Every year, Houghton Mifflin Harcourt releases a new edition of “The Best American Comics”, each time with a different guest editor picking their favorite comic releases of the year. This year? None other than “Bone” creator Jeff Smith edits the book and highlights the work of brilliant creators like Allison Bechdel, Kate Beaton, Evan Dorkin, Jill Thompson, Terry Moore and many, many more.
Today, we talked to Smith about this release, what it made him think about today’s crops of comics and creators, recapturing the excitement of your youth through comics, his new webcomic (which has now started!) titled “Tuki Save the Humans“, and even what’s next for the world of “Bone”. Thanks to Harcourt for the opportunity to talk with Smith (who is one of my all-time favorite creators). Very exciting to chat with him, unsurprisingly.
You were given the chance to be the editor for the 2013 edition of The Best American Comics, and I have to say, it’s one of my favorite editions yet. For you, what appealed to you the most about putting together this collection, and as someone who just loves the medium, how exciting was it to just get in deep with all of the magic happening in comics today?
Smith: It was very cool. I’ve always loved going to small press shows to see what newer cartoonists are up to, and this was like that in spades! I was in deep!
One of my favorite things in the book was in your intro where you stated that there was one day when preparing for this endeavor that all you did was sit with a plate of cookies and milk and read comics. It was an awesome little anecdote. As a reader, do some comics appeal to you on a sheerly transportive level, taking you back to your youth? I know that’s a feeling I often love having when reading certain comics.
Smith: Of course. Some of my fondest memories as a kid involve comic books. I have a strong memory of riding my bike to the drug store when I was ten to buy candy and comics, and finding the first issue of Joe Kubert’s Tarzan. The art work was like nothing I’d ever seen before. Blew a gasket in my brain. I bought the comic – – a hefty 25 cents, and rode home as fast as I could. I threw my bike down and sat on the porch and read that magazine three times through before I even looked up. I thought it was one of the most perfect things I’d ever seen.
One of the things your edition of The Best American Comics really emphasized to me was just how diverse a medium comics are right now. Was that something you were looking to underline when putting together your choices, or did it just come together naturally?
Smith: I suppose it was unavoidable. Comics are diverse now. There are no rules about what subject matter to use or who your audience must be. What I was looking for were unique voices, cartoonists writing what they wanted to, the way they wanted to as authors. A good comic is a good comic. The collection reflects my tastes. I read Alison Bechdel and Sammy Harkham. I love Evan Dorkin and Kate Beaton. What I want is a comic that works – – that makes me pay attention and even believe in it for the time it’s in front of me.
I love how many incredible female cartoonists were featured in this edition, and you highlighted some of my favorites. As someone who has been in the industry for a while now, how cool is it to see people like Faith Erin Hicks and Kate Beaton bringing such amazing work to life in a medium that long felt like an all boys club?
Smith: I think it’s great. Frankly, they are some of the best comics in the book!
Speaking of Kate, I have to ask, how bizarre was it to find out the two of you are actually related at SPX?
Continued belowSmith: Very. At the start of our conversation, we had no idea, then suddenly we realized there was a connection. My dad’s family is from a little town in Nova Scotia called Mabou – – I knew Kate was from somewhere near Halifax, so I asked where. When she answered Mabou, I thought I’d impress her with the fact that I knew the place. We had a Smith family reunion there, and we all hung out at the Red Shoe tavern. When I mentioned the Red Shoe, she looked like someone hit her on the head with a hammer! Well, that was it. We started talking and suddenly we realized that both our parents have a copy of the same book, The Smiths of Cape Breton. Katie is interested in genealogy and even had a job for a while tracing people’s family trees. Turns out the Beatons and the Smiths are related, and we share a great, great, etc. grandfather. The world is suddenly smaller, and my family is a little bigger. It’s not the kind of thing that happens everyday. Only at SPX!
What would you say the biggest things you took away from the experience as editor of The Best American Comics were?
Smith: Two things. The breadth of talent, and the relative youth of so many cartoonists. Most in their 20s and 30s.
Given the amount of youth and diversity in this edition, what do you think your year-long experience of pouring through as many comics as you could get your hands taught you about where comics are as a medium today?
Smith: I think we’re in a good place. Comics will probably never be an easy place to make a living, but the art form has a lot of respect now, and there are more opportunities than ever to make whatever kind of book you want.
Webcomics earned a lot of space in the book, and now you have your own webcomic coming in November in Tuki Save the Humans. Would you say the experience of seeing what webcomics had to offer partially inspired taking your work to this format, or was that something that had already been on your mind?
Smith: It had an influence. The web looks fresh to me, and the comics I saw there made me want to experiment with layout and more open designs. Not only did I read good stuff on-line, but people like Kate and Faith Erin Hicks are actually making it pay. Like them, Vijaya and I plan to serialize TUKI for free, then eventually release a printed book.
What can you tell us about Tuki Save the Humans, both from a story standpoint and how you intend to play around with the format/layout of your work?
Smith: It takes place 1.8 million years ago when the early hominids were going extinct due to climate changes. In order to survive, something had to be done. TUKI tells the story of the first human to leave Africa. It’s a comedy adventure in the BONE mode, but like RASL, it is largely grounded in science. New pages will go up on Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays, and each one will be a bit like a Sunday comics page. The first one will go up Monday Nov. 25. They can be read for free at boneville.com.
Out of this year’s San Diego Comic Con, word came that you were going to work on new Bone stories that’d be entirely from you and not “sequels” but comics that are set in the world of Boneville. What’s the road map for that project, and can you tell us anything about that yet?
Smith: I still want to draw the Bone cousins. Not so much do new comics, per se, because the Bone story is finished, and I have no desire to revisit the world. I think it would feel like going back to high school, you know what I mean? But the three cousins, that’s a different thing. Those boys have been with me my whole life, so Scholastic is working with me to come up with some projects that will give me an excuse to draw them again. But that’s all I can say for now. Until then, I hope you’ll check out TUKI on line.
Jeff Smith is the author of the New York Times Bestsellers BONE, RASL and The Best American Comics 2013. His new web comic TUKI Save the Humans starts Monday November 25, and can be read free of charge at Boneville.com.
