comic books allows them to flex new creative muscles and become more familiar with story lines they may soon bring to the big screen. They also concede it’s the fulfillment of fantasies they’ve had since they were geeky teenagers.

Kevin Smith, the director of Clerks and Dogma, has been a regular writer for Daredevil and Green Arrow. But other directors are now joining him:

• Joss Whedon, the creator of Buffy the Vampire Slayer and Angel, this month begins a year-long run of Astonishing X-Men.

• Bryan Singer, director of the first two X-Men films, has agreed to write a series of Ultimate X-Men comics, involving the popular mutant Marvel superheroes.

• David Goyer, director of the upcoming Blade: Trinity and screenwriter of next year’s Batman Begins, will write a 100-page installment of The Justice Society of America, the popular DC Comics series.

“Anyone who was a big fan of comics as a kid has dreamed of writing one himself,” Goyer says.

He says comic book writing is a lure for directors because it’s a throwback to old-time filmmaking.

“You don’t have the big budgets and the special effects,” says Goyer, who adapted the comic book screenplays for both previous Blade films. “It’s more simplistic storytelling.”

This high-profile moonlighting has a double payoff: Big-name directors bring more attention to comic books, and comic books can help sell upcoming films.

In the latest installments of Ultimate Spider-Man comics, for instance, the story line revolves around Spidey’s anger at Hollywood for trying to make a movie about him.

In the books, both Spider-Man and the evil Doctor Octavius confront Avi Arad, the real-life head of Marvel studios, and Sam Raimi, the director of next month’s Spider-Man 2. Arad tells the web-slinger that there’s nothing he can do to stop the movie, while Raimi orders the cameras to roll when Spider-Man and Doc Ock duke it out on the film set.

Arad says the self-referential story line has made Ultimate Spider-Man one of Marvel’s top 10 sellers. “It’s fun and a clever way to pay respect to the books,” Arad says. “Plus, Sam gets to look thinner, and I get more hair.”

Raimi isn’t so thrilled: “I come off like an arrogant jerk. The sooner they kill me off, the better.”

Done Licking My Wounds…

So the movie under-performed, and I’ve been moping around about it for the last few weeks. I’m over it now. Fuck it – at least we weren’t “Gigli”. Onward and upward.

Heading to Alaska this weekend for a college gig, but when I get back, I’ll be in full swing on this motherfucker.

Meantime, I know I’m a little late, but wasn’t “Kill Bill, Vol. 2” just fantastic?

(some other one-liner JG stuff)

“…Actually, we were in profit, budget-wise, before we rolled a frame a film, thanks to foreign sales and whatnot.”

“…With DVD, we’re in the pink (or green). In fact, DVD’s now the most profitable revenue stream in film, overall – not just for me and my shit. But this wasn’t about money anyway.”

“…Yeah, but we certainly did more than enough press to make up for whatever shortcomings the marketing may have had. But honestly, I thought Miramax did a pretty good job marketing it.”

Hey guys just got back home from Kevin’s Q&A at UAA. It was great. It lasted about five and half hours, Kevin stayed until he pretty much fell asleep
while answering a question. A few highlights-

– Kevin talked about his views on decriminalization of Marijuana (something that is on the November ballot in Alaska). Said it might as well be legal
since it really isn’t all that bad. Then he told a great story about the last time he got high. The moral of the story, don’t shit while you are
stoned.

– Mentioned something about shooting a film later this year, or should I say a movie since he was talking about HD. Said he is looking at shooting a movie
later this year on HD, no details other than that, but it could be something new.

– Some great audience members. The guy in a crazy zombie costume. The religious lady who didn’t really know who Kevin was. She didn’t know he
worte/directed anything, and didn’t know about any of his movies besides Dogma, of which she said she has to fast forward through the vulgar parts. Some
dude who doesn’t trust eBay because he got burned on a Fear Factory poster. The guy who mooned everybody and rambled on about his cable access show. The
annoying girl in a red dress whos boyfriend was sitting with another girl. And last but not least the guy who kept interupting Kevin.

Stephen Silver’s first self-published hardcover collection, the 160-page “The Art of Silver”, featuring a foreword by Kevin Smith is now available to buy
signed by Stephen with an original sketch for only $40 (www.silvertoons.com).

In case the name Stephen Silver doesn’t ring a bell you may know him from his work as a character designer on such cartoons as “Kim Possible”, “Danny
Phantom”… oh, and a short-lived ABC show you may have heard of called “Clerks: The Cartoon”!

