Breaking: Big pile o’Bones for Scholastic

What’s cuter than a Twilight novel and almost as lucrative? Jeff Smith’s Bone, and the Scholastic folks must be pleased to have the contract for more volumes of the popular series. Full press release below:

BESTSELLING COMICS CREATOR JEFF SMITH TO PUBLISH MORE BONE TITLES WITH SCHOLASTIC

Graphix Imprint to Introduce New BONE Publishing in 2010

New York, NY (July 23, 2009) ­­— Scholastic, the global children’s publishing, education and media company, is delighted to announce the acquisition of US, Canada, Philippines, and English Language rights to new titles by Jeff Smith featuring characters from his bestselling BONE series of graphic novels. First to be published will be BONE: Tall Tales, coming in Summer 2010, written by Jeff Smith and Tom Sniegoski, and illustrated by Jeff Smith, featuring new art and stories with favorite BONE characters. In addition, Scholastic will publish a highly-anticipated expansion of the BONE world—the Quest for the Spark Trilogy. Overseen by Smith, the trilogy will be written by Tom Sniegoski and illustrated by Jeff Smith. BONE Quest for the Spark: Book One (Fall 2010), BONE Quest for the Spark: Book Two (Spring 2011), and BONE Quest for the Spark: Book Three (Summer 2011) represent the first time Smith has continued the adventures set in the valley since the publication of Rose, the prequel to the BONE series—to be released by Scholastic/Graphix in August 2009. The deal for additional BONE publishing was negotiated by Vijaya Iyer for Cartoon Books/Jeff Smith and by David Saylor, Vice President, Creative Director of Trade Publishing and Editorial Director of Graphix, for Scholastic.

There are more than 4.5 million BONE books in print from Scholastic since the Graphix imprint first launched with the full-color version of Bone #1: Out from Boneville in 2005. Time Magazine named BONE one of the top ten graphic novels of all time, and Smith is the winner of multiple awards, including ten Eisner Awards and eleven Harvey Awards—two of the most respected awards in the comics industry.

“Jeff Smith has hinted over the years that there’s more to discover in the world of BONE,” said David Saylor, Vice President, Creative Director of Scholastic Trade Publishing and Editorial Director of Graphix, a Scholastic imprint. “So it’s an incredibly exciting moment for Scholastic and for fans of BONE that we’ll now be publishing books that extend and enrich Jeff’s brilliantly original series.”

“I always said I would find a way to draw more Bone stories, and now I have,” said Jeff Smith. “Tom is great to work with and we’re going to have a lot of fun!” 

Jeff Smith was born and raised in the American Midwest and learned about cartooning from comic strips, comic books, and TV animation. He began self-publishing the comic book BONE in 1991 and Scholastic launched the colorized versions for young readers in 2005. Jeff is the winner of multiple awards, including ten Eisner Awards and eleven Harvey Awards—two of the most respected awards in the comics industry. Smith’s  Cartoon Books has signed a development deal with Warner Bros. for a BONE feature film project, and Smith himself is the subject of the documentary The Cartoonist: Jeff Smith, Bone, and the Changing Face of Comics (Ken Mills, 2009).

Tom Sniegoski is the author of more than two dozen novels for adults, teens, and children. His teen fantasy YA series Fallen was adapted into a trilogy of successful TV movies by ABC Family Channel. His other books for teens include Sleeper Code, Sleeper Agenda, and Force Majeure, as well as the upcoming series The Brimstone Network. Sniegoski’s work for younger readers includes Billy Hooten: Owlboy, and the fantasy quartet OutCast, which he coauthored with Christopher Golden. Sniegoski was born and raised in Massachusetts, where he still lives.

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