The Cartoonist
Encyclopedia
The Cartoonist: Jeff Smith, Bone and the Changing Face of Comics is a 2009 documentary about the life and art of Jeff Smith
, the creator of the Bone
graphic novel series and regarded as one of America's greatest living cartoonists. The feature-length film is by American director Ken Mills and was produced by Mills James Productions.
The Cartoonist has been released for international distribution on DVD.
creation of the epic comic book, Bone, hailed by Time Magazine as "one of the ten greatest graphic novels of all time."
Fellow cartoonists Scott McCloud
, Colleen Doran
, Harvey Pekar
, Paul Pope
and Terry Moore
, as well as friends, associates, experts and Jeff himself, share their stories of this worldwide phenomenon that began in small comics shops and is now found in bookstores, schools, libraries and the homes of millions of adults and children in 25 countries. In addition to discussing Jeff's early years, influences and philosophies, the film provides a look at a unique industry and art form that continues to change and evolve.
on the campus of The Ohio State University, 1871 N. High St., Columbus, Ohio. The premiere was part of the Visiting Filmmakers series, where rising stars and acclaimed masters come to screen their films and talk with Wexner Center audiences. The event was co-sponsored by Ohio State’s Cartoon Library & Museum.
Back in the day, comic books were high-order contraband in America's public schools; only the most brazen smuggler would risk sneaking Archie and Jughead
behind a textbook during algebra class, else an alert teacher swoop in and confiscate it. That form of literary vigilance was warranted, after all, since the U.S. Senate had conducted a 1954 investigation into whether comic books stirred up juvenile delinquency.
Teachers today have a different philosophy. Comic books are now thought of as a wholesome way to encourage actual reading, drawing and writing in an age of slack-jawed cable-TV watching and thumb-numbing video gaming. Most public libraries struggle to find room for their growing collections of graphic novels (long-form comics packaged like a book) as circulation numbers increase.
Across the country, comics and graphic novels are exploding in popularity. America's two top grossing movies of 2008 – The Dark Knight and Iron Man – were based on comic book characters.
Bone: the beginnings
The first versions of his Bone characters, drawn at the age of five, evolved to become a daily comic strip in his college newspaper, the OSU Lantern
. Later, Jeff Smith left behind a successful animation business to focus on creating his small, black-and-white, self-published comic book, telling a story that he describes as "Bugs Bunny meets the Lord of the Rings." It’s a tale that took 13 years to complete, sold initially as a niche product at comic book stores and cartoon conventions. Today, Bone comics remain one the industry’s biggest DIY success stories.
In 2005, Scholastic publishing, looking for another fantasy hit to follow its release ofHarry Potter
, licensed the Bone epic and began issuing color volumes of the comic adventure story about a family of bald, four-fingered, marshmallowy characters exiled from their Boneville home. The first installment, Out From Boneville, starts with three Bone cousins lost and separated in a vast, uncharted desert. Eventually, they reunite on a farmstead run by eccentric Gran'Ma Ben and her beautiful granddaughter, Thorn. In subsequent installments, dark forces conspire against the Bone cousins as they slay dragons, clash with rat creatures and hunt for treasure. Scholastic has sold more than two million copies of the nine-volume epic series.
Today, Bone has gained recognition around the globe, millions of readers and numerous awards, including several Eisners. Bone is published in 25 countries and was hailed by Time Magazine in 2005 as "one of the ten greatest graphic novels of all time."
learned about cartooning from comic strips, comic books, and watching animation on TV while growing up in the midwest. In 1991, he launched a company called Cartoon Books to publish his comic book Bone, a comedy/adventure about three lost cousins from Boneville. Against all odds, the small company flourished, building a reputation for quality stories and artwork. Word of mouth, critical acclaim, and a string of major awards helped propel Cartoon Books and Bone to the forefront of the comic book industry. In 2005, Harry Potter’s U.S. publisher, Scholastic, entered the graphic novel market a full color version of Bone: Out from Boneville, going on to sell millions of copies through its nine-volume run as it brought the underground comic to a new audience and a new generation. Bone has won ten Eisner awards during its publication, has been translated into 15 languages and has been adopted as an important literacy tool by teachers, librarians and parents. Time magazine selected Bone as one of the ten greatest graphic novels of all time. Between projects, Smith spends much of his time on the international guest circuit promoting comics and the art of graphic novels.
