• Due to being away for the holidays, we’re a bit late on this, but better late than never — And hey, who doesn’t like to get a few presents AFTER Christmas? First off, you got probably the most infamous piece of animation that you’ve heard about, that Powerhouse animation footage done for the Clerks cartoon movie. Great stuff (not to mention the fact that it’s being more widely seen bodes well for the cartoon movie. THEN, you’ve got something totally out of left field, the HOSTIES animation realized! This little gem was meant to appear in Dogma and never got finished, now you can finally see the commercial as it was meant to be seen. Here’s Ming with the full report:

• Diamond Distributors has confirmed that the next wave in Clerks Inaction Figures, “Dogma”, is on track for an April 2004 ship date. This pack looks to be the coolest and most anticipated yet, with newly colorful versions of Jay & Bob, Loki & Bartelby, and of course, that massive Golgothan. This is a MUST-HAVE pack (but then again, aren’t they all)?

The In-animating of the View Askewniverse gets a little of that old time religion with the new Clerks InAction Figures Series 3: Dogma! View Askew and Graphitti Designs present this latest round of fan faves from the fourth chapter in the five-movie-long New Jersey Trilogy. Based on designs by animator Stephen Silver, sculptor Jon Matthews brings these characters to life with incredible style and attitude and feature no articulation whatsoever! Bartleby spreads his wings! Loki loses his! Silent Bob goes all Tiger Woods! Jay finally gets his hands on an Uzi! And NoMan the Golgothan stinks the place up! Each 12-pack case includes: three Jay, three Silent Bob, two Bartleby, two Loki, and two Golgothan figures. Scheduled for shipping April 2004.

• According to the Arclight, there still are a FEW single seats left for the Chasing Amy screening and Q&A coming up on December 14th. So, if you’re local, you may wanna swing by their box office to see if you can snag ‘em up. It’s also a possibility that the event will move into a larger theater which would open up a ton more seats. We’ll keep you informed. So, if ya missed out, there’s still hope!
  As for the upcoming NuArt Dogma screening and Q&A, still PLENTY of tickets and seats available for that — Don’t miss this event, you’re always in for a treat when Kev does a Q&A — Who knows, with Mewes back in LA, he might even show up! Make sure you get to all of these Kevin-centric events while he’s around, when things get busy again, you may not have a chance to catch him live for a while. If you’re local, ya got no excuse! The NuArt screening of Dogma, followed by a Kevin Q&A, is THIS FRIDAY, the 28th.

• Ming’s got a nice little gallery of photos up at the View Askew site that combines his work and some of figures.com to present a very detailed look at the upcoming Dogma Inaction Figures. No concrete release date is set for these, except we DO know that they won’t hit streets at least for a month or so after the Mallrats wave comes at us in October 2003. From what we’re seeing so far, the Dogma wave is our favorite yet, with some hilarious detail and memorable poses that true fans of the film can enjoy. We can’t wait to see what they’ve got in store for us next. How about a special edition Dixie-cup Brodie? Please?

• Wanna see something REALLY cool? A surprise display item at the currently-happening San Diego Comicon took us by surprise. Dogma inaction figures! Not all the figure models have yet been completed yet, but for those they’ve got cardboard cut-out models on display (don’t worry, they’re not going to be so inactive that they’re FLAT). Yes, soon we’ll all be owning Jay with Uzi, Human Loki, Bartelby with Wings, and, our personal favorite, the immense Golgothan. The cut outs include Silent Bob w/ hockey stick, Metatron, and, of course, God (because what would a set of Dogma inaction figs be without God?). A new shot of the soon to be released (this October) Mallrats action figures is also on display, which includes Renee, Willam, Brodie, Jay & Dork Knight. And don’t forget, San Diego is currently the ONLY place to get your exclusive Steve-Dave and Walt figures!

Click the shots above for a better look, and thanks to Ming and his snappy digital camera for getting us these exclusive images.

• The upcoming release of “Bruce Almighty” has many news outlets running pieces on God in film. Naturally, Dogma’s coming up in a bunch of them. This first blurb comes from an AP article that appeared on CNN and Yahoo today (the CNN version also features a photo of Alanis with a Dogma-related caption):

Also see the Christian Science Monitor for a small mention. Most other sites are just picking up the same AP article we ran the text from above.

• Jeffrey Wells has yet again given his two cents on another piece of View Askew history – This time, the lost Dogma SE documentary, “Judge Not: In Defense Of Dogma”. Kevin slipped him a copy of the doc, which he reveals will appear in ONLINE form sometime in late June (probably right around the time the SE DVD is released), so if you’re reading this, it’s likely you’ll be able to see it. Isn’t it strange that a piece that could not be released on a DVD can so easily show up on the Internet without a problem? Weird. Anyway, again Wells gives his honest opinion, citing things he liked and didn’t like in the piece, which you can read just ahead (courtesy of Reel.Com:

You can read the column (and see a lovely pic of Bill Donohue) HERE.

• The Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers of America have nominated Dogma for a Nebula Award. Kevin’s script goes up against “South Park:Bigger, Longer, and Uncut”, “The Green Mile”, “Galaxy Quest”, “Being John Malkovich”, and “Princess Mononoke”.He is only on the preliminary ballot, however the final ballot will be released in March 2001 and the winner will be announced at the 2001 Nebula Awards Weekend in Los Angeles on April 27-29, 2001. You can get details on these awards at the SFWA’s website HERE.

• Due to the overwhelming amount of e-mail and requests for an update on the Dogma: Special Edition DVD, we felt we’d better do an update about it even though there’s really no new news, just in the hopes that the mails will stop! Although chains like Amazon and Best Buy are all reporting a release date of April 10, this is all just speculation as there still has been no official resolution to the problems and there is NO set release date. As soon as an official announcement is made, we will have it, rest assured. We want the disc as bad as all of you, and are sad that it’s still not on the shelves. We’ve got a lot of contacts that are involved with the disc though, and are doing our best to keep in touch with them and bring any updates we can. It’s just that lately, there hasn’t been much to say.

Another popular e-mail subject of late is Shannen Doherty‘s involvement in Jay & Silent Bob Strike Back, due to her name being listed on the Internet Movie Database in conjunction with the film. As far as we know, unless this was meant to be some big surprise, Kevin has not admitted to Doherty’s involvement, and, given their past relationship during Mallrats and her current TV schedule, we highly doubt it. Still, with a film full of cameos, anything is possible. If we hear that she is officially on board, we’ll report it, otherwise, chalk it up as IMDB’s error.

• Well, one of the two anyway….Sadly, we’re still unable to report anything on the Dogma Special Edition DVD. We’re waiting for any info but they’re keeping it quiet for the time being. Basically, we’re still assuming there’s some content issues (similar to those issues a while back that they’d found a way around) and that the studio is working with those involved with the disc to come up with a solution. While this again seems rough, it’s a good sign. Whatever the problem is, the delay means that they’re trying to get the best product out there to the fans, rather than just settling for something inferior.

Speaking of which, the A Better Place DVD could have been done a while ago too, if Vincent hadn’t insisted on making this thing PERFECT. And while we know a lot of you have orders in all over the place, the good news from Vincent himself is that the final blocks are being put into place. Here’s Vincent:

There ya go, folks. Stay tuned for more big DVD news here soon. Clerks Uncensored is still on track and we expect to see the two mentioned in the headline in the next couple of months. Keep those spots on your DVD shelves open.