Kevin Smith Presents: Archie Meets Jay & Silent Bob
- Archie Comics
- Written by Kevin Smith
- Pencils by Fernando Ruiz
- Inks by Rich Koslowski
- Colors by Matt Herms
- Letters by Jack Morelli
- Archie Comics
- In Stores 07/09/2025
Co-starring:
- Randal (Jeff Anderson)
- Elias (Trevor Fehrman)
- Dante (Brian O’Halloran)
- Emma (Jennifer Schwalbach Smith)
- Jay (Jason Mewes)
- Silent Bob (Kevin Smith)
- Milly (Harley Quinn Smith)
- Blockchain (Austin Zajur)
SNOOCHIE BOOCHIES, ARCHIE FANS!! Yes, you read that right—acclaimed writer, director, actor, producer, and podcaster Kevin Smith takes the teens you know and love from Riverdale on the wildest ride of their lives. What’s supposed to be a summer job at Quick Stop for Archie Andrews turns into so much more; from a budding friendship with co-worker Randal Graves, crashing a Pussycats concert, a potential new love interest, Jay and Silent Bob being, well, Jay and Silent Bob, and a musical number that will be burned into your brain forever. Plus, could Jay and Silent Bob even help Archie to finally choose between Betty and Veronica? SNOOGANS!! Featuring legendary Archie artists Fernando Ruiz and inker Rich Koslowksi, this is a DOUBLE-SIZED, CAN’T-MISS event FOR MATURE AUDIENCES unlike anything we’ve ever done before!
Oh, Archie… what did you do to deserve this abuse?
Hang on, I’m not dissing the comic, I’m just wondering how the hell any of this got past Archie’s agent. If anyone out there has ever seen a Kevin Smith movie, one featuring the titular Jay & Silent Bob, no less, you’re gonna know right from the jump that Riverdale’s favorite son is out of his element when he gets a job as a clerk at a certain New Jersey convenience store.
How did I like the comic itself? Well… that’s a bigger question. Let’s start by pointing out that Kevin Smith is always going to have his critics. Hell, not everything he does lands with me & I think of myself as a fan. For the diehard Archie fans, who may not be so on board with Jay & Silent Bob, this book is 100% Kevin Smith for better or for worse. But like pretty much anything else he’s done, he is all in on this comic from Archie’s wide-eyed golly gee innocence to Randal’s rude, crude cynicism.
If you’re wondering what kind of story Smith is telling, it’s exactly the off-kilter mix of wholesome, foul-mouthed debauchery his fans would expect. Despite the change of venue, the View Askew characters are represented and true to themselves… even Jay, who I have to say can get on my nerves in large doses. The story itself is laced with ideas of outsiders finding a place to belong, and family being more than the crazy, random happenstance of genetics. And dick jokes. There’s gotta be dick jokes.
Backing the script and brining this bizarre crossover to life on the page is the artistic team of Fernando Ruiz (illustration), Rich Koslowski (inks), & Matt Herms (colors). The team preserves the look of Archie Comics, and Ruiz, a graduate of and instructor at the Kubert School, is no stranger to Archie Comics, having worked on their run of horror crossovers. His work is followed up by Koslowski’s inks, solidifying lines and locking it all down, with colors by Herms to give it depth and that traditional bright & sunny feel. This team is firing on all cylinders, bringing Smith’s View Askew characters into the Archieverse with nary a seam to be found.
With all comics, the final element gets overlooked the most. Jack Morelli lays out the script, his lettering carrying a reader’s eye across the panels without interrupting the artwork. He his talent by not standing out or drawing attention. When I look at lettering in a comic, I think of something the late and great Jack Kirby put out there (and I wish I had the exact quote): a good letterer has done their job if they can fade into the background and a reader can forget that they’re reading.
It feels like Smith is at a point where he’s taking on projects that interest and entertain him, and more power to him. He’s often said that he’s never going to reach the notoriety, as a filmmaker or comic writer, of a Scorsese, but he works with what he loves, and it shows. I’d also argue that, in his wheelhouse, Kevin Smith is every bit the equal of anyone in the Hollywood pantheon.
Archie Meets Jay & Silent Bob is a bizarre mix of genres and expectations. Fans of Kevin Smith may go in with some idea of what to expect, and they won’t all be right, and fans of Archie Comics will possibly be a little freaked out. I read it. I liked it. I ordered my own copies of it. What can I say? I’m occasionally an easy mark, and having read comics over the last forty years or so, in all genres from publishers big and small, I do enjoy the odd surprise.
Final Score: 10/13
