If you can’t make it to the show, don’t worry. Any BOOK purchase that is made in the boneville.com store will be signed by Jeff! The sale will continue until the end of the month. All orders will start to ship on Wednesday July 28th.

Another thing to be thankful for… NO LINES TO WAIT IN!

Hi everybody, Tom here. It’s great being in charge of the fan letters! I run across some fun and interesting ones. Keep em coming! Above and below are pics of a lucky 17 year old named Will and his Bday cake! Awesome job and thanks for sharing. Too bad you can’t mail a cake!

Sean wrote a great letter and sent in some pics that his 7 year old niece has drawn after he introduced her to the BONE books.

For you crochet buffs out there, Here is a great site that you can get a pattern to make your own Fone Bone! Great job Amber!

Well thats it for now, Only two more weeks til San Diego Comic Con! We are really looking forward to that, so if you’re going, be sure to come say Hi!

School’s out for Summer…Go visit MoCCA and check out their current exhibition: NeoIntegrity: Comics Edition!

We were honored to be included with such a talented and eclectic mix of artists such as Winsor McKay, Daniel Clowes, and Charles Schulz to name a few. Over 210 cartoonists, illustrators , animators and fine artists have works on display, so this exhibit is not to be missed!  Originally scheduled to end in May, the exhibit has been so well received that its run has been extended to August 29th.

Stop by MoCCA at 594 Broadway, Suite 401 in New York City and visit them online at www.moccany.org

Hi everybody. Tom again. I want to make the official announcement about Facebook. Jeff’s page is called The OFFICIAL Jeff Smith page. If you’re on Facebook, go ahead and “like” him! Thanks Jenny O for the suggestion.

Hi everybody, Tom again. We all know dogs love bones, but did you know they also love FONE BONE? Above is Kirby, a french bulldog owned by writer extraordinaire, Tom Sniegoski. Tom and Jeff are working together on the upcoming BONE Tall Tales book. You can read all about that here.

And this is my dog Guinness, he’s a French Bulldog/Pug mix, and he also loves FONE!

HAPPY HUMP DAY EVERYONE!

Hey everybody! Steve and our good friend Terry Moore (ECHO), have been nominated for Eisner’s again this year. Steve has been nominated for Best Coloring with Bone 9: Crown of Horns and Little Mouse Gets Ready! Terry has been nominated as Best Writer/Artist for ECHO. If you work in the industry and can vote, please go on over to eisnervote.com and vote today! Deadline is June 15th!

For everybody else, you can read all about the Eisner’s and its nominees here.

Popular Philly podcast–Fictional Frontiers–caught up with Jeff at April’s C2E2 show in Chicago! Check out what Sohaib and Jeff had to say by clicking here!

Here are a few BONE/RASL related links from around the web:

Julian, a student in Mrs. Doran’s class, wrote a book report on his teacher’s blog site. Dig the photo (above) that goes with it.  - – I think that’s supposed to be me!

Julian’s blog can be read here! Keep reading, Julian!

Avish Parashar, a motivational speaker watched The Cartoonist documentary on his local PBS channel recently and was motivated. You can read Avish’s comments here!

RASL vols. 1 & 2 are reviewed by the Portland Mercury and you can read that here.

Also, letterer extraordinaire, and a cartoonist  himself, Todd Klein gives RASL vol. 2 a review on his site.

This is awesome; especially if you’re from Columbus. Columbus through Buffalo eyes. A journalist from Buffalo, NY, that is! An out of stater falls for Columbus, loves the Cartoon Research Library and in the last paragraph, mentions Old Man’s Cave and Bone. This’ll make anyone want to visit Columbus!
Her article for the Buffalo News can be found here.

And last but not least, from Spain comes this awesome drawing from a reader I met at the Barcelona Festival.

He wrote about the signing on his blog. I love the drawing, Andre!

On April  15, just as we were getting ready to leave for Chicago and the C2E2 convention, the mother of an elementary school boy officially petitioned to have the BONE series banned from all the schools in the district. I learned about it from an article in the Sun Newspapers Minnesota Local News.

Yesterday, a review committee met and heard both sides of the case. At the conclusion of the hearing, a letter I sent was read aloud.  The committee then voted 10 to 1 against the ban.

The decision could be appealed, of course, but this was a very decisive statement by the review board.

Whew. I am obviously relieved and happy with this conclusion!

