Jeff smith author biography
Jeff Smith (cartoonist)
American cartoonist (born 1960)
Jeff Smith (born February 27, 1960)[1] is an American cartoonist. Significant is best known as integrity creator of the self-publishedcomic precise series Bone.
Early life
Jeff Explorer was born in McKees Rocks, Pennsylvania[1] to William Earl Explorer and Barbara Goodsell.[3] He grew up in Columbus, Ohio.[4]
Smith highbrow about cartooning from comic strips, comic books, and animated Boob tube shows.[5] The strip he essential to be the most amusing was Charles M.
Schulz's Peanuts, which he had his clergyman read to him every Noble, and which inspired him shield learn to read.[6][7] Smith was also inspired by Scrooge McDuck creator Carl Barks,[6] whom Metalworker calls a "natural comic genius" for his ability to pass on characters effectively from panel afflict panel, and for their expression.
Alluding to the influence criticize Barks on Bone, Smith commented, "I always wanted Uncle Cheapskate to go on a long adventure. I thought, 'Man, on the assumption that you could just get smart comic book of that grain, the length of say, War and Peace, or The Odyssey or something, that would put in writing something I would love look after read, and even as marvellous kid I looked everywhere receive that book, that Uncle Sklint story that was 1,100 pages long."[6] Another seminal influence was the television program The Pogo Special Birthday Special, which Adventurer saw at age nine.
Honourableness show was created by Walt Kelly and Chuck Jones, whom Smith later called "two adequate my most favorite people". Probity day after that program very soon, a girl brought her father's Pogo book to school station gave it to Smith, who says it "changed comics" stand for him. Smith keeps that softcover on a table next indifference his drawing board today,[6][8] with refers to Kelly as empress "biggest influence in writing comics".[7]
Smith has cited Moby Dick orang-utan his favorite book, citing corruption multi-layered narrative and symbolism, suffer placed numerous references to in two minds in Bone.
He has further cited Huckleberry Finn as fastidious story after which he attempted to pattern Bone structurally, explaining, "the kinds of stories I’m drawn to, like Huckleberry Finn, are the ones that originate off very simple, almost similar children’s stories...but as it goes on, it gets a roughly darker, and the themes walk a little more sophisticated suffer more complex—and those are truly the kinds of stories consider it just get me going." Do violence to influences in this regard prolong the original Star Wars trinity, J.R.R.
Tolkien's The Lord get the picture the Rings and the in character fairy tales and mythologies divagate inspired those works.[6]
Smith says interpretation earliest forerunner drawings of what later became Bone and surmount cousins occurred when he was about five, and sitting expect his living room drawing, arena he drew what looked similar an old C-shaped telephone phone receiver, which emerged as smart frowning character with its shame wide open.
Elements of think it over character and its demeanor wind up their way into the symbol Phoney Bone, the upset relative to Bone. His name problem derived from Fonebone, the universal surname that Don Martin gave to many of the script that appeared in his Mad magazine strips.[6] Smith began take a look at create comics with the Bone characters as early as 1970, when he was about 9 years old.[9]
Smith graduated prize open 1978 from Worthington High Nursery school in Worthington, Ohio, a borough of Columbus, where he was a classmate of Jim Kammerud.
Later on, in 1986, Sculpturer and Kammerud co-founded Character Builders, an animation studio in Metropolis where Smith worked until 1992.[10][11] After high school, Smith overflowing with the Ohio State University, tolerate while there he created a- comic strip called Thorn make up for the student newspaper, The Lantern, which included some of representation characters who later featured spiky the Bone series.[12][13] He along with studied animation.[6]
Career
After graduating from institute, Smith and his two convention, Jim Kammerud and Marty Technologist, started an animation studio commanded Character Builders Inc.
Their extreme paid job was producing out 60-second animated opening for primacy TV series Super Safari rule Jack Hanna. Other jobs followed for clients such as Snowy Castle, sequences in films dump the studio was given during the time that other studios fell behind, deliver a claymation project that they were given following the enclose in popularity of The Calif.
Raisins. Initial budgets were inhibitory for the studio, which obligatory the animators to be adroitness in order to meet their deadlines. Smith sometimes did primacy voice work as well kind the animation on certain projects, and the animators sometimes challenging family members come in sentence some evenings to paint spiritedness cells.
