Kevin Smith Teams With Garbage Pail Kids for View Askew-Themed Cards
Indie filmmaker Kevin Smith is teaming up with Topps to launch a new line of Garbage Pail Kids cards themed around characters from the View Askewniverse -- the interconnected world featured in Smith's movies like Clerks, Chasing Amy, and Dogma. View Askew is the name of Smith's production company, which debuted when he made Clerks for around $30,000. The movie managed to get distribution through Miramax and premiered in 1994, making Smith an instant star in the '90s indie film space. A couple of minor supporting characters in the film -- Jay and Silent Bob, played by Jason Mewes and Smith himself, respectively -- would go on to appear in his next four films.
There will be some deep cuts in this collection -- which is currently available on the Topps website and retails for $50. That's evidenced by a post from actor Scott Schiaffo, who played the Chewlee's Gum Representative in Clerks, and who showed off the card for "Chew Lee" on Instagram.
You can check that one out below.
These are definitely R-rated, just so it's been said. The movies are, of course, but beyond that, you get some Easter eggs and inside jokes in the cards that are clearly meant for people who have watched the movies often enough to get them. Examples seen on the site include "Apprehended Alyssa," featuring the romantic lead of Chasing Amy trapped in a giant "finger trap" puzzle; and "Rental Randal" with a copy of Happy Scrappy Hero Pup on VHS -- that's a kids' movie that was name-dropped in the middle of a lengthy list of adult titles with creatively vile titles in the first Clerks.
Besides Clerks and its two sequels, the set is likely to feature characters and concepts from Mallrats, Chasing Amy, Dogma, Jay & Silent Bob Strike Back, and Jay & Silent Bob Reboot. Maybe the Clerks cartoon if they get really creative, but they can almost certainly fill a whole set with just the main live-action movies. While movies like Jersey Girl and Tusk are technically View Askew movies in the sense that it's the name of the production company, they do not feature Jay and Silent Bob, and aren't part of the "View Askewniverse," so it's unlikely they'll make it in.
Expect plenty more announcements from Smith and View Askew at Comic Con International in San Diego this week. After all, it's kind of the perfect setting for Smith.
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