Lucy Caswell is Professor and Curator of The Ohio State University Cartoon Library & Museum, the world’s largest treasury of cartoon art. Lucy founded the Cartoon Library and Museum in 1977 with a collection of work by Milton Caniff
including Steve Canyon
and Terry and the Pirates
. Most recently, the library acquired thousands of original Dick Tracy
drawings, a story board done by Walt Disney
for one of his first Mickey Mouse
cartoons, and the Mort Walker
collections of Beetle Bailey
and Hi and Lois
. She is the author of several books on cartooning, including Illusions: Ethnicity in American Cartoon Art (Ohio State Libraries, 1992) and Arnold Roth: Free Lance (Fantagraphics, 2001)
Colleen Doran
is an illustrator, film conceptual artist, cartoonist, and writer whose clients include The Walt Disney Company, Lucasfilm, Sony, Time/Warner, Harper Collins, Readers Digest, Marvel Entertainment and DC Comics. Her credits include: Amazing Spiderman, Captain America, Wonder Woman, and Walt Disney's Beauty and the Beast. Colleen has spent most of her life devoted to her epic science fiction/fantasy tale A Distant Soil
, the first graphic novel solely produced by a female creator. She began writing the tale when she was twelve years old, and has now produced four graphic novel collections and nearly 40 comics.
Marty Fuller is a story artist and animator who has worked on over 20 feature-length films with Warner Brothers, 20th Century Fox, Disney and others, contributing most recently to Dr. Seuss’ Horton Hears A Who! and Ice Age: Dawn of the Dinosaurs for Blue Sky Studios. Shortly after graduating from The Ohio State University with a film degree in 1983, he joined a studio collaboration with Jeff Smith and Jim Kammerud, which opened roads toward becoming a sought-after animation and story artist in his own right.
Kathleen Glosan is the Production Manager for Jeff Smith's publishing company, Cartoon Books. She keeps all the plates spinning in the day-to-day, detailed operation of the studio and its varied publishing, products and public relations activities. In addition to appearing in The Cartoonist, Kathleen coordinated many requests and resources between Cartoon Books and the film production team.
Steve Hamaker is the creative force behind Bone’s dramatic transition from black & white to color. Born and raised in Michigan, Steve graduated from the Columbus College of Art & Design in 1997, and worked as a toy designer until 2000 when he began working for Cartoon Books. After having learned to color digitally on the Bone comic book covers, he was given the epic task of coloring Jeff Smith’s 1300 page Bone story, published by Scholastic Books. Steve has been nominated for the Eisner Award three times in the Best Coloring category. Steve continues to work closely with Jeff Smith at Cartoon Books creating and publishing new comics, including RASL. When time allows he self-publishes his own comic book series called Fish N Chips, and contributes to the comic anthology series Flight.
Vijaya Iyer orchestrates the business behind Jeff Smith’s publishing empire as the President of Cartoon Books and, not coincidentally, is married to Jeff. Vijaya had graduated from The Ohio State University and was enjoying a successful career as a programmer for a software company when, in 1992, Jeff convinced her to join the company as partner to handle publishing and distribution, licensing, and foreign language publications. Today, Vijaya is enjoying the challenges of bringing Bone to new generations of fans worldwide, and managing releases of Jeff’s newest comic creation, RASL.
Jim Kammerud
is a director, writer, and producer of animated feature films. Most recently, he directed Disney's funny and heartwarming musical, The Fox and the Hound 2. Jim made his directorial debut in 2000 with The Little Mermaid: Return to the Sea, wrote and directed the animated sequel 101 Dalmatians II: Patch's London Adventure
, then co-wrote and co-produced Tarzan 2. Jim has either been a writer or developed the story for all the motion pictures he's directed or produced. A successful entrepreneur, Jim is the sole owner of Hot Donut Productions, the studio he started in 2004 to create the story reel and pre-production for The Fox and the Hound 2. Previously he was president and co-founder of Character Builders, an animation studio with a reputation for high quality feature animation, earning credits on over a dozen films, including Space Jam
.