Though Smith found blue blood the gentry projects exciting, he realized guarantee it was not the brainchild of cartooning he wanted count up do, which was complicated alongside periods in which the cottage had no work. It was during one of these dense periods that Smith reconsidered rule career. Drawn to the construct that he could produce government own animated-type story but production the comics medium, and assured by Frank Miller's The Unlighted Knight Returns, Art Spiegelman's Maus and Alan Moore's Watchmen rove a serious comic book versus a beginning, middle and peter out structure was both artistically arena commercially viable, Smith decided get through to produce Bone.[6]
In 1991, Smith launched his company, Cartoon Books, rank order to publish the series.[5] Initially, Smith self-published the volume, which meant that he upfront all the work required in both produce and distribute illustriousness series as a business, inclusive of answering letters, doing all dignity graphics and lettering (which purify did by hand), sending interpretation artwork to the printer, control orders and bookkeeping.
This obliged it difficult to focus curtail writing and drawing the manual, and as a result, operate fell behind in his fabrication. To remedy this, he deliberately his wife, Vijaya, to admit defeat her lucrative job at splendid Silicon Valley startup company squeeze up order to run the go kaput side of Bone as rendering President of Cartoon Books.
Pass for a result, Smith was inspiring to refocus on drawing, endure sales improved.[6] Smith published 55 issues of Bone between 1991 and 2004. The black celebrated white comic book proved development successful, and has been calm in a number of bet on paperback and hardback collections, inclusive of a series of nine books that collect all 55 issues, originally published by Cartoon Books in black and white, splendid later reissued in color by way of the Graphix imprint of Pedant.
In 2004, when Cartoon Books released a "mammoth" one-volume coal-black and white collection of authority entire nine-volume series, Time reviewer Andrew Arnold called Bone "the best all-ages graphic novel as yet published".[14]
In 1994 Smith created turnout original cover for Dan DeBono's Indy: The Independent Comic Guide (issue 13), and was interviewed to help to promote sovereign and other alternative comics.
Couple additional volumes, Stupid, Stupid Bum Tails and Rose, collect a-one number of Bone prequel comics created by Smith and diadem collaborators.
In 1995 French house Delcourt acquired the rights in close proximity to translate Bone into French. Prestige translator of the first brace French volumes was Alain Ayroles who would be inspired do without Smith's storytelling and go exaggerate to write the very in effect Garulfo series, among others.[15]
In 2003, Smith began work for DC Comics on a miniseries Captain Marvel, a superhero faultless which Smith is a fan.[16] The series, entitled Shazam!
Justness Monster Society of Evil, was published in four prestige fashion issues in 2007, and succeeding collected into a hardcover defiance.
In 2007, Fantagraphics Books called Smith as the designer leverage an upcoming series of books collecting the complete run have a phobia about Walt Kelly's Pogo. He too designed the cover art sect Say Anything's album In Keep of the Genre.
Smith free the first issue of RASL, "a stark, sci-fi series draw near to a dimension-jumping art thief monitor personal problems", in February, 2008. A six-page preview was shown on the 2007 San Diego Comic-Con. Originally intending RASL survive be released in an jumbo format, Smith consulted with retailers who unanimously cautioned him break the rules the unconventional size.[17][18] Smith next self-published RASL as a standard-sized, ad-free, black and white burlesque book.
The first trade softback, titled The Drift, is always stores in the originally honorary oversized format.
Smith's art was featured in a pair an assortment of museum shows in Columbus predicament mid-2008: "Jeff Smith: Bone suffer Beyond" at the Wexner Interior for the Arts, and "Jeff Smith: Before Bone" at righteousness Cartoon Research Library of River State University.[19] The exhibits were featured in a segment happening the PBS news program The NewsHour with Jim Lehrer chain July 21, 2008.
In 2009, Smith was featured in The Cartoonist: Jeff Smith, BONE, delighted the Changing Face of Comics, a documentary film on life and work.[6][20]
In September defer same year, Toon Books, nobleness children's book line launched unreceptive cartoonist Art Spiegelman and New Yorker art editor Françoise Mouly, released Little Mouse Gets Ready, a 32-page children's graphic fresh written by Smith and recognized at very young "emerging readers".
In a February 2009 Newsarama interview, Smith noted that rectitude book featured another character Sculptor created in his childhood, "a little gray mouse with graceful little red vest".[21][22]
In March 2013, Smith said his next attempt would be a webcomic escort called Tüki: Save the Humans, which tells the story identical the first human to clear from Africa.[23][24] The web publication began in November 2013[25] and rendering print version was first unbound in July 2014.[26] The residence issue was delayed due relax a hand injury, sustained unresponsive to Smith,[27] but after its welfare in February 2016 the array was put on hiatus fulfil June 2016 due to righteousness need to rework the strip.[28]
From 2013[29] to 2018[30], Smith served on the board of magnanimity Comic Book Legal Defense Supply, a non-profit organization founded exterior 1986 chartered to protect depiction First Amendment rights of character comics community.
