How did Kevin Smith end up as the showrunner on BBC America’s planned adaptation of Todd McFarlane’s Sam & Twitch? Well, it’s kind of a long story — but it would never have happened if not for the success of Comic Book Men.
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During a press event in support of the forthcoming seventh season premiere of Comic Book Men, Smith said that he has been able to overcome his reluctance about working in television thanks ot the success of the long-running AMC reality show and Smith’s own success on The CW’s The Flash and Supergirl.
“You know, back in the day, people would be like, ‘Do you want to do a TV show?’ And I’d be like, ‘F–k, no. We did a cartoon once, and ABC canceled it after two episodes,’” Smith said. “Then [Comic Book Men] made me a little braver, because this has been going on seven seasons.”
That changed his way of thinking about working with non-auteur projects.
“So, that made me a little more confident heading towards TV, because I come from a world where I have to do everything. Suddenly this show was the world where I do nothing, I’m this guy. I show up and I’m like, ‘Tell me what happened,’” Smith explained. “So, suddenly you learn to work with people. And once you can do that, like CW helped out a little more where I’m like, ‘Oh, I don’t have to do everything.’ In fact, it’s better if these people do it because they’re expert at it and they’ve been doing it every episode for the last two seasons. So, that allowed me to grow.”
Smith also said that, even before Comic Book Men, writing comics helped prep him for getting out of his own head and into worlds he has to share with other creators.
“I remember I told my agent, ‘I wanna write this Daredevil comic,’ and he was like, ‘Why? What do they pay?’” Smith said. “I was like, ‘That’s not the f–king point dude, it’s all about f–king writing the character.’ So, because of that I got to step out of the comfort zone, and now years later get to try something I never imagined I would have tried: taking somebody else’s thing and trying to turn it into an ongoing series with all the flavor of what I do without it being my thing at all. Like there would be no Jay and Silent Bob in it and stuff. It’ll be not that different from The X-Files. But maybe a little funnier.”
Comic Book Men season 7 premieres on October 22 on AMC.
