Director Keeps Fans at Less Than Arm’s Length

More than 2,000 people are waiting outside the speaking hall here, but the 700 inside aren’t budging.

Many of the fans at the Wizard World comic-book convention have sat through three panel discussions in the same room for a chance to see Kevin Smith--writer-director of “Chasing Amy,” “Dogma” and the new “Jay and Silent Bob Strike Back,” and writer of comics such as Daredevil and Green Arrow--and they aren’t about to give up their spots.

“He’s a typical guy, but he’s got this hard-core, dedicated following,” says Wizard Con organizer Jim McLauchlin.

Comic-book conventions, in large part, are about communing with fantasies--getting closer to the people behind Spider-Man, Batman and other superfolk.

Smith--wearing jeans shorts and a faded gray sweatshirt--is a flesh-and-blood superhero to them: He makes movies, he writes comic books, he got married and had a daughter whom he and his wife named after a Batman character (Harley Quinn Smith, age 2).

But as Smith’s cult status rises and his life changes, it has become hard for him to connect with fans.

After his panel discussion is over, Smith begins to walk the floor, where he is mobbed by admirers and seems obsessively compelled to please everyone. He poses for pictures, signs endless autographs, and videotapes intros to people’s Web sites--almost anything he is asked.

“The artist throws art out to an audience to communicate--you’re throwing a message out there to see if anyone understands, listens, agrees,” Smith says. “You do it essentially, I believe on one level, to ensure that you are not alone in the world. And to have so many people say, ‘I get it’--there is no downside to that whatsoever.”

Smith, an ardent comic book fan, rose to fame with his low-budget 1994 movie “Clerks.” He financed the $27,575 effort by selling his prized comic collection and maxing out his credit cards. Today, Smith owns his own comic-book store in his native Red Bank, N.J., but he still goes to conventions, only on the other side of the stage.

“He’s one of us,” says Chris Joslin, 23, of Bloomington, a fan waiting in line outside to see Smith. “He worked in a convenience store, then made movies, but he still connects with his fans.”

During his two-hour panel, Smith regales the crowd with behind-the-scenes movie anecdotes and elicits laughter with off-color jokes. Among the questions he responds to: “I invited you to my bar mitzvah, why didn’t you come?” “Do you have a stalker? If not, I have a lot of free time.”

Later, in a quiet moment, Smith reflects on the latter question. “I’ll never have a stalker. A stalker is cultivated out of somebody not being available and they want to get close,” Smith says. “You can find me on the Net, you can go down to the comic book store--sometimes I’m there--I’m at comic-book shows all the time. I am way available, I’m always around.”

On his Web site, https://www.viewaskew.com, Smith spends hours daily reading fan feedback, posting news and writing about his passions: family, film and comics. He receives an average of 200 e-mails daily, most of which Smith says he feels obligated to reply to.

Smith’s wife, Jennifer Schwalbach, says she was unprepared for the intensity of her husband’s cult following when she married him two years ago. She has adjusted, having come to an understanding about her husband’s relationship with his audience. “He’s just a normal guy. He hasn’t changed since he worked at the Quick Stop.”

But at age 31, Smith has changed. True, he still loves comic books, still has the sense of humor and ear for dialogue. But it has been almost a decade since Smith worked at the convenience store, and his life experience no longer reflects that of his audience. He’s one of them, yet he’s not--a fact that Smith is coming to terms with.

“The trick is to never let that, the real life, intrude too far on what they perceive you to be,” he says.

On his plate next is an animated movie, a sequel to “Clerks” called “Clerks Sell Out,” followed by a “Fletch” movie that rejuvenates the comic detective franchise with actor Jason Lee, and a more personal film about fatherhood starring Smith alum Ben Affleck.

Whether his fans will move with him as he abandons a cast of characters they love weighs on the director’s mind. “Sure, but I hope they grow along with us. Not to say that we’re children and we need to grow up, but because we’ve done stuff that’s had weight to it,” Smith says.

“‘Chasing Amy’ and ‘Dogma’ were serious films. I think they’ll come with us.”

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Robert K. Elder is a reporter for the Chicago Tribune, a Tribune company.