Scott McCloud
is a cartoonist and theorist on comics, best known for his 1993 Understanding Comics, a wide-ranging exploration of the definition, history, vocabulary, and methods of the medium of comics, itself in comics form. He followed in 2000 with Reinventing Comics (also in comics form), and released Making Comics in 2006. His latest work is a comic book that formed the 2008 press release introducing Google's new web browser, Google Chrome. Scott was born in Boston, Massachusetts and obtained his B.F.A in illustration from Syracuse University.
Terry Moore
is a comic book author, graphic novelist and illustrator. He created the popular series Strangers in Paradise, and was involved in the founding of Homage Comics. Following the example of independent comic creator Jeff Smith, he decided to publish Strangers in Paradise
himself through his own Houston-based Abstract Studios imprint. His work has won him recognition in the comics industry, including receiving the Eisner Award for Best Serialized Story. Terry’s latest self-publishing venture, Echo
, first appeared in March 2008, quickly becoming a top seller.
Harvey Pekar
is a true American original. This Cleveland native is the creator of American Splendor
, the popular comic book series that also inspired a critically acclaimed film of the same name. American Splendor is the autobiographical story of Harvey, a working-class everyman (also first-class curmudgeon) and comic book writer who chronicles the ordinary and mundane in stories both funny and touching. In the 2004 film, Harvey is played by actor Paul Giamatti as a frustrated V.A. hospital file clerk who is inspired to create comic books based on his own life. Harvey continued to write graphic novels with a wide variety of cultural and historical themes until his death on July 12, 2010.
Paul Pope
is an alternative comic book artist best known for his well-paced, deftly-shaded combinations of science fiction, hardboiled crime stories and lost romance. Pope introduced THB
in 1995, the same year he began work for Kodansha
, Japan's best-known manga publisher. In 2006, he received an Eisner Award for Best Short Story for Teenage Sidekick, and in 2007, won two Eisners as Best Writer/Artist and Best Limited Series for his Batman mini-series, Batman: Year 100
Born in Philadelphia, Paul grew up in Bowling Green, Ohio, with stops in Columbus, San Francisco, and Toronto. He now lives and works in New York. Paul’s first art book, Pulphope: The Art of Paul Pope, came out as a 224-page hardcover in June 2007.
From Out from the Comic Shop, Comics in the Classroom
From Kevin's Meandering Mind
From The Other Paper
From Columbus Alive
Throughout the course of his career, the Emmy-award winning writer/director has worked in virtually every facet of the media business – television news, documentaries, radio, nature films, commercials, infomercials, public television pledge specials, a weekly public television series and more.
But his major focus for the last 25 years has been the growth of Mills James Productions, the company he co-founded with partner Cameron James. With buildings packed with studios, edit suites, cutting edge gear and a staff of 140 – writers, producers, directors, DPs, art directors, editors and composers – Mills James resembles a scaled-down version of the classic Hollywood studio.
The employee-owned firm produces commercials, original television productions, documentaries, infomercials, corporate videos, interactive media and special events. Two Mills James half-hour television series are currently airing on TV stations around the country. The Piano Guy with Scott Houston
, a multiple Emmy Award-winning how-to program, airs nationally on public television, and Cash Explosion Double Play
, the Ohio Lottery’s
weekly game show, is broadcast Saturday evenings on an 11-station network in Ohio and West Virginia.
Jeff Smith (cartoonist)
Jeff Smith is an American cartoonist, best known as the creator of the self-published comic book series Bone. His current series, RASL, focuses on an art thief who hops through dimensional barriers, hiding out on various parallel worlds.-Early life and education:Jeff Smith was born in McKees...
, the creator of the Bone
Bone (comics)
Bone is an independently published graphic novel series originally serialized in 55 irregularly released issues from 1991 to 2004. Bone was drawn and written by Jeff Smith....
graphic novel series and regarded as one of America's greatest living cartoonists. The feature-length film is by American director Ken Mills and was produced by Mills James Productions.
The Cartoonist has been released for international distribution on DVD.
Synopsis
The Cartoonist tells the inspiring story of Jeff Smith'sJeff Smith (cartoonist)
Jeff Smith is an American cartoonist, best known as the creator of the self-published comic book series Bone. His current series, RASL, focuses on an art thief who hops through dimensional barriers, hiding out on various parallel worlds.-Early life and education:Jeff Smith was born in McKees...
creation of the epic comic book, Bone, hailed by Time Magazine as "one of the ten greatest graphic novels of all time."
