PRESS RELEASE
Cartoon Books announces THORN: The Complete Proto-BONE College Strips from 1982 to 1986, And Other Early Drawings, reprinting the entire run of his earliest rendering of the world-famous BONE characters for the first time. And if Smith had his way, it might not have happened.
“Talking Jeff into this book wasn’t easy, but fans have been asking us for years.” explains Cartoon Books Publisher Vijaya Iyer, Smith’s partner.
“I confess I was a hard sell at first,” says cartoonist Smith, “Talk of reprinting the THORN comics has always been a non-starter for me. I didn’t think they were very good. In fact, I had an unshakable idea that they were terrible. But when I read them for the first time in over 40 years, I was surprised to find I enjoyed them! It’s fun to see these stories and know they eventually evolved into BONE.”
The comic strips reveal an early version of BONE called THORN that was written for a college audience in the 1980s. THORN appeared five days a week in the pages of The Ohio State University’s student newspaper The Lantern. A few were reprinted in a self-published 1983 book called THORN: Tales from The Lantern. Another small selection was published in 2008’s limited edition fundraiser for OSU’s Billy Ireland Cartoon Library & Museum called Before BONE. Both books are long out of print and sell at collector’s prices. There has never been an official, complete run published until now.
This beautiful edition includes plenty of bonus material such as recently discovered early drawings of the BONE characters, essays, and interviews.
THORN: The Complete College Strips, will be published in both hardcover and mass market paperback. It will launch on Kickstarter this October for release in Spring of 2024.
