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Combined coverage of the Jeff Smith: Bone and Beyond weekend!

The opening of Jeff Smith: Bone and Beyond

The Gallery Event Of The Year!

Jeff Smith: Bone and Beyond opens to the public

We took over 200 photos during the gallery opening this evening. We'll be sharing a landslide

of photos over the weekend. This 16 shot kickoff gallery is just the start!

More photos from the opening of Jeff Smith: Bone and Beyond

It was a well attended opening!

We're pleased to share some attendee photos with this gallery.

Many more photos are on the way...


Jeff Smith arrives at the Wexner	Jeff greets everyone	He does a bit of book signing

Jeff's parents were on hand	Steve Hamaker stops for a chat	Terry Moore checks out the art

Harvey Pekar and Joyce Brabner	Harvey takes in the event	Harvey, Joyce and Scott McCloud

Crowds begin to form	What an amazing mural	Jeff and Scott talk with a friend

Jeff continues saying hello	Jeff's parents await the start of festivities	Harvey chats with Jeff

The Art of the Jeff Smith: Bone and Beyond Exhibit

Continuing our ongoing coverage of last weekend's Jeff Smith gallery launch, we're pleased to share a few
examples of the amazing art you can see at the Wexner Center for the Arts now until August 3rd, 2008.

Get all the details here!


Bone #16, page 6 & 7 Date of Work: 1994	Cover to Bone #20 & page 7 of #24 Date of Work: 1995 & 1997	Bone #16, page 12 & 13 Date of Work: 1994

INKS: Cartoon and ComicArt Studies Date of Work: February 1995	Bone #31, page 18 Date of Work: 1998	Bone #2, page 18 Date of Work: 1991

Bone #2, page 8 & 9 Date of Work: 1991	Cover to Bone #4 in color and b/w Date of Work: March 1992	Bone #16, page 14 & 15 Date of Work: 1994

Bone #16, page 20 Date of Work: 1994	Bone #13, page 6 Date of Work: 1994	Bone #9, page 17 Date of Work: 1993

Bone #54, page 44 & 45 Date of Work: 2004	Shazam: The Monster Society of Evil #4, page 34 & 35 Date of Work: 2007	Bone #16, page 8 &9 Date of Work: 1994

Jeff Smith and Scott McCloud in Conversation

Over 350 people attended today's conversation!

This is our first gallery from today's fun. Many more photos are on the way.

The book signing following the

Jeff Smith and Scott McCloud in Conversation

For a little OVER THREE HOURS, Jeff Smith and Scott McCloud

signed books, drew small sketches, told stories and met with fans.

These two stayed well past the close the event to ensure every fan left happy.

Bone colorist Steve Hamaker studies the show poster

Before Bone at the Cartoon Research Library

Jeff Smith: Before Bone
May 1-September 5, 2008

To celebrate the opening of this exhibit and its companion exhibition Jeff Smith: Bone and Beyond at the Wexner Center for the Arts, the Cartoon Research Library was open Saturday, May 10, from 1-5 p.m. This was the only Saturday the exhibit will be open.

Jeff Smith brought a much more polished feature to the campus newspaper than most student cartoonists. From its inception, Thorn, the title of Smith’s Lantern strip which was named after its female protagonist, exhibited an unusual level of sophistication. The strip demonstrated very capable manipulation of layout and design coupled with time-honored comic strip narrative techniques. It is interesting to note that by his early twenties, Smith clearly grasped the power of epic narrative, even though the storyline of Thorn, while sophisticated and entertaining, was not linear.

The vantage point of a quarter century and the phenomenal international success of Bone make us see Jeff Smith’s college cartoons in a different perspective than we did when they first ran in The Lantern. At Ohio State University, the student newspaper describes itself as a “laboratory newspaper,” and it served that purpose very successfully for Smith. He used Thorn both to hone his artistic skills and to experiment with several types of storytelling. From a sketchbook page to finished comic strips, this exhibition celebrates the education of a young man.

A signed and numbered catalogue limited to 500 copies is available. It reprints all of the Thorn comic strips in this exhibit and has an introduction by Jeff Smith, a foreword by his colleague Jim Kammerud and an essay by Lucy Shelton Caswell. The volume is available from the library for $25 per copy. All proceeds from the sale of this catalogue will benefit the Cartoon Research Library.