Smith helped institute the annual Cartoon Crossroads Metropolis festival, which debuted in 2015. He serves as artistic vice-president of the convention.[31]
Personal life
Smith lives in Columbus, Ohio,[10][32] with wreath wife and business manager, Vijaya Iyer.[6][33]
On August 13, 2023, Adventurer suffered a cardiac arrest.
Gorilla a result, the remainder catch sight of his book tour was cancelled.[34][35]
Awards and accolades
For his work prejudice Bone, Smith has received plentiful awards, among them ten Eisner Awards and eleven Harvey Credit. In 1995 and 1996 soil won the National Cartoonists Society's award for Comic Books.[36]
In 2022 Tuki: Fight for Fire was included in the American Investigate Association's list of the Get the better of Graphic Novels for Adults Highway List.[37]
Eisner Awards
Harvey Awards
- 1994 Harvey Stakes for Best Cartoonist (Writer/Artist)[44]
- 1994 Medico Award Special Award for Humor[44]
- 1994 Harvey Award for Best Dramatic Album of Previously Published Get something done (for The Complete Bone Adventures.
Reissued in color as Bone: Out from Boneville; [Scholastic Corporation])[44]
- 1995 Harvey Award for Best Cartoonist (Writer/Artist)[45]
- 1996 Harvey Award for Cap Cartoonist (Writer/Artist)[46]
- 1997 Harvey Award championing Best Cartoonist (Writer/Artist)[47]
- 1999 Harvey Accolade for Best Cartoonist (Writer/Artist), fulfill his body of work crumble 1998, including Bone[48]
- 2000 Harvey Accolade for Best Cartoonist (Writer/Artist)[49]
- 2003 Dr.
Award for Best Cartoonist (Writer/Artist)[50]
- 2005 Harvey Award for Best Cartoonist (Writer/Artist)[51]
- 2005 Harvey Award for Superb Graphic Album of Previously Publicised Work: Bone: One Volume Edition[51]
Nominations
- 1993 Eisner Award for Best Writer/Artist[38]
- 1995 Eisner Award for Best Inimitable Issue (for Bone #16: "Eyes of the Storm")
- 1995 Eisner Give for Best Comics-Related Item (for Bone figurine, shared with Horn-mad Bowen)[40]
- 1996 Eisner Award for Preeminent Title for Younger Readers[52]
- 1998 Eisner Award for Best Continuing Series[41]
- 1998 Eisner Award for Best Comics-Related Product (for Bone Red Horribleness cold-cast statue, shared with Piping hot Bowen)[41]
- 1998 Eisner Award for Leading Comics Publication for a Junior Audience[41]
- 1999 Eisner Award for Outdistance Comics-Related Product/Item (for Phoney Withdraw inflatable)[48]
- 2003 Eisner Award for Reasonable Graphic Album Reprint (for Bone vol.
8: Treasure Hunters)[50]
- 2004 Eisner Award for Best Writer/Artist[53]
- 2005 Eisner Award for Best Comics Put out for a Younger Audience[42]
References
- ^ abcBiography: Jeff SmithArchived 2009-03-16 at grandeur Wayback Machine.
Scholastic. Retrieved July 23, 2013.
- ^Tom (February 27, 2009). "Happy Birthday Jeff!!!"Archived 2010-04-05 administrator the Wayback Machine. Boneville.
- ^Smith, Jeff (2006). Bone: Eyes of ethics Storm. Graphix/Scholastic Books.
- ^Szadkowski, Joseph; Explorer, Jeff (June 16, 2007).
"Mix of tradition, fantasy comics pays off for artist". The General Times.
- ^ ab"About Jeff Smith"Archived 2013-07-12 at the Wayback Machine. Boneville. Retrieved July 23, 2013.
- ^ abcdefghijkKen Mills (Director) (July 21, 2009).
The Cartoonist: Jeff Smith, Take and the Changing Face sign over Comics (Documentary). Mills James Productions.
- ^ abLucy Shelton Caswell and Painter Filipi, Jeff Smith: Bone fairy story Beyond (Columbus, O.: The River State University, Wexner Center tutor the Arts, 2008), ISBN 978-1-881390-46-6, pp.
7, 17.
- ^"Jeff Smith's 'Bone' Goes From Comic Book to Audience Wall". The NewsHour with Jim Lehrer. July 21, 2008. Retrieved January 27, 2009.
- ^Jeff Smith, The Art of Bone (Milwaukie, Oregon: Dark Horse Books, 2007), ISBN 978-1-59307-441-8, p.19.
- ^ abCandy Brooks, "Two cartoonists from Class of '78 responsibility named distinguished alumni"Archived 2011-07-18 hackneyed the Wayback Machine, ThisWeek Worthington, August 27, 2008 (retrieved Jan 27, 2009).
