Chasing Dogma, originally published as four seperate comics is set in Smith's View Askewniverse and follows the adventures of Jay and Silent Bob between shortly after the end of Mallrats and their first scene in Dogma.

Warning - Spoilers!

Chapter One

'Trish The Dish' (Tricia Jones from Mallrats) gets a call from Holden McNeil asking to speak to Jay and Silent Bob, who are staying with her. In the course of this conversation it's shown for the first time that Tricia is Alyssa Jones' sister, and that the setting of the book starts in the last third of Chasing Amy. Tricia wakes Jay and Bob up, and Jay speaks to Holden, but then due to a misunderstanding involving Tricia in the shower, they get kicked out of her house, and proceed to get thrown out of the Mall and the QuickStop.

While sitting on the swings where Holden and Alyssa sat in Chasing Amy, bemoaning fate generally, Jay gets the idea from Bob's video collection of John Hughes films of going to Shermer, Illinois. After going to meet Holden (the scene from Chasing Amy, though this isn't shown in the comic, it cutting to half an hour later) they get on the bus.

Chapter Two

Jay and Bob get thrown off the bus for smoking dope in the toilets, although the people on the bus actually think they're having sex (prompting perhaps Jay's funniest ever rant, and most flagrant accidental confession of homosexuality) and, after being told 'fuck off, scumbag' by Mister Rogers meet Serena, a porn star.

The lady in question invites the two of them along to the set of her latest film, Doogie Nights, directed by and starring Neil Patrick Harris of Doogie Howser fame. While Bob has sex with Serena in the toilet, Jay gets employed as a fluffer, before deciding to quit the film business.

Meanwhile, Suzanne, an orang-utan, escapes from a train crash, while being transported between labs...

Chapter Three

This entire chapter is repeated almost exactly in Jay And Silent Bob Strike Back, although many of the funniest lines in the comic are cut for the film. Jay and Bob find Suzanne, and rescue her from a wildlife marshall (who, in the comic but not in the film, bears an uncanny resemblance to Tommy Lee Jones). Everything in the film happens in the comic up to the point where in the film Suzanne is recaptured. In the comic they take her to a renegade researcher who is going to take her to be set free in the wild, and who gives Jay and Bob bus tickets to Chicago in return (although Jay would prefer a blowjob).

Chapter Four

After an apology for the late arrival of the comic, Jay and Bob are in Chicago, trying to get to Shermer. A mix-up with a taxi driver means they end up not in the fictional town of Shermer, but in MacHenry. A fracas with local dealers means they need to steal some new clothes. They then go to see 80s metal band Forked Tongue, and Jay buys a T-shirt from them which he wears throughout Dogma.

After this they go to the abortion clinic to pick up 'loose women' and Bob, seeing the three demons from Dogma, goes off to investigate, and the story is picked up in Dogma...

This comic is actually some of Smith's best work, and J&SBSB would have been a far better film if he had simply turned this directly into a film rather than just reusing a major subplot. The dialogue is among his funniest, and the Planet Of The Apes section (as reused in J&SBSB) manages, unlike the film version, accurately to predict the ending to Tim Burton's remake. Highly recommended.