Fellow cartoonists Scott McCloud
Scott McCloud
Scott McCloud is an American cartoonist and theorist on comics as a distinct literary and artistic medium...
, Colleen Doran
Colleen Doran
Colleen Doran is an American writer/artist, film conceptual artist, and cartoonist. She has illustrated hundreds of comics, graphic novels, books and magazines, and dozens of stories and articles, including works written by Neil Gaiman, Clive Barker, Anne Rice, J...
, Harvey Pekar
Harvey Pekar
Harvey Lawrence Pekar was an American underground comic book writer, music critic and media personality, best known for his autobiographical American Splendor comic series. In 2003, the series inspired a critically acclaimed film adaptation of the same name.Pekar described American Splendor as "an...
, Paul Pope
Paul Pope
Paul Pope is an American alternative comic book artist. Influenced by Ray Bradbury and Edgar Rice Burroughs, Pope's stories evoke poignant, under-explored aspects of youth culture...
and Terry Moore
Terry Moore (comics)
Terry Moore is a comic book author, graphic novelist and illustrator.He created the popular series Strangers in Paradise, and was involved in the founding of Homage Comics.-Biography:...
, as well as friends, associates, experts and Jeff himself, share their stories of this worldwide phenomenon that began in small comics shops and is now found in bookstores, schools, libraries and the homes of millions of adults and children in 25 countries. In addition to discussing Jeff's early years, influences and philosophies, the film provides a look at a unique industry and art form that continues to change and evolve.
Release
The Cartoonist: Jeff Smith, Bone and the Changing Face of Comics made its world premiere at 7:00 p.m. on May 22 at the Wexner Center for the ArtsWexner Center for the Arts
The Wexner Center for the Arts is The Ohio State University’s multidisciplinary, international laboratory for the exploration and advancement of contemporary art...
on the campus of The Ohio State University, 1871 N. High St., Columbus, Ohio. The premiere was part of the Visiting Filmmakers series, where rising stars and acclaimed masters come to screen their films and talk with Wexner Center audiences. The event was co-sponsored by Ohio State’s Cartoon Library & Museum.
The back story
From comix to graphic novelsBack in the day, comic books were high-order contraband in America's public schools; only the most brazen smuggler would risk sneaking Archie and Jughead
Archie Andrews (comics)
Archie Andrews, created in 1941 by Vic Bloom and Bob Montana, is a fictional character in an American comic book series published by Archie Comics, as well as the long-running Archie Andrews radio series, a syndicated comic strip, The Archie Show, and Archie's Weird Mysteries.-Character and...
behind a textbook during algebra class, else an alert teacher swoop in and confiscate it. That form of literary vigilance was warranted, after all, since the U.S. Senate had conducted a 1954 investigation into whether comic books stirred up juvenile delinquency.
Teachers today have a different philosophy. Comic books are now thought of as a wholesome way to encourage actual reading, drawing and writing in an age of slack-jawed cable-TV watching and thumb-numbing video gaming. Most public libraries struggle to find room for their growing collections of graphic novels (long-form comics packaged like a book) as circulation numbers increase.
Across the country, comics and graphic novels are exploding in popularity. America's two top grossing movies of 2008 – The Dark Knight and Iron Man – were based on comic book characters.
Bone: the beginnings
The first versions of his Bone characters, drawn at the age of five, evolved to become a daily comic strip in his college newspaper, the OSU Lantern
The Lantern
The Lantern is the name of the official, daily student-published university newspaper at The Ohio State University. It is one of the largest campus newspapers in the United States, reaching a circulation of 15,000....
. Later, Jeff Smith left behind a successful animation business to focus on creating his small, black-and-white, self-published comic book, telling a story that he describes as "Bugs Bunny meets the Lord of the Rings." It’s a tale that took 13 years to complete, sold initially as a niche product at comic book stores and cartoon conventions. Today, Bone comics remain one the industry’s biggest DIY success stories.
In 2005, Scholastic publishing, looking for another fantasy hit to follow its release ofHarry Potter
Harry Potter
Harry Potter is a series of seven fantasy novels written by the British author J. K. Rowling. The books chronicle the adventures of the adolescent wizard Harry Potter and his best friends Ron Weasley and Hermione Granger, all of whom are students at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry...
