Jeff Smith has joined the stand-alone digital store ranks with new apps for BONE and RASL via comiXology. To celebrate, there’s a sale and at 4 pm a chat on Reddit with Smith.
As kids books tend to do very well on tablets and phones, we’d expect BONE to conquer this medium as well as it has every other place it’s appeared.
Named “one of the ten greatest graphics novels of all time” by TIME Magazine, BONE is now available for fans of all ages everywhere to read and enjoy in an ultra-intuitive digital format through comiXology, the leading digital comics platform provider for the iOS, Android and Web. In collaboration with creator Jeff Smith, comiXology has created a dedicated digital comic app of the series for the iPad, iPhone and iPod touch.
Created by Smith, a multiple award-winning cartoonist, the critically acclaimed BONE series centers around the humor-laced misadventures of the BONE cousins. Booklist writes: “As many comics fans know, the series chronicles the adventures of the Bone cousins–plucky Fone Bone, scheming Phony Bone, and easygoing Smiley Bone– who leave their home of Boneville and are swept up in a Tolkienesque epic of royalty, dragons, and unspeakable evil forces out to conquer humankind.” The series will also soon to be made into a major motion picture.
“BONE is a modern day classic,” said David Steinberger, CEO of comiXology. “We are proud to bring this multiple award-winning comic book into the digital environment for the enjoyment of fans of all ages.”
Published by the #1 children’s book publisher in the world, Scholastic, BONE is one of two books written by Smith that will be released on comiXology. The second, RASL, is a stark, black and white comic book focusing on the hard-boiled adventures of an art thief who hops through dimensional barriers, hiding out on various parallel worlds. In a starred review, Publisher’s Weekly decribed it as “ a stunning narrative that impresses with its originality, sophistication, and complexity.” RASL will also get its own dedicated app. And to celebrate their release, BONE #1 and RASL #1 will be free with the other books on sale for $.99 from July 14th-19th.
This year, Jeff Smith is celebrating twenty years in the comic book business. In 1991, he launched a company called Cartoon Books to publish his comics work, and against all odds, the small company flourished, building a reputation for quality stories and artwork. In 2005, Scholastic Graphix began publishing Bone as a series of full-color graphic novels. With well over 6 million books sold in the U.S. and Canada, BONE has become one of the top selling U.S. graphic novels of all time.
“comiXology is on the pulse of what readers want in the digital world,” said Jeff Smith, creator of BONE. “Based on popular demand, we couldn’t be more delighted to bring BONE to its community of loyal fans and now for the first time ever, on the iPad.”
Creator Jeff Smith will also be hosting an exclusive live Q&A on Reddit, Thursday July 14th, from 4pm-6pm to answer any questions and thoughts that you have. Please go to www.comixology.com/reddit during that time to chat directly with him.
Any BONE and RASL comics purchased in the dedicated apps will sync and also be available to read in the Comics apps.
Got ’em both. They’re really classy apps.
Bone, I can see. Wasn’t Rasl an outsize book, though? How well does it translate to the screen? I often find that even the scaling down of a regular size book has an adverse effect on the lettering.
Paul: guided viewing system. The default with Comixology apps is the panel-to-panel reader, so that certainly isn’t too small.
As a plus I like to set mine to also display the full pages sp that I can glance the overall design. That’s in preferences.