Jeff Smith will
be producing new Bone stories, Bone Tall
Tales, which Scholastic will bring out next summer according to a press
release from the publishing house. Then that
fall, Scholastic will begin publication of the highly anticipated
expansion of the Bone World, the Quest
for the Spark trilogy. Written by Tom
Sniegoski (under Smith’s supervision) and illustrated by Smith, the trilogy
represents the first time Smith has continued the adventures set in the
“valley” since the publication of Rose,
the prequel to the Bone series, which Scholastic is releasing under its Graphix
imprint next month. Book Two of the new series will be out in the spring
of 2011; Book Three, in summer that
year. Scholastic reports that it has shipped 4.5 million copies of the Bone
graphic novels since its Graphix imprint published the first in the series in
2005.
Those
attending last summer’s San Diego Comic Con could see a screening of a
feature-length documentary about Smith’s life and work. From the press release
about the film: “The Cartoonist: Jeff Smith, Bone and the Changing Face of
Comics” tells the inspiring story of Jeff Smith’s creation of the epic comic
book, Bone, hailed by critics as one
of the greatest graphic novels of all time. The film follows Smith from his
beginnings as a budding five-year-old artist drawing on his livingroom floor
through his difficult start-up as a self-published cartoonist and 
the 13-year
journey to complete the book that he describes as “Bugs Bunny meets the Lord of
the Rings.” In addition to discussing Jeff’s early years, influences and
philosophies, the film provides a rare inside look at both the art and the
business of comics, a field that has gained new respect as a “gateway to
literacy” for youngsters and adults who are “reluctant readers.” Other
cartoonists — Scott McCloud, Colleen
Doran, Paul Pope, Terry Moore and Harvey
Pekar, as well as friends, associates, experts and Jeff himself — share their
stories of the worldwide Bone phenomenon that began in small comics shops and
is now found in bookstores, schools, libraries and the homes of millions of
adults and children in 25 countries. The video is now available throughout the
media-saturated void.
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