Posted in: Comics | Tagged: clerks, clerks 3, jay and silent bob, kevin smith, Mallrats, mallrats 2
Kevin Smith Threatens To Make Clerks 3, Mallrats 2 Into Comic Books
After plans to make a third Clerks movie failed due to one of the four leads opting out, and the Mallrats sequel turned into a TV show which no one picked up, Kevin Smith recently announced that he would make a sequel to Jay and Silent Bob Strike Back instead. However, Smith hasn't given up on those other two projects completely. On a recent episode of his podcast, transcribed by ComicBook.com, Smith said that he'd probably end up releasing both as comic books, since comics don't require actors or television network approval.
"Sooner or later, I will put the scripts out there for Clerks 3," Smith said. "A comic book or something like that, so people can see it. And the same thing for Mallrats. Probably Mallrats 2, the movie script, we'll do as a comic book or something like that."
Fans of Smith's movies might be tempted to rejoice at this news, but they should beware, as, er, how can we put this delicately… Smith hasn't exactly had the best track record of follow-through with his comic books. In 2002, he launched two six issue minis at Marvel, Spider-Man/Black Cat: The Evil That Men Do and Daredevil/Bullseye: Target. The former was delayed by three years before being completed, and the latter only ever managed to see one issue published. Smith's 2010 Batman mini-series, The Widening Gyre, was meant to be 12 issues, but ended at six when it became clear Smith wouldn't be able to complete it. The remaining issues were supposed to be published in 2014 as a new mini, Batman: Bellicosity, but that never happened either.
Fool us once, shame on you. Fool us twice… well, it's not really going to matter, as the comic book industry is full of star@#$%ers who will agree site unseen to publish anything by someone from Hollywood without a second thought. So there's really nothing to worry about on that end. And also, that all being said, Dynamite has had some success lately releasing comics based on movie scripts Smith had already written, with both a Green Hornet and Bionic Man comic actually making it to shelves, presumably because the writing was already finished when Smith thought they would be films.
So, we suppose, as long as Smith hands over the completed scripts for Clerks 3 and Mallrats 2 before any comics are solicited, we would accept this course of action. But we're keeping an eye on you, Smith.