RASL

JEFF SMITH

Jeff Smith (b. 27 February 1960, USA) Born and raised in the American Midwest, Jeff Smith is best known as the author of the self-published comic strip Bone. After four years of drawing the 'Thorn' comic strip for Ohio State's student newspaper The Lantern, starting in 1982, Smith co-founded the Character Builders animation studio in 1986. Then in 1991 he launched his epic comic, 'Bone'.

'Bone' has been printed in nine languages around the world and in 1996 was given the National Cartoonists Society award for Best Comic, as well as France's Angoulême Alph-Art award for Best Foreign Book, Sweden's Adamson Award, and the comic book industry's own Harvey Award (named for Harvey Kurtzman, the creator of Mad) for Best Cartoonist.

Smith has also made 'Bone' prequels, such as Stupid, Stupid Rat Tails' and 'Rose, in cooperation with among others Charles Vess. In addition to 'Bone', Smith has written and drawn 'Captain Marvel' ('Shazam: The Monster Society of Evil') for DC Comics. He is the designer for Fantagraphics reprint series of Walt Kelly's 'Pogo', and the cover artist for Kelly's 'Our Gang' reprints. In 2008, Cartoon Book launched Smith's new comic book series, Rasl. The excerpt here is from that book.