, licensed the Bone epic and began issuing color volumes of the comic adventure story about a family of bald, four-fingered, marshmallowy characters exiled from their Boneville home. The first installment, Out From Boneville, starts with three Bone cousins lost and separated in a vast, uncharted desert. Eventually, they reunite on a farmstead run by eccentric Gran'Ma Ben and her beautiful granddaughter, Thorn. In subsequent installments, dark forces conspire against the Bone cousins as they slay dragons, clash with rat creatures and hunt for treasure. Scholastic has sold more than two million copies of the nine-volume epic series.
Today, Bone has gained recognition around the globe, millions of readers and numerous awards, including several Eisners. Bone is published in 25 countries and was hailed by Time Magazine in 2005 as "one of the ten greatest graphic novels of all time."
Production credits
-
- Executive Producers: Ken Mills and Cameron James
- Co-Producers: Mike Meyer and Martin Fuller
- Written and Directed by: Ken Mills
- Narrated by: Beth Emery
- Associate Producer: R. J. Cavallaro
- Directors of Photography: Scott Myers, Jason Hambach, James McCullars, Andy Marshall and Mike Meyer
- Additional HD Videography: Martin Fuller and Nate Manges
- Opening Animation: Ben Brown
- Edited by: Mike Meyer, Ken Mills and Jeff Drake
- Post Production Sound: Mark Snider, Mark Abrams and Chip Houze
- Studio and Post Production Facilities: Mills James Productions, Columbus, Ohio
- Based on Bone Created by © Jeff Smith, Published by Cartoon Books and its Licensees
Featured interviews
Jeff SmithJeff Smith (cartoonist)
Jeff Smith is an American cartoonist, best known as the creator of the self-published comic book series Bone. His current series, RASL, focuses on an art thief who hops through dimensional barriers, hiding out on various parallel worlds.-Early life and education:Jeff Smith was born in McKees...
learned about cartooning from comic strips, comic books, and watching animation on TV while growing up in the midwest. In 1991, he launched a company called Cartoon Books to publish his comic book Bone, a comedy/adventure about three lost cousins from Boneville. Against all odds, the small company flourished, building a reputation for quality stories and artwork. Word of mouth, critical acclaim, and a string of major awards helped propel Cartoon Books and Bone to the forefront of the comic book industry. In 2005, Harry Potter’s U.S. publisher, Scholastic, entered the graphic novel market a full color version of Bone: Out from Boneville, going on to sell millions of copies through its nine-volume run as it brought the underground comic to a new audience and a new generation. Bone has won ten Eisner awards during its publication, has been translated into 15 languages and has been adopted as an important literacy tool by teachers, librarians and parents. Time magazine selected Bone as one of the ten greatest graphic novels of all time. Between projects, Smith spends much of his time on the international guest circuit promoting comics and the art of graphic novels.
Lucy Caswell is Professor and Curator of The Ohio State University Cartoon Library & Museum, the world’s largest treasury of cartoon art. Lucy founded the Cartoon Library and Museum in 1977 with a collection of work by Milton Caniff
Milton Caniff
Milton Arthur Paul Caniff was an American cartoonist famous for the Terry and the Pirates and Steve Canyon comic strips.-Biography:...
including Steve Canyon
Steve Canyon
Steve Canyon was a long-running American adventure comic strip by writer-artist Milton Caniff. Launched shortly after Caniff retired from his previous strip, Terry and the Pirates, Steve Canyon ran from January 13, 1947 until June 4, 1988, shortly after Caniff's death...
and Terry and the Pirates
Terry and the Pirates (comic strip)
Terry and the Pirates was an action-adventure comic strip created by cartoonist Milton Caniff. Captain Joseph Patterson, editor for the Chicago Tribune New York News Syndicate, had admired Caniff’s work on the children's adventure strip Dickie Dare and hired him to create the new adventure strip,...