If you want to follow the story in more detail, here are some more links:

The Comics Reporter, Minnesota Parent Objects to Bone’s Drinking, Smoking, Gambling, Sexiness; Review of Work Scheduled

Thisweek Newspapers, “Bone” graphic novels by Jeff Smith not age appropriate for ISD 196 elementary students, mom says.

Robot 6, Jeff Smith Responds to Bone Ban

Local TV news KSTP Minneapolis and St. Paul, Parent wants graphic novels pulled from schools

Publishers Weekly, Jeff Smith Responds to “Bone” School Library Challenge

The Pioneer Press TwinCities.com, Rosemount-Apple Valley-Egan panel votes not to ban elementary school book series

The contents of the letter I sent to the review committee follows:

To Whom It May Concern:

Thank you for giving me an opportunity to make a statement in light of this most serious situation.

The complaint against BONE, as I understand it from news reports, concerns the depiction of gambling, alcohol and tobacco use, and “sexual situations between characters.”

First, let me say BONE is a book about courage, conviction, and loyalty. The setting is a medieval town and the tavern is a realistic meeting place for the locals. The two main protagonists, Fone Bone and Thorn do not partake in any activities at the tavern other than meals. At no time in the entire series is anyone rewarded for bad behavior.

The main troublemaker, Phoney Bone does try to win bets, and he cheats, but his plans always, ALWAYS backfire. His moneymaking schemes make him look like a greedy loser. That’s the point of the whole series:  selfish, immoral behavior is wrong.

Beer and gambling are depicted in BONE, but only as props or as story devices (even Smiley Bone’s stogie is little more than a Vaudeville/Groucho character prop). These things play a very small role in the overall BONE story.  I will also point out that beer and gambling can be seen in many Bugs Bunny cartoons, Disney movies, and just about anywhere you look. The trick is portraying them correctly.  These characters are the bad ones, and kids know the difference. Phoney and Smiley scheme and gamble and get their comeuppance.  The story’s heroes do not participate in any of these behaviors.

As far as “sexual situations between characters” are concerned, I know of none.  Nor was it ever my intention for there to be any. The main character Fone Bone has a crush on the young woman Thorn, but it’s innocent, and certainly goes no further than holding hands.

Many, many children have learned to love reading because of BONE.  I know this from meeting and talking to kids and their parents, teachers, and librarians at hundreds of book signings and school visits. I suspect that there are members of the review committee who can attest to this. Since the mid 90’s, millions of parents all over the world have read BONE with their children. This is the first time I have ever heard it suggested that it was age inappropriate.  It is hard to imagine that any bad behavior could be seen to be encouraged in these stories. Frankly, I believe it is just the opposite.

Sincerely,

Jeff Smith

RASL 2: The Fire of St. George ships to comic book stores today, and I’m packing my bags for C2E2 this weekend. The staff at Cartoon Books is on the way over to the house to have a final scheduling meeting. It’s exciting! I haven’t been to a comic convention in Chicago in 10 years, and I can’t wait to see everyone at the show! On Saturday, I have a spotlight panel at 1:45 in room  E353. Should be fun, it will include a reading as well as a look at some of the new BONE: Tall Tales stories. Then I run over to room #  E271A to introduce the BONE documentary The Cartoonist at 3:00. After that, I’ll be at the Cartoon Books booth (#550) for most of the rest of the day. I’m on an Indie comics panel on Sunday at 1:15 in room #E450. Stop by! We have some fun new things at this show, including a special BONE pin, and the new RASL book collection hot off the press, The Fire of St. George (we’ll also have the first book, RASL: The Drift, of course)!

Speaking of RASL, the parallel universe science I based it on is cutting edge, but I was surprised that there was a new study released that seems to prove the existance of parallel universes!

From the news article: “The strange discovery by quantum physicists at the University of California Santa Barbara means that an object you can see in front of you may exist simultaneously in a parallel universe…”

We posted  a different study last week that ran on National Geographic’s site suggesting the same thing:

“…researchers made the controversial suggestion that the clusters are being tugged on by the gravity of matter outside the known universe. —which in turn hints that our universe is part of something larger: a multiverse.”

Crazy! You read it here first!

Update 4/15/10: The Chicago Tribune is running a profile/Q&A with me as part of its coverage of the C2E2 convention.

Come by the booth this weekend, say hi, and get your RASL on!