The Comic Book Men (left to right): Ming Chen, Bryan Johnson, Kevin Smith, Michael Zapcic, and Walt Flanagan.
By Jack Abramowitz
If Howard Stern hadn’t already laid claim to the title, Kevin Smith might rightly have taken the mantle of “King of All Media.” Renowned as a director of such films as Clerks, Mallrats, and Chasing Amy, Smith is equally acclaimed for his work in comics. Aside from his work on such established characters as Daredevil, Spider-Man, and Batman, Smith has breathed new life into The Green Hornet and The Six Million Dollar Man (under the new title at Dynamite Entertainment, The Bionic Man). Smith is also known for his podcasts, known as “SModcasts,” produced with Scott Mosier. Now, Smith is preparing to take on reality television with Comic Book Men, a new series scheduled to premiere Feb. 12 at 10 p.m. ET on AMC. The premiere follows AMC’s ratings giant The Walking Dead.
The show is set in Jay and Silent Bob’s Secret Stash, a New Jersey-based comics store owned by Smith and managed by Walt Flanagan, a comics artist perhaps better known to fans as the “Lon Chaney of the nineties” for the multiple roles he played in the film Clerks. The six-episode first season features friends of Smith — including Flanagan — who served as the inspiration for a variety of characters in Clerks, Mallrats, and subsequent films.
The six films that share a reality known as the “View Askewniverse” are replete with comic-book references; covers of CBG and other trade publications are featured in the opening credits of Chasing Amy, as is Jay and Silent Bob’s Secret Stash, albeit under the guise of Brodie’s Secret Stash. Cast members of Comic Book Men include not only Flanagan (the inspiration for Brodie in Mallrats), but also Bryan Johnson (the inspiration for Randall in Clerks), Michael Zapcic (the “super nerd”), and Ming Chen (the “whipping boy”).
The genesis of the show, Flanagan told CBG, came when “Kevin pitched the show to a producer who worked on (the 2011 film) Red State. She had a meeting with AMC and they were interested in a reality show based in a comic-book store.”
Flanagan and Zapcic examine a Chucky doll, one of the collectibles brought in to sell at Jay and Silent Bob's Secret Stash on an episode of Comic Book Men
The show is about the “goings-on, the day-to-day activities of a comic-book store clerk,” Flanagan continued. Such goings-on include “selling comics, having people come in and sell their comics, going to conventions — people who live and breathe comics.” Details of activities are shared with Smith through an ongoing podcast woven throughout the series
While the show has not yet aired, there has been some online criticism about the absence of a female comics fan among the show’s protagonists. Some feel this bias is inherent in the title and perpetuates stereotypes about comics aficionados; Smith has responded to these claims through his Twitter account. Flanagan said, “There are female customers who have been on camera so there will definitely be women on the show.”
This is not Smith’s first foray into television. In 1994, ABC aired an animated Clerks series based on Smith’s popular film franchise. The show was canceled after two episodes for a variety of reasons. (Not least among the factors contributing to the cartoon’s demise was the fact that the second episode was a clip show, the joke being that it only had one previous episode to which to flash back. ABC’s unusual decision to air the fourth episode in place of the first rendered the second episode utterly incomprehensible.) The animated Clerks series found a following on DVD and its brief life was a source of humor in the film Jay and Silent Bob Strike Back; clearly, Smith has not let the unhappy experience sour him on the possibility of working in television.
Comic Book Men also represents a departure for AMC. The only cable network ever to win the Emmy for Outstanding Drama Series for four consecutive years, AMC’s line-up includes such series as Mad Men, Breaking Bad, and the aforementioned The Walking Dead. Comic Book Men will be AMC’s first reality series.
Online activities and extra scenes are planned to appear on AMC’s website. There, visitors will be able to participate in polls and enjoy blogs, forums, and additional related content.
The Magazine