. Most recently, the library acquired thousands of original Dick Tracy
Dick Tracy
Dick Tracy is a comic strip featuring Dick Tracy, a hard-hitting, fast-shooting and intelligent police detective. Created by Chester Gould, the strip made its debut on October 4, 1931, in the Detroit Mirror. It was distributed by the Chicago Tribune New York News Syndicate...
drawings, a story board done by Walt Disney
Walt Disney
Walter Elias "Walt" Disney was an American film producer, director, screenwriter, voice actor, animator, entrepreneur, entertainer, international icon, and philanthropist, well-known for his influence in the field of entertainment during the 20th century. Along with his brother Roy O...
for one of his first Mickey Mouse
Mickey Mouse
Mickey Mouse is a cartoon character created in 1928 by Walt Disney and Ub Iwerks at The Walt Disney Studio. Mickey is an anthropomorphic black mouse and typically wears red shorts, large yellow shoes, and white gloves...
cartoons, and the Mort Walker
Mort Walker
Addison Morton Walker , popularly known as Mort Walker, is an American comic artist best known for creating the newspaper comic strips Beetle Bailey in 1950 and Hi and Lois in 1954. He has signed Addison to some of his strips.Born in El Dorado, Kansas, he grew up in Kansas City, Missouri...
collections of Beetle Bailey
Beetle Bailey
Beetle Bailey is an American comic strip set in a fictional United States Army military post, created by cartoonist Mort Walker. It is among the oldest comic strips still being produced by the original creator...
and Hi and Lois
Hi and Lois
Hi and Lois is a comic strip about a suburban family. Created by Mort Walker and illustrated by Dik Browne, it debuted on October 18, 1954, distributed by King Features Syndicate.-Characters:...
. She is the author of several books on cartooning, including Illusions: Ethnicity in American Cartoon Art (Ohio State Libraries, 1992) and Arnold Roth: Free Lance (Fantagraphics, 2001)
Colleen Doran
Colleen Doran
Colleen Doran is an American writer/artist, film conceptual artist, and cartoonist. She has illustrated hundreds of comics, graphic novels, books and magazines, and dozens of stories and articles, including works written by Neil Gaiman, Clive Barker, Anne Rice, J...
is an illustrator, film conceptual artist, cartoonist, and writer whose clients include The Walt Disney Company, Lucasfilm, Sony, Time/Warner, Harper Collins, Readers Digest, Marvel Entertainment and DC Comics. Her credits include: Amazing Spiderman, Captain America, Wonder Woman, and Walt Disney's Beauty and the Beast. Colleen has spent most of her life devoted to her epic science fiction/fantasy tale A Distant Soil
A Distant Soil
A Distant Soil is a science fiction/fantasy comic book series written and illustrated by Colleen Doran, and is the work for which she is best known....
, the first graphic novel solely produced by a female creator. She began writing the tale when she was twelve years old, and has now produced four graphic novel collections and nearly 40 comics.
Marty Fuller is a story artist and animator who has worked on over 20 feature-length films with Warner Brothers, 20th Century Fox, Disney and others, contributing most recently to Dr. Seuss’ Horton Hears A Who! and Ice Age: Dawn of the Dinosaurs for Blue Sky Studios. Shortly after graduating from The Ohio State University with a film degree in 1983, he joined a studio collaboration with Jeff Smith and Jim Kammerud, which opened roads toward becoming a sought-after animation and story artist in his own right.
Kathleen Glosan is the Production Manager for Jeff Smith's publishing company, Cartoon Books. She keeps all the plates spinning in the day-to-day, detailed operation of the studio and its varied publishing, products and public relations activities. In addition to appearing in The Cartoonist, Kathleen coordinated many requests and resources between Cartoon Books and the film production team.
Steve Hamaker is the creative force behind Bone’s dramatic transition from black & white to color. Born and raised in Michigan, Steve graduated from the Columbus College of Art & Design in 1997, and worked as a toy designer until 2000 when he began working for Cartoon Books. After having learned to color digitally on the Bone comic book covers, he was given the epic task of coloring Jeff Smith’s 1300 page Bone story, published by Scholastic Books. Steve has been nominated for the Eisner Award three times in the Best Coloring category. Steve continues to work closely with Jeff Smith at Cartoon Books creating and publishing new comics, including RASL. When time allows he self-publishes his own comic book series called Fish N Chips, and contributes to the comic anthology series Flight.
Vijaya Iyer orchestrates the business behind Jeff Smith’s publishing empire as the President of Cartoon Books and, not coincidentally, is married to Jeff. Vijaya had graduated from The Ohio State University and was enjoying a successful career as a programmer for a software company when, in 1992, Jeff convinced her to join the company as partner to handle publishing and distribution, licensing, and foreign language publications. Today, Vijaya is enjoying the challenges of bringing Bone to new generations of fans worldwide, and managing releases of Jeff’s newest comic creation, RASL.