He’s also Kevin’s “go-to guy” when it comes to illustrating our favorite View Askew characters. Amongst other things Stephen has designed the extremely
popular InAction figures, last years comic convention t-shirts, and my personal favorite piece of View Askew merchandise ever – the excellent Jay & Silent
Bob book-ends.

In this impressive book Stephen has managed to put together a visually stunning and inspirational collection of various sketches and conceptual art
spanning his career to date. And just to prove it is possible to actually read an art book Stephen has annotated the book throughout with helpful tips and
techniques for the aspiring artists out there.

Also as well as the aforementioned foreword by our very own Kevin Smith (who positively gushes about Stephen’s skill) there are also contributions from
Jack Davis and Tom Richmond (both of Mad Magazine fame), and an introduction by Stephen himself. For the View Askew fans there are several examples of
InAction figure concept roughs, t-shirt designs and development sketches for the Clerks cartoon.

I only received my copy of this book earlier today yet I’ve already read it cover-to-cover twice and I’ve constantly been thumbing through just admiring
the diverse and impressive content. In fact as the legendary Mort Zucker (again of Mad Magazine fame) says on the back cover “His versatility and
draftmanship make this book enjoyable and an inspiration…” and I couldn’t agree more!

As I mentioned earlier the book is now available direct from Stephen via his website – www.silvertoons.com – where you can also view sample pages. And if
you want to meet Stephen in person he will have a booth at this years San Diego Comic-Con.

Smith, Kevin (b. Aug. 2, 1970) Filmmaker.

Kevin Smith’s first feature film, Clerks (1994), was shot after closing time at the convenience store where he worked in Leonardo. After winning prizes at
the Cannes and Sundance film festivals, this low-budget, black-and-white, cheerfully vulgar independent film was picked up for distribution by Miramax.
Since then, writer/director Smith and his production company, View Askew (based in Red Bank), have released Mallrats (1995), Chasing Amy (1997) Dogma
(1999), Jersey Girl (2004), and Jay and Silent Bob Strike Back (2001). This last film’s title characters, played by Smith’s boyhood buddy Jason Mewes and
Smith himself, have appeared as minor characters in all of Smith’s other films. New Jersey’s suburban convenience stores, malls, highways, and amusement
arcades are also perennial settings in Smith’s films; in the controversial Dogma, God relaxes by playing Skeeball on the boardwalk in Asbury Park. Besides
films, Smith’s other major interest is comic books. The main characters in Chasing Amy are comic book writer/artists; Smith himself has written for the
Batman and Spider-Man series, among others, and he owns a comic book store, Jay and Silent Bob’s Secret Stash, in Red Bank.

Question: I’ve heard from time to time about a Green Hornet movie starring George Clooney as the Green Hornet and Jet Li as Kato. Is there any truth to
these rumors? — Don

Flickchick: Unlike many projects that have been kicking around as long as this one (since the mid-1990s), Miramax’s The Green Hornet still has real life in
it, and writer-director and long-time serious comic-book geek Kevin Smith has just signed on. Smith owns a comic-book store called Jay and Silent Bob’s
Secret Stash in his native Red Bank, N.J., and has written Daredevil and Green Arrow stories for DC Comics — he revitalized the Green Arrow, an older
character who’d fallen into a sorry state of neglect — and also worked on the doomed Superman Lives before it finally died a painful death. The Green
Hornet even has a tentative opening date: August 2005. What it doesn’t have is the square-jawed George Clooney and Jet Li. Clooney dropped out in ‘97 and
Li hung in a while longer, but eventually moved on. Over the years, rumors have attached a wide range of actors to the role of newspaper editor by
day/costumed crime-fighter by night Britt Reid — notably Mark Wahlberg and Hugh Jackman — but Smith has been talking to Jake Gyllenhaal, who was briefly
considered to replace Tobey Maguire in Spider-Man 2 when Maguire and the studio were wrangling over start dates. The Green Hornet was created some 70 years
ago as a pulp-radio hero by producer George W. Trendle and writer Fran Striker (who was a man, in case you were wondering). They also created the Lone
Ranger and slyly connected the man of the West and the then modern-day hero by making the Ranger — whose real name is John Reid — Britt Reid’s great uncle.
The Green Hornet show aired from 1939 to ‘52, and the character made the transition to comic books in 1940 under the now forgotten Helnit Publications
banner. There were two Green Hornet movie serials in the ’40s, but it’s the ’60s television show starring Van Williams as Reid and Bruce Lee as his
chauffeur and sidekick, Kato, that’s primarily responsible for whatever name recognition the characters have today.