• Talk about a great way to wind up the week! After spending a good 3 or so hours with the upcoming Mallrats: Collector’s Edition DVD this evening (arriving in stores July 20th), I’ve written an extensive review for ya, while Chris took time to grab some exclusive shots from the disc itself, including what the live video commentary feature looks like, as well as 3 of the DVD’s menu screenshots. Finally, we’ve got a scan of the slick foldout that comes inside the DVD’s packaging. All the thumbnails expand to slightly larger versions for more detail. So, what are you waiting for? Head on over to the DVD Reviews page and read all about Mallrats:CE!

• Woodstock ’99 will be setting up a tent on site showing some great flicks, one of the honored being “Clerks”. The cool thing’s gonna be that ALL the films are supposed to be digitally projected:

• A very quiet day, which means either we did too well of a job covering the news yesterday, or there’s just not a whole helluva lot going on. Dogma: RC‘s been caught up, and our DareDevil page has all the latest dirt from issue 7…We picked it up hot off the shelves TODAY! Check out the really cool animated graphic on our DVD Reviews page, too – Chris’s concept of taking direct DVD menu grabs is great, and it’s worth a look for sure. Oh, by the way, we’ve got a pretty cool announcement on the way soon that may give you the chance to own a pretty nifty piece of View Askew history — But that’s all we’re gonna say until everything’s finalized. Gives you something to look forward to on a slow news day like this. Just a few bits to clear up, in the meantime…

• Most of you have probably seen the Jay & Silent Bob mention yet again in the latest issue of DareDevil, but did you know that the influence is STILL spreading into other books?

In the latest issue of Simpsons Comics (#43) the back-of-issue short (featuring Poochie! — remember that episode?), the staff of Roger Meyers Jr. Productions try to find Poochie another project after his quick exit from the Itchy & Scratchy Show. All the ideas are rip-offs of other shows. There is an A-team show, an Astro-boy show and for one panel, a Clerks send up. Its called “Poochie Boochies!” and features Poochie dressed up like Jay and Silent Bob (complete with bong and stash). The note above the picture reads, “Howzabout a street-wise, neo-realist approach? Clerk-frickin-tastic!!!”

Also, the latest Preacher is out, too. In this issue, Freddy Allen, a sexual investigator, mentions getting “down on my knees like a fucking circus seal,” sounding an awful lot like Jay in “Clerks”. A nice tip of the hat to Kevin since he provided a quote for the first Preacher TPB (Gone To Texas) and wrote the introduction to the second (Until the End of the World).

• Chasing Amy is playing at the Aggie Theater in Fort Collins, Colorado on Tuesday, July 20th, at 10:00 PM. It’s a 21 and over show, and they serve ALCOHOL, which should certainly mean for a fun time. Hey, bring our Amy Drinking Game Ruleswith ya and REALLY make it fun!

• Thanks, everyone for the very warm welcome back! The mailbox was full of some very kind words when I woke up this morning, always a nice sight to stumble out of bed to. Who would have known that we were missed so much and had so many devoted fans! Again, happy to be back online — Just a quick note, too: Tonight, on Access Hollywood, some clips from the Mallrats missing scenes will be aired. They’re using Ben Affleck’s name on them, so we assume they are indeed Ben clips from the disc — Hopefully this will give the DVD an advanced plug, too. Make a tape if you can, since, for some strange reason, we seem to be the only part of the world that doesn’t get this show on a nightly basis. Thanks to Zee, Megan & Poolboy.

Silent Bob Prototype

Jay Prototype #1

Jay Prototype #2

Window Display #1

Window Display #2

• Jim Mahfood’s got a great site where he periodically ads pics of stuff that he’s been working on. You’ll find the prototype sketches we mentioned here a while back for the Clerks figures, but also, some sketches of the NEW Jay & Silent Bob Clerks line of figures. Wait until you see all the funny stuff these guys are gonna come with! There’s also some brand new window displays for the Jay & Silent Bob series. Definitely worth a look. The guy’s doing some very nice work, that’s for sure. Surf to Jim’s page or click the thumbs above for more detail.

