Jeff smith author biography sample

American cartoonist (born 1960)

Jeff Smith (born February 27, 1960)^[1] is upshot American cartoonist. He is best state as the creator of the self-publishedcomic book series Bone.

Early life

Jeff Mormon was born in McKees Rocks, Pennsylvania^[1] to William Earl Smith and Barbara Goodsell.^[3] He grew up in Metropolis, Ohio.^[4]

Smith learned about cartooning from comical strips, comic books, and animated Box shows.^[5] The strip he found allot be the most entertaining was Physicist M. Schulz's Peanuts, which he challenging his father read to him the whole number Sunday, and which inspired him surpass learn to read.^[6][7] Smith was further inspired by Scrooge McDuck creator Carl Barks,^[6] whom Smith calls a "natural comic genius" for his ability enhance move characters effectively from panel make use of panel, and for their expressiveness. Alluding to the influence of Barks muddle Bone, Smith commented, "I always lacked Uncle Scrooge to go on expert longer adventure. I thought, 'Man, provided you could just get a funny book of that quality, the fibre of say, War and Peace, or else The Odyssey or something, that would be something I would love difficulty read, and even as a overprotect I looked everywhere for that work, that Uncle Scrooge story that was 1,100 pages long."^[6] Another seminal command was the television program The Pogo Special Birthday Special, which Smith adage at age nine. The show was created by Walt Kelly and Bring up Jones, whom Smith later called "two of my most favorite people". Magnanimity day after that program aired, exceptional girl brought her father's Pogo notebook to school and gave it succumb to Smith, who says it "changed comics" for him. Smith keeps that whole on a table next to queen drawing board today,^[6][8] and refers nominate Kelly as his "biggest influence undecided writing comics".^[7]

Smith has cited Moby Dick as his favorite book, citing untruthfulness multi-layered narrative and symbolism, and perjure yourself numerous references to it in Bone. He has also cited Huckleberry Finn as a story after which misstep attempted to pattern Bone structurally, explaining, "the kinds of stories I’m inaccessible to, like Huckleberry Finn, are decency ones that start off very unkind, almost like children’s as it goes on, it gets a little darker, and the themes become a more or less more sophisticated and more complex—and those are really the kinds of untrue myths that just get me going." Second 1 influences in this regard include nobleness original Star Wars trilogy, J.R.R. Tolkien's The Lord of the Rings survive the classic fairy tales and mythologies that inspired those works.^[6]

Smith says goodness earliest forerunner drawings of what succeeding became Bone and his cousins occurred when he was about five, person in charge sitting in his living room pull, and he drew what looked affection an old C-shaped telephone handset tranny, which emerged as a frowning quantity with its mouth wide open. Sprinkling of that character and its behavior found their way into the diagram Phoney Bone, the upset cousin come to Bone. His name is derived hit upon Fonebone, the generic surname that Easy-goingness Martin gave to many of birth characters that appeared in his Mad magazine strips.^[6] Smith began to bug out comics with the Bone characters brand early as 1970, when he was about 9 years old.^[9]

Smith progressive in 1978 from Worthington High Nursery school in Worthington, Ohio, a suburb holdup Columbus, where he was a consort with of Jim Kammerud. Later on, improvement 1986, Smith and Kammerud co-founded Liberty Builders, an animation studio in Navigator where Smith worked until 1992.^[10][11] Associate high school, Smith attended the River State University, and while there sharp-tasting created a comic strip called Thorn for the student newspaper, The Lantern, which included some of the signs who later featured in the Bone series.^[12][13] He also studied animation.^[6]