Jim Kammerud
Jim Kammerud
Jim Kammerud is an American director, writer, producer and animator, best known for his work with the Walt Disney Company.Kammerud attended the Ohio State University in the mid-1980s. There he developed his cartooning style by working as an editorial cartoonist, as well as creating the comic...
is a director, writer, and producer of animated feature films. Most recently, he directed Disney's funny and heartwarming musical, The Fox and the Hound 2. Jim made his directorial debut in 2000 with The Little Mermaid: Return to the Sea, wrote and directed the animated sequel 101 Dalmatians II: Patch's London Adventure
101 Dalmatians II: Patch's London Adventure
101 Dalmatians II: Patch's London Adventure is a 2003 American direct-to-video animated film released by Walt Disney Home Entertainment on January 21, 2003. The film is the sequel to the 1961 Disney animated film One Hundred and One Dalmatians...
, then co-wrote and co-produced Tarzan 2. Jim has either been a writer or developed the story for all the motion pictures he's directed or produced. A successful entrepreneur, Jim is the sole owner of Hot Donut Productions, the studio he started in 2004 to create the story reel and pre-production for The Fox and the Hound 2. Previously he was president and co-founder of Character Builders, an animation studio with a reputation for high quality feature animation, earning credits on over a dozen films, including Space Jam
Space Jam
Aside from Jordan, a number of NBA players and coaches appeared in the film. Larry Bird portrays a friend of Jordan who joins him for a game of golf. When the Monstars steal the NBA players' talent, they invade a game between the Phoenix Suns and the New York Knicks, causing the Knicks' Patrick...
.
Scott McCloud
Scott McCloud
Scott McCloud is an American cartoonist and theorist on comics as a distinct literary and artistic medium...
is a cartoonist and theorist on comics, best known for his 1993 Understanding Comics, a wide-ranging exploration of the definition, history, vocabulary, and methods of the medium of comics, itself in comics form. He followed in 2000 with Reinventing Comics (also in comics form), and released Making Comics in 2006. His latest work is a comic book that formed the 2008 press release introducing Google's new web browser, Google Chrome. Scott was born in Boston, Massachusetts and obtained his B.F.A in illustration from Syracuse University.
Terry Moore
Terry Moore (comics)
Terry Moore is a comic book author, graphic novelist and illustrator.He created the popular series Strangers in Paradise, and was involved in the founding of Homage Comics.-Biography:...
is a comic book author, graphic novelist and illustrator. He created the popular series Strangers in Paradise, and was involved in the founding of Homage Comics. Following the example of independent comic creator Jeff Smith, he decided to publish Strangers in Paradise
Strangers in Paradise
Strangers in Paradise is a long-running, mostly self-published black-and-white comic book, written and drawn by Terry Moore. The series has reached its planned conclusion, finishing off in 2007 with issue #90 of volume 3....
himself through his own Houston-based Abstract Studios imprint. His work has won him recognition in the comics industry, including receiving the Eisner Award for Best Serialized Story. Terry’s latest self-publishing venture, Echo
Echo (comic book)
Echo is an American comic book independently-published by Terry Moore under his Abstract Studio imprint. The first issue was released on March 5, 2008 with silver foil accents not to be included on future printings....
, first appeared in March 2008, quickly becoming a top seller.
Harvey Pekar
Harvey Pekar
Harvey Lawrence Pekar was an American underground comic book writer, music critic and media personality, best known for his autobiographical American Splendor comic series. In 2003, the series inspired a critically acclaimed film adaptation of the same name.Pekar described American Splendor as "an...
is a true American original. This Cleveland native is the creator of American Splendor
American Splendor
American Splendor is a series of autobiographical comic books written by the late Harvey Pekar and drawn by a variety of artists. The first issue was published in 1976 and the most recent in September 2008, with publication occurring at irregular intervals...
, the popular comic book series that also inspired a critically acclaimed film of the same name. American Splendor is the autobiographical story of Harvey, a working-class everyman (also first-class curmudgeon) and comic book writer who chronicles the ordinary and mundane in stories both funny and touching. In the 2004 film, Harvey is played by actor Paul Giamatti as a frustrated V.A. hospital file clerk who is inspired to create comic books based on his own life. Harvey continued to write graphic novels with a wide variety of cultural and historical themes until his death on July 12, 2010.