• Here’s a summary of what happened on Access Hollywood tonight:

• Dogma’s getting some mention along with Chris Rock in the latest TV Guide, where he appears on the cover:

• Speaking of Dogma, Salma Hayek said something that we really dug regarding the Catholic League’s attack on Dogma:

Well said, indeed. Thanks to Another Universe for the clip.

• Internet rumors are flying today saying that Ben Affleck, along with action star/Bond girl Michelle Yeoh havesigned for Die Hard 4. We’ve been hearing Affleck attached to this picture since he and Willis got along so wellduring “Armageddon”, so at this point it’s uncertain whether this is for real or just the re-awakening of all thespeculation. It IS the first time we’ve heard Yeoh’s name associated with the project, though. And we hear Willismay see a payday of up to $40 million. Wow.
• Are you a fan of the great work that Oni Press is doing with Kev’s books, among other things? Well, then, why not check out the Oni Press Club online!
• A wacky website called Achiew is holding a poll (parody of sorts) with a long list of namechoices for the next Star Wars flick. Maybe you wanna stop over and give “Maulrats” a nod.

• Okay, answer us this: Why order your View Askew DVDs from anywhere else? The Stash is NOW offering both Clerks and Mallrats (preordered, of course), signed by Kevin himself! Don’t miss out on this chance to own these 2 films, not only in their highest available quality format, but signed by the guy who made it all possible:

• The new issue of CREATIVE SCREENWRITING (the one with Stanley Kubrick on the cover) has an interview with Brian Lynch on pages 10-11. It’s mostly based around “The Next Muppet Movie,” although “Big Helium Dog” and “A Better Place” are mentionedas well. Congrats to Brian on his growing success. We don’t have a transcript, but if anyone does and wants to send ‘er in, we’re all ears.
• ‘Clerks’ was placed at number 75 in an English newspaper list of the ‘Top 100 Cult Movies of All Time’ list. This newspaper was ‘The Times’, which is an extremely serious, and somewhat conservative, national newspaper. Therefore, for ‘Clerks’ to be even included, even heard of, is an honor. They called it raw talent, even genius. The winners were flickssuch as ‘A Clockwork Orange’ and ‘Star Wars’ (placed at 1 and 2 respectively).
• Some more national press for Kev & Jen’s new bundle of joy, from this past week’s Entertainment Weekly:

Okay, that’s not much — So what’d we miss??? Let us know!

• Hi! Miss us? We missed you.

Where the hell were we, you ask? Well, it’s a complicated answer. Plans to switch servers were supposed to take place well in advanced notice, so we could actually give you warning as to when that was going to take place. Unfortunately, it became a rush job, since one contract was running up and we wanted to get the new one started ASAP. Long story short, the holiday weekend screwed us, and we ended up with no website. Period. Our files were cleaned off the server in assumption they were going to be transported, but to no avail. Add in the fact that we were both in and out all weekend with family stuff, plus some other personal issues going on to further complicate things, and it spells disaster for a website.

In addition to the SERVER change, we were also anticipating an internet provider change, which would have meant our e-mail would have been out of service for a day…Which is why we didn’t want a ton of mail coming in. It may have been lost!

As the dust settles, where are we? The same place we started. We decided rather than experience ANY more downtime, that all the files would be restored to the old server until we can contact someone from the new place and straighten things out. We’ll give fair warning next time though, and should experience little, if ANY, downtime. With that said, though, everything SHOULD be back to normal (but let us know if you find a problem), and let those e-mails fly in!

We felt as bad about the downtime and not explaining as you probably did finding the boring white page that stood here, and will do our best to keep you better informed if anything major like that happens again. Hope you all had a very enjoyable holiday weekend here in the States.

Alright, we’ve got some catching up to do, that’s for sure!