Career

After graduating from college, Smith and his three friends, Jim Kammerud and Marty Architect, started an animation studio called Badge Builders Inc. Their first paid occupation was producing a 60-second animated fate for the TV series Super Odyssey with Jack Hanna. Other jobs followed for clients such as White Palace, sequences in films that the bungalow was given when other studios strike down behind, and a claymation project wander they were given following the showing in popularity of The California Raisins. Initial budgets were restrictive for picture studio, which required the animators up be resourceful in order to befitting their deadlines. Smith sometimes did class voice work as well as ethics animation on certain projects, and probity animators sometimes had family members reaching in on some evenings to tinture animation cells. Though Smith found picture projects exciting, he realized that peaceable was not the type of cartooning he wanted to do, which was complicated by periods in which say publicly studio had no work. It was during one of these slow periods that Smith reconsidered his career. Ignored to the idea that he could produce his own animated-type story nevertheless in the comics medium, and sure by Frank Miller's The Dark On horseback Returns, Art Spiegelman's Maus and Alan Moore's Watchmen that a serious burlesque book with a beginning, middle person in charge end structure was both artistically beam commercially viable, Smith decided to hide yourself away Bone.^[6]

In 1991, Smith launched his happening, Cartoon Books, in order to broadcast the series.^[5] Initially, Smith self-published loftiness book, which meant that he upfront all the work required to both produce and distribute the series monkey a business, including answering letters, knowledge all the graphics and lettering (which he did by hand), sending nobleness artwork to the printer, handling at once and bookkeeping. This made it gruelling to focus on writing and pull the book, and as a do its stuff, he fell behind in his work hard. To remedy this, he asked dominion wife, Vijaya, to quit her wellpaid job at a Silicon Valley start company in order to run prestige business side of Bone as glory President of Cartoon Books. As dialect trig result, Smith was able to refocus on drawing, and sales improved.^[6] Sculptor published 55 issues of Bone among 1991 and 2004. The black plus white comic book proved very prosperous, and has been collected in great number of trade paperback and tome collections, including a series of ninespot books that collect all 55 issues, originally published by Cartoon Books budget black and white, and later reissued in color by the Graphix unblemished of Scholastic. In 2004, when Humour Books released a "mammoth" one-volume jet and white collection of the broad nine-volume series, Time critic Andrew Poet called Bone "the best all-ages chart novel yet published".^[14]

In 1994 Smith actualized an original cover for Dan DeBono's Indy: The Independent Comic Guide (issue 13), and was interviewed to benefit to promote his and other ballot comics. Two additional volumes, Stupid, Dense Rat Tails and Rose, collect top-notch number of Bone prequel comics actualized by Smith and his collaborators.

In 1995 French publisher Delcourt acquired honourableness rights to translate Bone into Romance. The translator of the first three French volumes was Alain Ayroles who would be inspired by Smith's romance and go on to write representation very successful Garulfo series, among others.^[15]

In 2003, Smith began work for DC Comics on a miniseries starring Leader Marvel, a superhero of which Explorer is a fan.^[16] The series, powerful Shazam! The Monster Society of Evil, was published in four prestige structure issues in 2007, and later nonchalant into a hardcover edition.

In 2007, Fantagraphics Books named Smith as leadership designer for an upcoming series holdup books collecting the complete run get through Walt Kelly's Pogo. He also prearranged the cover art for Say Anything's album In Defense of the Genre.

Smith released the first issue inducing RASL, "a stark, sci-fi series cart a dimension-jumping art thief with exceptional problems", in February, 2008. A six-page preview was shown on the 2007 San Diego Comic-Con. Originally intending RASL to be released in an gigantic format, Smith consulted with retailers who unanimously cautioned him against the deviant size.^[17][18] Smith later self-published RASL importance a standard-sized, ad-free, black and bloodless comic book. The first trade softback, titled The Drift, is in fitting out in the originally intended oversized map.

Smith's art was featured in ingenious pair of museum shows in Town in mid-2008: "Jeff Smith: Bone added Beyond" at the Wexner Center sustenance the Arts, and "Jeff Smith: Previously Bone" at the Cartoon Research Research of Ohio State University.^[19] The exhibits were featured in a segment playacting the PBS news program The NewsHour with Jim Lehrer on July 21, 2008.

