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Smith Will Sign Store-Exclusive Variant Covers at Jay & Silent Bob’ Secret Stash in New Jersey

Jay & Silent Bob’s Secret Stash, the comic book and collectibles store owned by filmmaker Kevin Smith, will host a signing event featuring Smith in July.

At the event, Smith sill sign copies of his upcoming one-shot Archie Meets Jay & Silent Bob, as well as an upcoming Spider-Man comic in which Smith has a story, and another, mystery comic.

The announcement came to Secret Stash subscribers via email from the store’s manager, Michael Zapcic (familiar to Smith fans who watched him for years on Comic Book Men).

The Archie event will allow fans to get the three signed comics as well as a professional photo taken with Smith. Archie Meets Jay & Silent Bob is set to be released in stores on July 9th, although a store-exclusive variant cover, signed by Smith, will be available at the Stash as early as July 5th. An exact date and price for the signing event will be announced soon via email and the store’s social media accounts.

And, yes — Josie and the Pussycats will appear in the one-shot. Fun fact: Smith was one of the celebrities who spoke to me for Best Movie Ever, my book-length oral history of the 2001 Josie and the Pussycats movie.

“I first saw Josie and the Pussycats when it came out on opening weekend,” Smith told me. “It was like early April 2001. I remember this because we were in heavy post-production, almost finished, with Jay and Silent Bob Strike Back, which would come out in August. I was already on board with the subject matter, because I loved Josie and the Pussycats as a kid, and I loved that they were doing a live-action version.”

Here’s how Archie describes the comic, which you can preorder now from comic book retailers nationwide (and obviously Jay & Silent Bob’s Secret Stash): “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!!”

The filmmaker has spent the last few weeks touring the world with Dogma, his 1999 movie, which will be screened in theaters nationwide next week. The event, belatedly celebrating the movie’s 25th anniversary, will be accompanied by a new, 4K transfer and disc release.