Warren Ellis, the creator of The Authority and upcoming writer on The Batman’s Grave, recently shared a story on his blog about the immense kindness Kevin Smith showed towards a terminally ill fan.
This guy emails me and says, my best friend’s in the hospital and it doesn’t look like he’s going to come out again. And he loves all Kevin Smith’s stuff. He works in comics like you, and you guys all know each other, so is there a way to, I dunno, get a letter from Kevin Smith for my friend, or a phone call, or a signed something, I dunno?
I don’t know Kevin Smith. I did meet Joe Quesada about five years previous, and I don’t know him as such at that point, and I don’t have a relationship with him, but I do have an email address for him, and I know he knows Kevin Smith. So I send the email to Joe and say, I know we don’t really know each other, but would you be okay with forwarding this to Kevin Smith?
By now, anyone can recognize that for this fan’s wish to come true the stars must align in more ways than one. Fortunately, by the nature of this news, we know it’s a happy ending.
Joe, who had no reason to read any email from me, saw the email and with huge kindness forwarded the email to Kevin Smith. Kevin Smith has no reason to read an email with my name on it either.
And here is where it gets good.
Kevin Smith stands up, makes some calls, gets on a plane, flies all the way across America and goes to the hospital and spends an entire day with the guy’s best friend.
Warren Ellis says it best about Smith – “he stands the fuck up.” He is without a doubt one of the purest people in the world of entertainment. Here is a filmmaker who upon learning his film financier/distributor Harvey Weinstein was accused of sexually assaulting a countless number of women, pledged to donate all residuals from his Weinstein-produced films to the non-profit organization Women in Film and Television International. And when those residuals were much lower than expected, he pledged an additional $2,000 a month.
I still don’t know Kevin Smith, and have never spoken to him, but here’s what I know about Kevin Smith. He stands the fuck up.
It’s been years since I’ve watched a Jay and Silent Bob film, but I’ll definitely be seeing Jay and Silent Bob Reboot when it is released in theaters October 15 this year. For someone as admirable as Silent Bob (played by Smith for the uninitiated), it’s the least I can do to show my support for him.