To order Jeff Smith: Before Bone, complete this FORM.

Learn more about the Cartoon Research Library here.

One Last Gallery of Photos

We return one last time for our final gallery of Jeff Smith: Bone and Beyond photos.

Wethank you for all the great e-mails regarding our coverage!

If you missed any of our prior photos or commentary, click here to look back.

Learn more about the work of Jeff Smith by visting www.boneville.com!

Bone and Beyond!

It Was A Jeff Smith Weekend

Columbus, Ohio's Wexner Center for the Arts and Ohio State University's Cartoon Research Library have a lot to celebrate as a very eventful weekend drew to a close Saturday evening. Looking back, the series of events they hosted were presented with style and forethought and proved both fun to attend and utterly impressive in scope. The way in which the exhibit organizers honored Jeff Smith's work, past and present, not only proved a credit to the creator but a statement on the strength of sequential art and comics as a narrative and artistic form.

The weekend's activities, as you've probably figured out from our five previous photo galleries, took place Friday and Saturday and featured four distinct events focused on Jeff Smith and his work as a comic creator. The weekend began with the gallery opening for Jeff Smith: Bone and Beyond, a feature event unveiling roughly 80 original black-and-white pages from Bone, a smaller selection of full-color Bone covers, a mix of some of Smith's post-Bone artwork and a sampling from other creators that influenced Smith. On Saturday, Jeff Smith and Scott McCloud in Conversation featured the two creators discussing Smith's work and fielding questions from fans. That event was followed by an extended book signing. Simultaneously, next door at the Cartoon Research Library, a second exhibit was unveiled titled Before Bone. That exhibit focused on Smith's cartoon work Thorn which ran in Ohio State's student newspaper, The Lantern, and heralded many of the characters and themes that would evolved into Bone.

For those of you unfamiliar with the Wexner Center it's a multi-purpose facility acting as a contemporary art gallery and a research laboratory for the arts at The Ohio State University. It commissions new work and provides for artist residencies, in addition to presenting performing arts, film, video and other visual exhibitions to the public. Likewise, the Cartoon Research Library is a facility that exists to develop a comprehensive research collection documenting, organizing and providing access to American printed cartoon art. The library focuses on editorial cartoons, comic strips, comic books, graphic novels, sports cartoons and magazine cartoons.

We'll start this wrap-up report with Friday's gallery opening.

The Wexner Center lent itself well to the Jeff Smith: Bone and Beyond gallery show. Upon entering the main floor, you are greeted by an information desk and a large sweeping staircase to your right. As you descended the stairway, it was immediately clear that you are entering the world of Bone. A massive mural is presented on the wall which the staircase overlooks and features a full color mural (pictured in part to the right and in full in our galleries). This same image is also featured as the official show poster commemorating the event.

For the evening, finger food and a full bar highlighted a reception area which began at the mural, encompassed much the main room and flowed into an adjacent glass walled reception room. This area gave guests the feel of entering a celebration as they came down the stairs. For much of the evening, the reception was utterly filled with people that spilled out into the main show area in front of the Wexner bookstore.

If you kept an eye on that crowd, you could spot Smith's parents along with his wife Vijaya. Bone colorist (and comic creator in his own right) Steve Hamaker was on hand along with representatives of both Cartoon Books and Scholastic Books. Comic legends Scott McCloud, Harvey Pekar and Terry Moore were just a few of the creators present for the event. Start to finish, it was an exceedingly well attended gallery opening.

The gathering itself was very relaxed while still maintaining an air of excitement. The Wexner Center can be commended for making the public feel right at home within the facility. Security, where it was present, was very supportive of the patrons and seemed to genuinely enjoy hosting the event. The art gallery itself was open early and remained accessible past the referenced hours in honor of the event. Quite refreshing!

