There’s a trailer on YouTube for The Cartoonist: Jeff Smith, BONE, and the Changing Face of Comics.

The Columbus premiere of this film is on Friday. For more information on getting tickets, visit the Wexner Center for the Arts site.

See you there!

Posted by Tom

The first four issues of RASL were 32 pages and were published on a fairly relaxed 3 issue-a-year plan. When I came up with this format, I thought the extra pages would make up for a slower release schedule, but the demand for more issues gets louder every time a new chapter comes out. I think everyone I heard from liked the extra pages, but they’d rather have less time between issues.

So, starting with RASL no.5, the black & white comic books will be 24 pages, and in the Fall begin a bimonthly schedule.

I have to admit it makes sense to me too, especially at deadline/crunch time when instead of dealing with18 to 22 page stories which is standard, I suddenly found myself wrangling an extra 10 to 14 pages which almost made my brain explode!

I still have to make room for some scheduling conflicts this summer (for a couple of projects that I’m not ready to announce yet,) but, here’s the schedule for the next few issues:

RASL no.5  July
[secret project over the summer months]
RASL no.6 October
RASL no.7 December
RASL no.8 March 2010

Ready for RASL to start back up? Here is a preview of the first six pages… You can click on each page and then use the magnifying glass to enlarge them.

Be sure to pick up RASL #4 on Wednesday April 29th at your local comic book shop, or in our online store!

We’re very excited to announce that RASL volume one: The Drift is shipping this week!

To prepare for the release of the first RASL trade collection, Jeff gave an interview to Jennifer Contino over at the Pulse. You can read it here. It’s all about the inspirations for the characters and the wild science behind the story!

Posted by Tom

Not too long ago, a team from PBS NEWSHOUR came out to Columbus to visit with me and check out the exhibit at The Wexner Center. The segment is going to air tonight, July 21, 2008 on The NEWSHOUR with Jim Lehrer.

There will also be a live on-line forum next week on Wednesday, July 30 @ 11:30 EST. Check local listings for times.

You can listen to an audio podcast of the segment here and you can watch a video stream here.

From the PBS Newshour site:

COMIC ARTIST

Jeffrey Brown profiles the work of cartoonist and graphic novelist Jeff Smith, best known for his "Bone" comics series.