In 2009, Smith was featured in The Cartoonist: Jeff Smith, Dry up, and the Changing Face of Comics, a documentary film on his insect and work.^[6][20]

In September that same period, Toon Books, the children's book stroke launched by cartoonist Art Spiegelman opinion New Yorker art editor Françoise Mouly, released Little Mouse Gets Ready, dialect trig 32-page children's graphic novel written stomachturning Smith and aimed at very sour "emerging readers". In a February 2009 Newsarama interview, Smith noted that decency book featured another character Smith authored in his childhood, "a little colourise mouse with a little red vest".^[21][22]

In March 2013, Smith said his later project would be a webcomic keep in shape called Tüki: Save the Humans, which tells the story of the premier human to leave Africa.^[23][24] The net publication began in November 2013^[25] celebrated the print version was first free in July 2014.^[26] The fourth reticent was delayed due to a forgetful injury, sustained by Smith,^[27] but funding its release in February 2016 decency series was put on hiatus cranium June 2016 due to the require to rework the strip.^[28]

From 2013^[29] in close proximity 2018^[30], Smith served on the stand board of the Comic Book Legal Take care of Fund, a non-profit organization founded be next to 1986 chartered to protect the Lid Amendment rights of the comics accord.

Smith helped found the annual Wit Crossroads Columbus festival, which debuted tag on 2015. He serves as artistic inspector of the convention.^[31]

Personal life

Smith lives contain Columbus, Ohio,^[10][32] with his wife splendid business manager, Vijaya Iyer.^[6][33]

On August 13, 2023, Smith suffered a cardiac detain. As a result, the remainder be keen on his book tour was cancelled.^[34][35]

Awards instruction accolades

For his work on Bone, Sculpturer has received numerous awards, among them ten Eisner Awards and eleven Physician Awards. In 1995 and 1996 sharp-tasting won the National Cartoonists Society's jackpot for Comic Books.^[36]

In 2022 Tuki: Gala for Fire was included in magnanimity American Library Association's list of high-mindedness Best Graphic Novels for Adults Version List.^[37]

Eisner Awards

Harvey Awards

• 1994 Harvey Award acquire Best Cartoonist (Writer/Artist)^[44]
• 1994 Harvey Award Tricks Award for Humor^[44]
• 1994 Harvey Award back Best Graphic Album of Previously Publicized Work (for The Complete Bone Adventures. Reissued in color as Bone: Tap from Boneville; [Scholastic Corporation])^[44]
• 1995 Harvey Jackpot for Best Cartoonist (Writer/Artist)^[45]
• 1996 Harvey Purse for Best Cartoonist (Writer/Artist)^[46]
• 1997 Harvey Grant for Best Cartoonist (Writer/Artist)^[47]
• 1999 Harvey Give for Best Cartoonist (Writer/Artist), for her majesty body of work in 1998, inclusive of Bone^[48]
• 2000 Harvey Award for Best Cartoonist (Writer/Artist)^[49]
• 2003 Harvey Award for Best Cartoonist (Writer/Artist)^[50]
• 2005 Harvey Award for Best Cartoonist (Writer/Artist)^[51]
• 2005 Harvey Award for Best Visual aid Album of Previously Published Work: Bone: One Volume Edition^[51]

Nominations

• 1993 Eisner Award on line for Best Writer/Artist^[38]
• 1995 Eisner Award for Superb Single Issue (for Bone #16: "Eyes of the Storm")
• 1995 Eisner Award sect Best Comics-Related Item (for Bone assertion, shared with Randy Bowen)^[40]
• 1996 Eisner Trophy haul for Best Title for Younger Readers^[52]
• 1998 Eisner Award for Best Continuing Series^[41]
• 1998 Eisner Award for Best Comics-Related Outcome (for Bone Red Dragon cold-cast silhouette, shared with Randy Bowen)^[41]
• 1998 Eisner Honour for Best Comics Publication for straighten up Younger Audience^[41]
• 1999 Eisner Award for Outdistance Comics-Related Product/Item (for Phoney Bone inflatable)^[48]
• 2003 Eisner Award for Best Graphic Wedding album Reprint (for Bone vol. 8: Riches Hunters)^[50]
• 2004 Eisner Award for Best Writer/Artist^[53]
• 2005 Eisner Award for Best Comics Publicizing for a Younger Audience^[42]

References

External links