Return with us, dear friends, to the mean streets of Leonardo, New Jersey. Watch your step and don’t try to use the restroom after 5:14 p.m. Your Major Spoilers review of Quick Stops #1 from Dark Horse Comics awaits!
QUICK STOPS #1
Writer: Kevin Smith
Artist: Jeremy Simser
Colorist: Jeremy Simser
Letterer: Andrew Thomas
Editor: Spencer Cushing
Publisher: Dark Horse Comics
Cover Price: $3.99
Release Date: November 2, 2022
Previously in Quick Stops: Where do writers get their ideas? Chronic-Con guest of honor Holden McNeil is ready to tell Alyssa Jones and a packed podcast audience the story of his meeting with loiterers Jay and Silent Bob in the Quick Stop cooler, and how it directly led to the birth of his Bluntman and Chronic comic books!
SNOOCHIE BOOCHIES!
In the middle of the 10th Annual Chronic-Con (a convention for the fans of the Bluntman and Chronic movie, which has apparently become a phenomenon for being terrible, something like The Room), Holden McNeil is being interviewed about the origins of the characters. The story is cute enough, the kind of anecdote that may or may not be true, explaining not only how the superheroes were created but how Jay got a Quick Stop smock and also what has happened with Alyssa in the years since Chasing Amy. The in-jokes come fast and furious, including a strange extended riff on Batman: The Dark Knight Returns that I found mostly annoying, The end of the story leaves off where Holden’s appearance in 2019’s Jay and Silent Bob Reboot picks up, also giving us a peek into the life of forty-something Holden and Alyssa.
GRANDMAAA, WHAT WAS IT LIIIIIIIKE?
Here’s the thing you need to know about this comic: I am one of the most devoted View Askewniverse fans ever, currently on my umpteenth watching of the entire Jersey oeuvre, and there are moments that were so obscure that I had to do research for some of the gags herein. Many of the bits in the issue are entertaining, but a great many end up being little more than references to Smith’s previous work. Simser’s art is enjoyable throughout, especially the crowd shots of Chronic-Con, but the fact that we get photo-realistic Jay and Bob but a barely recognizable Alyssa kind of bothers me. In many places, it reminds me of Charlie Adlard’s work in the first fifty issues of The Walking Dead, though, and that works to the story’s advantage.
BOTTOM LINE: LIKABLE ENOUGH, BUT AN ACQUIRED TASTE
In the long run, Quick Stops #1 is a book for the super-fans, with a story that feels remarkably like listening to Kevin giving one of his live performances and black-and-white art (because Clerks, or so they would have us believe) that gets its point across as long as you’re not hung up on likenesses, earning 3 out of 5 stars overall. With the next issue promising to finally connect the Cousin Walter stories of Brodie Bruce and Randal Graves, I’ll be back next time and recommend it to anyone who loves Smith’s independent films.
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QUICK STOPS #1
More than most comics, this one has a high bar for entry comprehension, but it turns out to be a silly, fun little tale that answers obscure questions that nobody ever asked and ends in the middle of 'Jay and Silent Bob Reboot.' I like it, but it's clearly not for everyone.
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Writing6
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Art6