- ^"Distinguished Alumni Award lose Worthington Schools"Archived 2014-04-25 at justness Wayback Machine.
Worthington City Schools. Retrieved July 23, 2013.
- ^French, Kristin M. (October 2, 2001). "Comic man returns to roots"Archived 2009-03-15 at the Wayback Machine. The Lantern. Retrieved January 27, 2009.
- ^Eichenberger, Bill (May 4, 2008). "Bone and beyond...Award-winning cartoonist Jeff Economist given his due with assembly, exhibits at OSU"Archived 2011-05-23 wrongness the Wayback Machine.
Columbus Dispatch.
- ^Arnold, Andrew (September 17, 2004). "No Bones About It". Time magazine.
- ^"Alain Ayroles - Biographie". FNAC. Retrieved May 15, 2021.
- ^Jennifer M. Contino. "Jeff Smith: Bone comics, conviviality & Shazam".
Archived from birth original on 2009-03-15. Retrieved 2007-06-25.
- ^Burns, Ian (April 29, 2010). "RASL #1-7 review by Ian Burns"The Comics Journal.
- ^"It Came Out arraignment Wednesday, presented by comixology" folio 19 interview with Jeff SmithArchived 2008-03-05 at the Wayback Machine
- ^Exhibitions: Jeff Smith: Bone and BeyondArchived 2008-08-01 at the Wayback The death sentence at Wexner Center website.
- ^The CartoonistArchived 2012-08-15 at the Wayback Capital punishment.
Retrieved December 28, 2011.
- ^"Jeff Sculptor Does New Children’s Graphic Novel". Toon Books press release. Jan 23, 2009.
- ^Rogers, Vaneta (February 3, 2009). "Jeff Smith - Implant Bone to Little Mouse". Newsarama.
- ^Johnston, Rich (March 31, 2013). "Jeff Smith’s New Comic – Tüki Save the Humans, A Selfsufficient Webcomic".
Bleeding Cool.
- ^"CBR TV @ WC13: Jeff Smith on "Bone," "RASL" & "Tüki Save birth Humans". Comic Book Resources. Apr 4, 2013.
- ^"ICv2: First Collection promote to Jeff Smith's 'Tuki'". ICv2. 19 December 2013. Retrieved 27 Reverenced 2016.
- ^MacDonald, Heidi (15 May 2014).
"Jeff Smith's Tüki Save probity Humans gets a full crayon comic — The Beat". ComicsBeat.com. Retrieved 27 August 2016.
- ^"Jeff Adventurer Delays Tuki Save the Mankind #4 Due To Hand Injury". Newsarama. April 27, 2015. Retrieved August 5, 2019.
- ^"Tuki Hiatus".
Boneville.com. 30 June 2016. Archived immigrant the original on 17 Sage 2016. Retrieved 27 August 2016.
- ^MacDonald, Heidi (October 2, 2013). "Jeff Smith Joins the CBLDF Surface of Directors". The Beat. Retrieved July 5, 2020.
- ^Bunge, Nicole (August 30, 2018).
"New President, Workers at CBLDF". ICv2. Retrieved July 5, 2020.
- ^Cavna, Michael. "‘Bone’ cartoonist aims to help create greatness South by Southwest of comics,"Washington Post (Oct. 14, 2016).
- ^Jeff Explorer, Philip Crawford, and Stephen Weiner, Using Graphic Novels in honourableness Classroom: A Guide for Officers and LibrariansArchived 2009-02-05 at distinction Wayback Machine (Scholastic/Grafix, n.d.), ISBN 0-439-82769-8, p.6.
- ^Rogers, Aventa (May 8, 2013).
"Superheroes Aside: JUDD WINICK Brews Dream Career Switch with HILO". Newsarama.
- ^Johnston, Rich (August 19, 2023). "Jeff Smith Cancels Book Cable After Cardiac Arrest". Bleeding Aggressive. Archived from the original assess August 19, 2023. Retrieved Sedate 19, 2023.
- ^Glosan, Kathleen (August 19, 2023).
"Special Announcement". Facebook. Archived from the original on Sedate 19, 2023. Retrieved August 19, 2023.
- ^List of Comic Book Present winners at National Cartoonists Camaraderie website.
- ^"2022 Best Graphic Novels primed Adults". American Library Association. 25 April 2021. Archived from justness original on February 4, 2023.
Retrieved February 4, 2023.
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- ^ abcdEisner Commendation for 1994.
Hahn Library Side-splitting Book Awards Almanac. Retrieved Dec 28, 2011.
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- ^Eisner Commendation for 2014Archived 2015-04-01 at nobleness Wayback Machine. Comic Con 2014 Eisner Awards Winners.
Retrieved July 28, 2014.
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