Bone

During the one year hiatus I went on for Spoon (the edition before this one), I started to hear a lot of buzz about a comic (NOT manga) called "Bone" by Jeff Smith. And during that time, he compiled all 55 issues into one huge ginormous book.

"Bone" is about three bone cousins who got kicked out of their hometown, Boneville, and become entangled in a crazy fantasy adventure when entering the valley.


I went to Barnes and Noble and gave it a read and was stuck there all day. The art is very cutesy, but seeing the art outside of the bone characters proves his art is no joke (My girlfriend says Charles is cuter than Bone, but I believe she is just saying that..haha)Because of Bone, I was able to find a different way of telling Spoon. People who have read my manga before will notice huge changes in the way I started out the story, which is very inspired from Bone.

Once I finished Bone, I started to research how the author went about with drawing the story and selling it, thus becoming very successful.

Low and behold, the DVD called "The Cartoonist" came out, which documents the history of Bone. I asked my girlfriend to order it on netflix, but it had an extremely long wait. I waited a couple of months and just lost my patience and finally ordered it. Watching it was one of the most inspiring things in my life, simply because this man is doing what I want to do in the future, the only difference is that my field is with manga.

Another fascinating feature about Jeff Smith is that he draws the comic from start to finish, meaning he does not use the computer in any way. He does the lettering, inking, EVERYTHING all by himself. I on the other hand use the computer to ink and letter. The art is just fantastic and the way he inks everything with a stroke of his brush is just dazzling. The link below will show you.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a0FC9hmBm08

After seeing how Jeff Smith does things, it makes me realize how much more I need to develop....

I hope one day, I will get good enough to be able to do what Jeff Smith did, meaning self publish Spoon and become successful....it took him 10 years to complete his story...mine will probably take 30! hahaha

So for those of you who haven't read it or watched the documentary....what are you waiting for!?

p.s. If you are reading this Mr. Smith, I hope to meet you one day and collaborate? hahah :)