It's no secret that Kevin Smith is a huge
comic book fan. All his movies have several references to comic books, most notably in
Mallrats and
Chasing Amy. One of the two main characters in
Mallrats,
Brodie (played by Jason Lee), is a comic book fan too, and Chasing Amy is about
Banky Edwards and
Holden McNeil (played by
Jason Lee and
Ben Affleck), two guys who publish their own comic,
Bluntman & Chronic.
What most people who only saw the movies don't know is that Kevin also wrote several comics. He wrote three Clerks stories, which continue the adventures of Dante and Randall, the stars from Smith's movie Clerks. Then there is his four issue Jay & Silent Bob miniseries, pencilled by Duncan Fegredo, which fills the gap on what happens with Jay and Silent Bob between Smith's movies Chasing Amy and Dogma. All the comics that are related to his movies were published by Oni Press, but will be reprinted by Image Comics when Smith's new movie comes out.
Kevin has also worked for other publishers. When Marvel Comics' imprint Marvel Knights was launched by Joe Quesada, Kevin wrote the first storyline of the relaunched Daredevil comic. The eight-issue Guardian Devil storyline was pencilled by Quesada, with inks by Marvel Knight co-editor Jimmy Palmiotti, who both had been friends with Smith for years, and could also be seen in Chasing Amy.
Smith's latest comic work is for DC Comics, writing the upcoming Green Arrow series, with pencils by Phil Hester. The first issue is scheduled to be published at the end of February 2001.
Kevin also has his own comic shop, the afore mentioned Jay And Silent Bob's Secret Stash in Red Bank, New Jersey. He wrote a column, Developing The Monkey, every Friday for the now defunct Psyomic.com, a website about comics. And to top it off, he even named his little girl after a comic character, Harley Quinn, from the Batman cartoon.