The Secret Origin of Jeff Smith's
BONE
Comes to Light! NYT Bestselling Author Smith Returns to his Roots with a New Collection of His
THORN
College Strips!
Cartoon Books announces
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
characters for the first time.
The comic strips reveal an early version of
called
that was written for a college audience in the 1980s.
appeared  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 beautiful edition includes plenty of bonus material such as recently discovered early drawings of the
characters, essays and interviews.