Bone is a rarity in a field dominated by brooding killers or bemuscled super denizens. Jeff Smith's tale of three cousins leaving the safety of their sheltered lifes brings to mind the works of the late Charles Schultz's Peanuts or Walt Kelly's classic Pogo.
"Jeff Smith's Bone reminds me of Tolkien's Lord of the Rings but done in a cartoon style. There's a sense of lost innocence to Smith's work which is very attractive."
It must be noted that the images used here are the copyright of Jeff Smith and his publisher.
An Ohio native, Smith started drawing Bone when he was in kindergarten. Smith admits that his inspiration was Pogo & Peanuts but unlike the safe environs of found in both comic strips, Smith wanted to do a series where his cartoony creations actually faced danger and were altered by their experiences.
The adventures of the three cousins in Bone allows Smith to do just that. All three have been exiled from their sheltered existence in Boneville and, for the first time in their lives, are forced to venture out into a brave new world outside of everything that they have ever known.
Bone was first published in the Ohio State University student newspaper, The Lantern. Even then it was generating some interest but Smith chose to pursue other avenues. He only began publishing Bone in 1991 and since that time the title has ranked amongst the top 50 comics in the US whilst maintaining a sizable international audience.