‘Jay and Silent Bob Fun’

Staff report

YOUNGSTOWN

Kevin Smith will be in town during the same time as Youngstown’s Comic Con featuring his New Jersey cohorts Jason Mewes, Ming Chen, Mike Zapcic and Bryan Johnson in July.

Smith will be in town for this year’s Youngstown State University Skeggs Lecture Series at 7 p.m. July 5 in Stambaugh Auditorium. Tickets, which are free, will be available beginning May 20.

Mewes, Chen, Zapcic and Johnson will be at Youngstown’s Comic Con on July 6-7 at the Covelli Centre, 226 E. Front St. Tickets will be $15. For information, visit youngstowncomiccon.com/.

It is the con’s 10th anniversary and third show at the Covelli Centre, said Greg Bartholomew, owner of All American Cards and Comics’ Warren and Boardman locations and Youngstown Comic Con promoter.

“We’ve been working on this lineup since February,” he said, adding he hopes Smith can make it to the con after the lecture series.

Smith is an American filmmaker, actor, comedian, comic-book writer, author and podcaster.

He is famous for the comedy film “Clerks” (1994), which he wrote, directed, co-produced and acted in as the character Silent Bob of the Jay and Silent Bob duo. Jay and Silent Bob have appeared in Smith’s follow-up films “Mallrats,” “Chasing Amy,” “Dogma,” “Jay and Silent Bob Strike Back” and “Clerks 2.”

Smith also owns Jay and Silent Bob’s Secret Stash, a comic-book store in Red Bank, N.J., that is the subject of the reality-television show “Comic Book Men” (2012-18) starring Chen, Johnson and Zapcic. Mewes played Jay, the vocal half of Jay and Silent Bob.

“It’s a great big weekend of Jay and Silent Bob fun,” Bartholomew said.