Paul Pope
Paul Pope
Paul Pope is an American alternative comic book artist. Influenced by Ray Bradbury and Edgar Rice Burroughs, Pope's stories evoke poignant, under-explored aspects of youth culture...
is an alternative comic book artist best known for his well-paced, deftly-shaded combinations of science fiction, hardboiled crime stories and lost romance. Pope introduced THB
THB (comics)
-Publication history:Pope published issue one of THB in 1994 during a new wave of black and white independent comic books that included Bone, Hepcats, and Starchild....
in 1995, the same year he began work for Kodansha
Kodansha
, the largest Japanese publisher, produces the manga magazines Nakayoshi, Afternoon, Evening, and Weekly Shonen Magazine, as well as more literary magazines such as Gunzō, Shūkan Gendai, and the Japanese dictionary Nihongo Daijiten. The company has its headquarters in Bunkyō, Tokyo...
, Japan's best-known manga publisher. In 2006, he received an Eisner Award for Best Short Story for Teenage Sidekick, and in 2007, won two Eisners as Best Writer/Artist and Best Limited Series for his Batman mini-series, Batman: Year 100
Batman: Year 100
Batman: Year 100 is a four-issue American comic book mini-series starring Batman, published in 2006 by DC Comics. It was written and illustrated by Paul Pope and colored by José Villarrubia.-Plot:...
Born in Philadelphia, Paul grew up in Bowling Green, Ohio, with stops in Columbus, San Francisco, and Toronto. He now lives and works in New York. Paul’s first art book, Pulphope: The Art of Paul Pope, came out as a 224-page hardcover in June 2007.
Criticical review
From Booklist Editors' Choice: 2009 MediaFrom Out from the Comic Shop, Comics in the Classroom
From Kevin's Meandering Mind
From The Other Paper
From Columbus Alive
About the director and Mills James Productions
The film’s director, Ken Mills, president of Columbus-based Mills James Productions, has always loved a good story.Throughout the course of his career, the Emmy-award winning writer/director has worked in virtually every facet of the media business – television news, documentaries, radio, nature films, commercials, infomercials, public television pledge specials, a weekly public television series and more.
But his major focus for the last 25 years has been the growth of Mills James Productions, the company he co-founded with partner Cameron James. With buildings packed with studios, edit suites, cutting edge gear and a staff of 140 – writers, producers, directors, DPs, art directors, editors and composers – Mills James resembles a scaled-down version of the classic Hollywood studio.
The employee-owned firm produces commercials, original television productions, documentaries, infomercials, corporate videos, interactive media and special events. Two Mills James half-hour television series are currently airing on TV stations around the country. The Piano Guy with Scott Houston
Scott Houston
Scott Houston is a piano player, author, teacher and television personality who hosts and co-produces the Public Television series The Piano Guy. He also is the featured performer on a Public Television pledge special titled Play Piano in a Flash...
, a multiple Emmy Award-winning how-to program, airs nationally on public television, and Cash Explosion Double Play
Cash Explosion
Cash Explosion, known as Cash Explosion Double Play from 1989 until 2006, is an official Ohio Lottery TV game show, which is broadcast on television stations throughout Ohio...
, the Ohio Lottery’s
Ohio Lottery
The Ohio Lottery is run by the Ohio Lottery Commission. Its games include Pick 3 and Pick 4 , Rolling Cash 5, Ten-OH!, Keno, Classic Lotto, Powerball, Mega Millions, and scratch tickets. The marketing slogan is "Take a chance on education. Odds are, you'll have fun!" In 1973, the creation of the...
weekly game show, is broadcast Saturday evenings on an 11-station network in Ohio and West Virginia.
DVD extras
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- Jeff Smith and Scott McCloud in conversation at The Ohio State University (82 minutes)
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- Jeff tells the story behind RASLRASLRASL is an independently published black and white comic book series, written and drawn by Bone creator Jeff Smith. The series showed Smith's "dark side", as it was much more mature than his previous works. The series originally ran with 3 issues a year with repeated delays, but has now been...
- Jeff tells the story behind RASL