Hi everybody, Tom here!

The Harvey Awards ballots are due tomorrow, August, 6th.

Jeff, as well as some of our close friends, Terry Moore (ECHO), Raina Telgemeier (SMILE), and Kazu Kibuishi (AMULET) are nominated this year.

Please take a moment to vote for your favorites. Voting is open to anyone professionally involved in a creative capacity within the comics field. You can get your ballot by going here and then emailing to harveyballots@hotmail.com

The Harvey Awards are one of the comic book industry’s oldest and most respected awards. The Harvey’s recognize outstanding achievements in over 20 categories, ranging from Best Artist to the Jack Kirby Hall of Fame. They are the only industry awards both nominated by and selected by the full body of comic book professionals.

Hope to see you in Baltimore in two weeks! For more information visit their website here!

Comic Book Resources posted an article on Jeff’s spotlight panel at last weeks Comic Con International.

You can read it here!

As soon as we can gather all of our pics and stories, Jeff will do a SDCC wrap up blog later. Stay tuned!

Here’s a pic of Steve, Kathleen and I hamming it up in the photo booth that was at the BONE 20th Anniversary party that Scholastic threw for us. THANKS AGAIN SCHOLASTIC!!!

The kick-off to the 20th ANNIVERSARY BONE TOUR will be in San Diego at the Comic-Con International. I’m a guest this year and I think it’s going to be a fun year. Here are the goodies we are debuting at the Cartoon Books booth:

The BONE boys! The Fone Bone plush was a big hit a couple of years ago, and this summer his two cousins are with him. Premiering at this year’s Comic-Con is plush Phoney Bone and Smiley Bone.

The 20th Anniversary Box Set that contains a hardcover One Volume Edition of BONE in full color…

…plus a lot sweet goodies, like a miniature reproduction of BONE #1, a DVD, and a Phoney Bone gold coin. I like this set a lot. Can you tell?

I’m flipping through the 20th Anniversary Timeline/Cover Gallery Book. That’s the DVD documentary peeking out of the back there.  On the couch is the mini reproduction of BONE #1

The other big premiere will be RASL Book 3: Romance at the Speed of Light. Wait’ll you see the RASL side of our booth this year. It’s Tesla-riffic!

I will be signing at the Cartoon Books booth (#2109) every day and participating in various panels. Here is my Comic-Con schedule:

Preview Night July 20th:

•  7 pm-9 pm: Jeff Smith signing at the Cartoon Books Booth #2109

Thursday, July 21st:

• 1:30pm-3:30pm Jeff Smith signing at the Cartoon Books Booth #2109

• 5:00pm-6:00pm Panel: Epic Literary Adventure, Room 9 with Jeff Smith, Anders Nilsen, and Brian Ralph

Friday, July 22nd:

• 10:00am-12:00pm Jeff Smith signing at the Cartoon Books Booth #2109

• 12:30pm-1:30pm Jeff and Vijaya Panel: Spotlight on Jeff Smith, Room 5AB,

• 4:00pm-6:00pm Cartoon Books Booth Signing SPECIAL “Quest for the Spark” signing with Jeff Smith, Tom Sniegoski and Steve Hamaker

Saturday, July 23rd:

• 11:00am-12:00pm Panel: Will Eisner–Visionary, Room 9, Moderated by Charles Brownstein, Panel Participants: Jeff Smith, Paul Levitz, Denis Kitchen, Diana Shutz, and ScottMcCloud

• 12:30pm-2:30pm Jeff Smith signing at the Cartoon Books Booth #2109

• 1:30pm-2:30pm Vijaya Panel: Is the Comic Book Doomed? Room 24ABC with Doug Wolk

• 4:00pm-6:00pm Jeff Smith signing at the Cartoon Books Booth #2109

Sunday, July 24th:

• 10:00am-11:00am Panel: Cover Story-The Art of the Cover, Room 25ABC 2:00pm-3:00pm Moderated by Mark Evanier, Panel Participants Jeff Smith, Ernie Chan, Jo Chen, Alan Davis, Dave Gibbons and Ashley Wood

• 4:00pm-5:00pm Jeff Smith signing at the Cartoon Books Booth #2109

Consult your program guide for panel room #s.

If you can’t make it to a show on the 2011 BONE 20th Anniversary Tour, don’t worry, because just like last year, we will have a store sale that includes Jeff’s signature on every book that you purchase. More on that later this week!

Tomorrow, Thursday July 14,  from 4pm to 6pm, I’ll be taking questions live on Reddit.com’s Ask Me Anything (AMA).

It’s the 20th Anniversary of BONE (and Cartoon Books) this month, so let’s cover some territory – -  Graphic novels, the One Volume Edition, Warner Bros., The Self-publishing Movement, coloring the BONE books for Scholastic, RASL, the new Superman cover that shipped today, or anything else that comes up.

Here’s the announcement that Newsarama put up:

Two Hours To Ask Jeff Smith Anything Tomorrow

“Want to get inside the head of Bone and RASL creator Jeff Smith? Of course you do – and Smith, ComiXology and Reddit.com are here to help. Tomorrow, from 4-6pm EST, Smith will be answering questions as part of a Reddit AMA (Ask Me Anything) session to be held at comixology.com/reddit, so you have 24 hours to prepare questions on anything from what Fone Bone is up to these days to what sci-fi has inspired RASL (and, maybe, some behind-the-scenes info about Smith’s spectacular Shazam series from a few years ago, as well). Me, I’m already trying to work out how to best convince Smith to come up with some new Bone sometime…”

This is new to me, so hopefully it will a good time. Don’t be surprised if we drop an announcement or two…

See you then!

The tour dates are set!

We kick off the party in San Diego at the Comics event of the year COMIC-CON INTERNATIONAL! July 21st thru July 24th. Where the 20th Anniversary Box Set will make its official debut!

Next is Baltimore Comic Con on August 20th-21st. Steve did the incredible art below for the Comic-Con program guide:

The next week, it’s off to Canada. On August 25th thru August 28th, the beautiful city of Toronto will host the four day FAN EXPO CANADA.

October 13th thru the 16th we will be taking another bite out of the Big Apple at the NEW YORK COMIC CON.

The next weekend, October 22nd and 23rd, I will be at Mid Ohio Con where we’ll debut the BONE One Volume Slipcase Edition. More details will be revealed on that later.

Then it’s off to Italy! The Lucca Comics and Games show is a huge event. Vijaya and I have been there numerous times and its always a blast. The Italian version of the website is here.

Hope to see you at one or more of the stops!