Bone, the Eisner and Harvey Award—winning comic fantasy adventure series created by Jeff Smith, is close to completion. Smith expects finish the saga of three cartoony cousins—Moby Dick—loving Fone Bone, the conniving Phoney Bone and goofy Smiley Bone—trying to find their way back to Boneville later this year. The popular series has delighted readers of all ages since Smith began self-publishing it through his own imprint, Cartoon Books.
Smith's work has been compared to Walt Kelly's classic Pogo series. Bone has been collected into eight volumes (trade paper and hardcover) from Cartoon Books (www.boneville.com). The eight volumes combined have sold more than 400,000 copies (about 90,000 in hardcover) since the first one came out in 1995.
Smith credited the support of librarians and chain stores for the books' success. He also told PW that the long-anticipated Bone animated film is on hold until he completes the saga.
