Comic Con International is going all in on San Diego again this year after a two-year hiatus, and Hall H staple Kevin Smith will be there, too. The filmmaker told fans on his Fatman Beyond podcast that he intends to set up shop at the Tin Roof Inn this year, broadcasting his podcasts and hosting special events in the Gaslamp District of San Diego by night and selling burgers and fries under the Mooby’s brand — the fictional fast-food chain created for his 1999 movie Dogma — by day. He did not have any specific events set up, but a pretty clear idea of what it will look like.
Comic Con was cancelled in 2020 as a result of the Covid-19 pandemic, but the nonprofit behind the annual fan event held an online event instead. In 2021, they did the same, and then had a smaller celebration of comics culture in the fall, ostensibly to get a sense for how SDCC 2022 would play out.
Videos by ComicBook.com
“I can’t wait. We’re taking over the Tin Roof Inn, turning it into a Mooby’s, and that’s going to be our hub for the whole week,” Smith revealed. “So during the day, Mooby’s will be open. We’ll be doing some streaming things; I believe we’re going to be doing Fatman Beyond live every day, like a kind of “this is what happened at the con today”…and then at night, we’ll be doing the shows in the space because we have the space for 150, 200 seat audience. Normally we do shows when we’re down there…we’ll do them there at the space, so people can eat Mooby’s, get their drink on, watch the show. It’s going to be a good time.”
You can see the podcast video below.
Smith is a Comic Con fixture at this point, and has spent the last few installments “headquartered” out of the IMDb yacht, where he would do interviews for the Amazon-backed website. One such interview, featuring one of Smith’s last exchanges with comics legend Stan Lee, was included in the closing credits of his film Jay & Silent Bob Reboot.
At this point, it seems likely his usual Hall H slot will still be held open for him, although if he decides instead to do something live from the Tin Roof Inn, that would be a huge shift for both Smith and the convention as a whole.
