When I was in the seventh grade, in 1989, I was a huge fan of the Joker. I had been, my whole life, but that year I actually asked for a trench coat because I was so into the Joker’s look in Brian Bolland’s sketches for The Killing Joke. My trench coat was black, not purple, because that’s what the London Fog store in our mall had.
I wore it every day for years– well into high school. I used to wear it with a baseball cap, turned backward, shorts, sneakers, and usually oversized sports t-shirts or a hoodie.
I was picked at mercilessly for this fashion choice, but it became sort of a defining factor for me as a kid. People knew me as the trench coat guy.
Trench coat. Baseball cap turned backward. Usually pretty quiet. Chubby.
I was Silent Bob sans the smoking and a sidekick named Jay, in 1989.
Clerks came out in 1994, right about the time my trench coat was getting shabby. I got a new one, but it wasn’t the same.
Maybe I should get another one, now that I think of it.
It sort of blows my mind that I just realized this today. I’ve been a fan of Kevin Smith for years and years. I love the guy. I love his work. I listen to his podcasts weekly on my drive to work. And I should have noticed this, sort of like the day I asked my wife how Mike Doughty came up with such crazy lyrics and she exclaimed “you don’t get it? That’s all you do!”
But as Kevin was describing the Silent Bob halloween costume he was holding in a plastic bag, I realized that it was my go-to attire for years.
How fitting.
I was Silent Phill years before there was a Silent Bob.
No wonder I love the guy. Silent Bob is my spirit animal.