He recalls: 'I was sitting in a room - a fairly large room, there was probably between 500 and 1,000 people in the audience - and there was all ages and races in the room, and everybody was just like: What?' Jeff Smith, author and illustrator of the popular series Bone was at the annual Comic-Con convention in San Diego when he found out he had earned the dubious distinction of being named one of the top 10 most frequently challenged books in America. That's why comics and graphic books are the focus of this year's Banned Books Week, an annual event that calls attention to challenged titles. But a number of the books have come under fire from critics who would like to see them banned from schools and libraries. How?Ĭomics and graphic books are flourishing these days - writers and illustrators are taking on increasingly sophisticated topics and children's authors are finding just the right balance between naughty and nice. Your purchase helps support NPR programming. Smith was the subject of a documentary called 'The Cartoonist: Jeff Smith, BONE, and the Changing Face of Comics.' Smith lives (and dreams) in Columbus, Ohio, with his wife, Vijaya Iyer.Close overlay Buy Featured Book Title Bone Subtitle Out from Boneville Author Jeff Smith In 1991, he launched the comic book BONE and began to create the serialized epic fantasy story that was eventually published in nine volumes.

Smith started drawing stories about the BONE characters before the age of ten. Today, there are millions of BONE books in print in the United States, and they have been translated into thirty languages worldwide.

This epic story about three Bone cousins lost in a valley filled with wonderful and terrifying creatures is loved by readers young and old, and was named by Time as one of the top ten graphic novels of all time. Jeff Smith is the award-winning creator of the New York Times bestselling BONE series.Follow Graphix on Twitter, Instagram, and Tumblr.Learn more about Graphix, Scholastic's graphic novel imprint.

This week, we sit down with Jeff to talk about writing a picture book, the cartoonists who inspire him, and why he'll never say you shouldn't doodle on your math homework.

Now, he's introducing the beloved cousins from Boneville to a younger audience with his first picture book, Smiley's Dream Book. Jeff Smith broke ground with the graphic novelization of his long-running comic, BONE.

Bone by Jeff Smith