An Introduction to Jeff Smith’s “Bone”

Bone is an American comic book series written, drawn & (usually) published by Jeff Smith, with later coloring provided by Steve Hamaker. The series has won an astounding 10 Eisner Awards and holds a unique place in the hearts of many early-age comics readers. #ComicsStudies 1/9

Smith’s artistic influences include legends of the minimalist style such as Carl Barks, Charles Schulz, Walt Kelly and George Herriman, along with forays into the complex high fantasy styles of Moebius, Bilal and Jodorowsky. 2/9

On the industry side, Smith’s inspiration toward independent publishing, meanwhile, has been attributed to Ben Edlund’s “The Tick” series as well as other notable alternative comics projects such as Love and Rockets. 3/9

Where many/most of those indie publishers found modest success in their respective enterprises, comics scholar Jennifer Hughes refers to Bone as “The most successful example of the 1990s’ comics artists’ self-publishing movement.” 4/9

In many ways, Bone was/is a lifelong project for Jeff Smith, who began drawing the Bone characters when he was about 10 years old before he began drawing the comic strip “Thorn” for the Ohio State Newspaper in 1982. 5/9

In 1991, Smith entered the publishing business by creating the Cartoon Books publishing house (with Vijaya Iyer) where he began to produce Bone as an independent, black and white comic periodical. In 1995, the first Bone trade paperback was published. 6/9

After surviving for over a decade as a leading example of a successful indie comic, with notable support from libraries, Scholastic began publishing colour reprints of the Bone series in 2005, which quickly became a mainstay of the wildly popular Scholastic Book Fair. 7/9

Unfortunately, 3 separate animated adaptations of Bone have failed to launch, the most recent being a planned series at Netflix. In response, Smith memorialized his frustration with an off-hand Bone comic in the style of a famous Charles Schulz bit from Peanuts. 8/9

Nonetheless, as a work of indie comics, a work of children’s or YA comics, and as a work of long-form comics fantasy, Bone holds a unique place in comics history, one that merits a deep dive into this deceptively powerful comics narrative. 9/9