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Confirmed: Jeff Smith To Collect His Pre-Bone Comic, Thorn, For 2024

Jeff Smith and Cartoon Books has announced Thorn: The Complete Proto-Bone College Strips from 1982 to 1986, And Other Early Drawings.

Last month, Bleeding Cool reported the news that Jeff Smith was to reprint his early comic strip "Thorn" for his university's student newspaper, The Lantern, which included some of the characters who later featured in Bone. There was a partial collection, with a thousand print run, but nothing since Bone became a big thing. And copies have sold at Heritage Auctions for $13,200 back in 2020.

Jeff Smith confirmed our report, saying "It's true! Official announcement and first look next week!" And now that next week is with us. Cartoon Books has announced Thorn: The Complete Proto-Bone College Strips from 1982 to 1986, And Other Early Drawings, reprinting the entire run of his earliest rendering of the world-famous Bone characters for the first time. Though if Smith had his way, it might not have happened.

"Talking Jeff into this book wasn't easy, but fans have been asking us for years." explains Cartoon Books Publisher Vijaya Iyer, Smith's partner.

"I confess I was a hard sell at first," says cartoonist Smith, "Talk of reprinting the Thorncomics has always been a non-starter for me. I didn't think they were very good. In fact, I had an unshakable idea that they were terrible. But when I read them for the first time in over 40 years, I was surprised to find I enjoyed them! It's fun to see these stories and know they eventually evolved into BONE."

The comic strips reveal an early version of Bone called Thorn that was written for a college audience in the 1980s. Thorn appeared five days a week in the pages of The Ohio State University's student newspaper The Lantern. A few were reprinted in a self-published 1983 book called Thorn: Tales from The Lantern. Another small selection was published in 2008's limited edition fundraiser for OSU's Billy Ireland Cartoon Library & Museum called Before Bone. Both books are long out of print and sell at collector's prices. There has never been an official, complete run published until now.

This edition includes plenty of bonus material such as recently discovered early drawings of the Bone characters, essays and interviews.

Thorn: The Complete College Strips, will be published in both hardcover and mass market paperback. It will launch on Kickstarter this October for release in Spring of 2024.

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