Just behind the mural lay the entrance to the actual art exhibit. Presented in four connected areas, the gallery show featured, for the most part, Smith's art on traditional white walls with informational plaques mixed throughout the exhibit. An audio tour was referenced as available for those choosing to visit the event at a later date. What made this presentation really pop was the long wall that could be seen from anywhere within the exhibit. It done up in a striking two color design evoking the legendary rain storm sequence from the Bone series as a backdrop. Mixed with the white walls, it really proved an exciting focal point for the room. For a gallery presentation, this is as visually striking as any I've seen previously.

Moving to Saturday's conversation event, Jeff Smith and Scott McCloud took the stage at precisely 2:00 PM. They were introduced by Lucy Shelton Caswell, professor and curator for Ohio State's Cartoon Research Library. The conversation itself was like listening in on a chat between two old friends, which it's clear these two are. Covering topics ranging from what influenced Smith to the business side of Bone to women in comics, Smith and McCloud spoke for about 50 minutes batting questions back and forth (though most were directed at Smith). Follow-up questions from the audience ran for an additional 40 minutes bringing the entire conversation in at about an hour and a half. An enthusiastic crowd was on hand with some traveling as far as from Florida to attend the event. Organizers estimate the conversation was attended by a little over 350 people in total.

What was discussed?

To be honest, we're actually not going to dig too deeply into the conversation in this article. That said, we are planning a follow-up article later this week which will look back on what these two discussed and what questions were posed by the fans. It was such a great conversation that we felt it deserved it's own write-up so consider this a bit of a tease for more good content to come.

After the conversation came to a close, fans flooded out of the theater to form a line for the signing. Watching the exits as the event transitioned, I can say that almost no one left. The entire hall simply moved from the theater to form a line to meet Jeff and Scott. To these two creators gracious credit, both stayed until every last fan was met, every last book was signed and Smith, wrist brace in place, was drawing small Bone sketches with most signatures. Both creators took time to talk to fans and Scott McCloud actually came out into the line at several points telling stories, jokes and entertaining folks with song.

On a personal note, I was busy grabbing photos as the line formed but still wanted to get a book signed for my wife. Bringing up the end of the line, I was there at the very close of the event. The line lasted just a little over three hours. When we made it up to say hello to the two creators, they proved just as gracious and friendly as if we had been the first in line. They had to be tired, but they didn't let it show for a moment.

Time and again, what made this event so much fun was the enthusiasm that could be seen on the faces of fans, no matter the age. From the very young to the well seasoned in age, Bone draws people together and ignites a passion to read. I didn't just read Bone the first time through, I devoured each issue hungry for more. It's nice to be reminded this weekend that I very much wasn't alone in that experience. Seeing that passion to read ignited in younger readers is particularly fun. If you look closely at the following image, you'll see one aspect of why Bone is so deserving of respect...

Bone is open and being read. The Nintendo DS is in the off position.

We can't close this event report without talking just a bit about the Cartoon Research Library's Before Bone exhibit. The facility that houses the exhibit is an oversized room that serves as the centerpiece of the Cartoon Research Library. The early Jeff Smith artwork presented in the exhibit, though Smith references it repeatedly as something that makes him cringe, proved a great look at the early work of an accomplished artist. I found the cartoons both fun and an utterly interesting addition to the entire event. I was quite pleased to learn that the work is being offered in a limited run compilation benefiting the Cartoon Research Library. For any Bone collector, it is a must have item to say the least.

As I said at the start, this event was tremendous fun to attend and makes me eager to hear what happens at the upcoming conversations with Terry Moore and Paul Pope. The Wexner Center for the Arts and the Cartoon Research Library are facilities comic fans should be paying attention to and we'll make sure they are covered here at Comic Related. They are clear comic book and sequential art advocates and that makes Comic Related an advocate of their work.

This wrap-report doesn't end our coverage of the weekend. We took a couple hundred photos and we plan to return with at least one or two more galleries before we are done. In those galleries, we plan to focus much more on the actual art presented in Jeff Smith: Bone and Beyond. Additionally, we'll return with an in depth look at the conversation between Jeff Smith and Scott McCloud. We're also pleased to report that the Wexner Center has offered us the use of some audio from their sound board and a chance to speak with the show's organizers. Once we nail down those segments, we'll put them together in an upcoming Related Recap podcast for you to enjoy.

-- Site Creator Chuck Moore Reporting, May 12th, 2008