First cartoonist I ran into on the convention floor was Sonny Liew, one of the Flight artists, and artist of Wonderland from SLG. Sonny lives in Singapore, so running into him was a treat.

I wasn't in the hall on Preview night (my first signing was Friday morning), but it looks like RASL did very well. This might be a good year for Sci-Fi. Here is what  Publishers Weekly said:

"Two of the biggest stories of Preview Night were the announcement that Roaring Brook's First Second imprint will publish a graphic novel collection of Paul Pope's cult sci-fi series THB; and Bone creator Jeff Smith will self-publish a new series called Rasl, a stark, sci-fi series about a dimension-jumping art thief with personal problems. The series will start as a b&w periodical next year, published in an oversized edition and sold initially through comics shops before it's collected at a smaller trade book trim-size in full color. "I'm trying to mix the old comic book market with the new book market," said Smith."

A dimension-jumping art thief with personal problems. I'm going to use that!

For more RASL coverage, you can check out Heidi's blog at The Beat, read an interview I did with News-a-rama, or  ponder Tom Spurgeon's Comics Reporter list of Day One Observations - always worth reading!

On Thursday, I signed once at Cartoon Books booth (#2207) and then at Dark Horse.  

The stuffed Fone Bone finds some friends… 

For more signing & panel times, click here.  

It's that time again. And even after 15 years, I still look forward to it. We have so much material this time out: The Art of Bone; the new BONE 6: Old Man's Cave (whole sets of the hard covers so far); Shazam! Monster Society #1-4; the 13" BONE plush toy; and the limited Edition 6 page RASL preview. 

Click here for my signing and panel schedule.

Cartoon Books is booth # 2207, please stop by and see us.

Less than a week until Preview night at the San Diego Comic-Con.  We just packed up two pallets full of books and exhibit materials, then loaded them on a truck bound for the West coast. 

RASL update: The preview comic will be printed in a limited edition of 2200 copies. We are only selling them at the two remaining stops on the Bone World Tour: Next week in San Diego and then SPX in Baltimore next Sept. (100 copies are being sequestered for that event)

We have also donated some copies to the Comic Book Legal Defense Fund for their San Diego Welcome Party gift bag.

From their site: 

CBLDF's Comic-Con Welcome Party: Exclusives, Original Art & More!

Kick off the year's biggest comics show in style at the Comic Book Legal Defense Fund's Comic-Con Welcome Party on Thursday, July 26 at the Westgate Hotel in downtown San Diego. Sponsored by Image Comics, New York Comic-Con, Cartoon Books and Scholastic Grafix, the Comic-Con Welcome Party is presented by the CBLDF in association with Prism Comics. Join top artists for a night under the stars where you'll receive an amazing gift bag, witness an exclusive meeting of the Drink & Draw Social Club, and preview the Fund's amazing Comic-Con auction. The CBLDF Welcome Party starts at 7:30 PM on Thursday July 26. Admission is a $10 donation for CBLDF Members, and $20 and up for non-members.
The first 300 party guests will receive a gift bag featuring over $50 in great items.

To see pictures of all the gift bag items, go to the CBLDF's party announcement.  

For an update on the comics art auction (and to see all the art), visit the CBLDF Auction. 

The Dark Horse Art of Bone books came last week, and they are stunning. Diana Schutz is the Editor, and Cary Grazzini is the designer.

I really didn't know what to expect when we first started. Diana spent a week going through my files. Then, once back home in Portland, she and Cary really dug into the material and presented a surprisingly readable mix of finished art, behind the scenes processes, reference photos, penciled pages,and just plain big shots of covers. 

I had to be talked into some things, like stuff I did as a kid, but the choice of material was theirs, and I couldn't be more impressed or more honored that they put this much effort into it.

The page below shows the map and outline I created as the story progressed.

If you want to see some more, Dark Horse has uploaded an on-line preview (which is pretty amazing!).

This review is from the PartnersWest, Graphic Novel & Manga Program Newsletter:

"Dark Horse has just released a nice coffee table book detailing the art behind the hit graphic novel series, Bone. The Art of Bone is a great retrospective about the series and includes many panels of conception art, original drawings, sketches, and a full reproduction of one of Smith's first Bone stories, drawn in ballpoint pen when the artist was just 10 years old. Rated E for Everyone."

The Art of Bone is in stores now. 

* MSoE is complete!

My comp copies of Shazam! MSoE #4 arrived this morning! That means they will be in stores on Wednesday! To celebrate the release of the final installment of The Monster Society of Evil, Steve, Kathleen, and I made a special Monster Egg, which we've hidden in today's blog, which is all about the secret code.

In the original serialization of the Monster Society of Evil in 1942, the secret code was used to tease the reader about the title of the next chapter. In our current version, the code is used in a similar way - - to disguise the chapter titles that appear on the inside covers.

The covers were designed to look like old movie serial posters, which often had a frame for switching out a photo based on the newest chapter of the serial. 

The New Monster Society of Evil was constructed in four chapters, each one spotlighting one of the major players.  The code we used is based on the old Captain Marvel Fan Club Code and is the same one used in the original serial.  I'll tell you what it is, but you can't tell anyone else, okay?  The Monster Code is the alphabet backwards; A=Z, B=Y, etc.  Here are the four decoded titles… 

MSoE Chapter One:  Billy has a Secret! 

MSoE Chapter Two:  Mary Takes the Cake! 

MSoE Chapter Three:  Sivana Comes on Strong! 

And our final installment, MSoE Chapter Four:  Mr. Mind Makes his Move! 

I hope you had fun reading MSoE, and thanks for putting up with my schedule and my secret codes! It's been a lot of fun for me, and I look forward to seeing you at the San Diego Comic-Con International in a couple of weeks.

Gl erhrg Qvuu'h hgfwrl xorxp lm Nzib!