Bone creator Jeff Smith's eagerly awaited new story Rasl hasn't just been an entertaining yarn about a universe—jumping art thief, it's an experiment in exploring publishing formats for specific book markets. The first volume, Rasl: The Drift, which collected the first three serialized issues, was released this summer, with an initial print run of 18,000 copies—about 12,000 copies have sold thus far. The second volume, The Fire of St. George, is due out in April 2010 and collects issues 4 through 7. These two volumes are oversized editions specifically meant to appeal to the “collector market,” said Smith.
Smith is best known for Bone, his bestselling kid-oriented fantasy-work. But Rasl, about a scientist turned art thief who builds a device to travel to parallel universes, deals with more adult themes and topics, fusing noir, scientific ideas such as string theory, and Native American symbolism. “It was a really long process,” said Smith of the original idea of “going to a parallel universe that looks familiar but is not your life” which he came up with in 2000 as he wrapped up Bone. Bone, as Smith described it, “uses friendly explanations of life and fantasy and fairy tales, [Rasl] is a different story, a more gritty story, like black coffee.
“I didn’t cross lines like using swear words [in Bone],” continued Smith, “[In Rasl] I’m picturing doing a Dashiell Hammet story or Humphrey Bogart, a little more edgy and dangerous.” Although he worried about switching genres with this story, he's “getting very good feedback.”
Rasl is the culmination of intensive reading and research on Smith’s part. “I almost had the basic frame [of the story] and spent a year reading books on physics, theoretical stuff, Marshall’s equations of electro-magnetism, Einstein’s theory of relativity, and string theory,” he explained. Smith also spent “another few months reading about fringe science and conspiracy science,” for instance, the Navy's speculative World War II experiments to make a ship invisible, which is used in the events of Rasl. Upon discovering that “Nicola Tesla is connected to so many things from the 1880s to World War II, I explored Rasl’s technology being connected to Tesla, and the story clicked together.”
Native American mythology and symbolism is also woven through the story. “With Bone I found that the axis story is linear, beginning and end structure, but you have to have some depth to the story,” explained Smith. “The best way to explore depth is to explore symbolism and mythology.” Continuing this in Rasl, Smith includes the symbol of the “man in the maze,” used by numerous Native American tribes. Smith spent two weeks in the Arizona desert, where he imagined the mysterious military institution in Rasl known as The Compoundwould exist, researching Native American symbolism and mythology. “It just started to slip into place,” he said. “The image I use most, the man in the maze, crosses [over with] noir, a man trapped in the maze of the city.”
If the story was an exploration for Smith, the format has become even more of an experiment. Rasl is serialized as a conventional black and white comic, which Smith compared to “preview night of a play or movie, to get reactions. When we collect the comic, I tighten up the story.” The collections are released in an oversized format much bigger than a conventional comic, which have "a big pulpy feel.” However, for the book market Smith wants the story in a more conventional size. After the release of the second volume in April, Smith plans to collect those two volumes together into a traditional comics-sized graphic novel. “I like having collectable books, but when I start taking Rasl into the world, it needed more story,” said Smith. “By the end of St. George a lot will be clear, with a lot more story and background.” Smith intends to publish three or four of the collectable compilations, and he is moving to release the serialized issues at a bimonthly rate starting in 2010, due to complaints they were coming out too slowly (about 3 issues a year).
Smith has the freedom to do such experiments after years of experience self-publishing his work. “I had to self-publish Bone, because no one was interested,” stated Smith. “By the time I finished it after 12 years, I had a publisher.” With Rasl, Smith said he would “possibly” release it through another publisher, since it “worked well with Bone.” Yet Smith acknowledged that through self-publishing, it is “possible to do the book I want, and make publishing decisions like format, and to keep it in print as long as I want.” Smith would rather control reprint plans, something he would lose by taking it to a publisher. “My Bone experience was that when the second volume appears, sales of the first pick up, and every collection after that does the same thing.”
Along with their experiments with printing sizes and multiple collections, Smith asserted, “we are in many stages of transition at Cartoon Books.” They are currently working on a Bone movie with Warner Brothers, and have signed a deal for a Rasl movie with Hugh Jackman in it.
