A RASL UPDATE WITH JEFF SMITH

[MattBrady]

by Vaneta Rogers

The news was anticipated by comics fans around the world. In July at San Diego Comic-Con, Jeff Smith released a preview of his first independent comics work since he ended his 12-year run on Bone in 2004, and fans of the epic fantasy series cheered his promised return.

Titled RASL, which Smith pronounces "rassle," the new series is being self-published in black and white by Smith through his company, Cartoon Books. Focusing on a character who hops across parallel dimensions to steal art, the series is tentatively planned to run for approximately two years and, like Bone, will be solely created by Smith.

Much of the excitement among fans about the new series is the result of the success of Bone, which was originally published by Cartoon Books, but is now also published in color by Scholastic Books, reaching a wider audience of children readers in a way few other comics have. Volumes of Jeff Smith's award-winning series Bone have sold millions of copies and been reprinted in at least nine different languages around the world. The character and his adventures were even the subject of a video game and other products like statues and action figures, as well as the hardcover The Art of Bone, published earlier this year.

But Smith isn't content to just sit back and ride the success of Bone, so he's back to the daily grind of publishing a comic book. And when Smith announced his new series, he was hoping to release RASL in early 2008 as an oversized comic. But as we get closer to the release of the first issue, we caught up with Smith to get an update on production and found out he's decided to go with a regular sized comic, and is now looking at a release of RASL #1 in late February.

Newsarama: How are things going? It's been a little while since you were in the monthly grind of writing and drawing a comic.

Jeff Smith: Yeah, that's exactly right. I forgot that it's so much work! But it's so much fun too, because I actually go to my desk and I sit down first thing in the morning and just draw. And I love it. Because I spent a lot of the last year on the road, promoting comics, which is still part of my job, but it's actually what I really do. Sitting here and drawing is what makes the world go around for me.

NRAMA: Last time we talked, you were hoping for a January release. When officially is this going to be coming out now?

JS: It will come out in February. The plan right now is to get it to the printer at the end of January. So it will come out in late February. We're talking about having a launch party in conjunction with the Comic Book Legal Defense Fund sometime in March in New York. So it will definitely come out in February, on time.

NRAMA: It's got to feel good to get back to drawing, although you did work recently on Shazam: Monster Society of Evil for DC Comics. But this is all your own project again.

JS: Yeah, that's much more fun, for me. To do something on my own. And I'm really excited about the story. I went out to Arizona for a couple weeks just to put the final pieces together and to just sort of have some quiet. And the story opens in the Arizona desert. So when I was out there, I was trying to get the final pieces and thinking, what really is going on in this story? I knew who all the characters were, and I knew who RASL was. He's just a guy whose life hasn't turned out very well and he's made a lot of mistakes. But to really have a story, there's got to be that one thing that everyone's after in the story. And I came up with it while I was out there, and I'm so psyched. I'm really looking forward to doing this story now. I can't wait.

NRAMA: You had that big epiphany. You found the hook, right?

JS: Yeah! Exactly!

NRAMA: For people who haven't heard what the story is about, recap for us: What is RASL about?

JS: RASL is this guy who has a special immersion suit that allows him to go into other dimensions. It's a very sci-fi idea, or at least a far-out idea of physics, where he straps these giant engines on his shoulders and knees, and using thermo-magnetic forces, he can actually warp space around his engines and step into a parallel dimension. And if you give him enough money, he'll go to those dimensions and steal things for you. He's found a really lucrative market in doing things like getting someone their own Mona Lisa, or something like that. A world leader who is really rich can pay him go get their own Venus de Milo or whatever.

NRAMA: Right. And he spray paints RASL on the wall where he leaves the painting.

JS: Yeah. But the trick is that going into another dimension is really, really painful for RASL. It hurts him a lot. It takes him days to recover. He spends about four or five days just drinking and gambling and womanizing until he can stop hurting. But to go back, it's the opposite. He has to clean himself physically and mentally. He has almost become centered like a zen monk. I love it because he has to do this back and forth, where he has the pleasures of the flesh and then almost this zen abstinence. He has to do this all the time.

NRAMA: Isn't there a name for where he goes? He enters this warp and has a name for it.

JS: Oh, yeah, he refers to it as the Drift. He calls it the Drift because there's a little time drift. He can steer it, but not perfectly. There's a little bit of drift involved and random chance to not only where he ends up, but what time. There's a slight time drift, forward and back. Not much, and he can't control it. It's more like surfing than flying a plane. So he can surf back in time a little bit. If he knows how to circumvent the alarms in the Louvre in one dimension, he only has to learn it once. 'Cause now he can just kind of drift back in time and do it over and over again. [laughs]

NRAMA: [laughs] This doesn't sound good.

JS: Yeah, the problem is that as he's doing this, he's starting to change things. The painting you see him stealing in the preview is a Picasso. And he comes back to Earth, and he's got a little time to kill before he has to be at a bar to meet a guy he's going to sell the painting to. So he goes to another bar and he says, "Line up a shot, a pint of beer and a martini." And he just pounds them and sets them up again. And he goes to the juke box, and he finds Bob Dylan's Blonde on Blonde album in the juke box. But it's not by Bob Dylan. It's by Rob Zimmerman, which is Dylan's real name. And he thinks, uh oh! I'm not in the right dimension. And he realizes he needs to get out of there. And he thinks, "Don't panic. Go back to the bar and get the painting, and leave, now."

And he turns around, this really tall guy in a dark trenchcoat strolls in and pulls out a gun and just starts firing at him, in this parallel world. So that begins a mystery that he has to start unraveling that eventually has him -- I'm telling you way too much! I should stop!

NRAMA: Are you?

JS: Oh, I don't know. Maybe not. But he stumbles upon this mystery that is not only going to expose his little scheme and ilicit adventures in art stealing, but also there is a secret that people really want to get their hand on. A very dangerous, powerful secret. And he's right in the middle of it. And I'm really excited to tell this story.

NRAMA: And that's the big secret that you thought of in Arizona?

JS: Yeah. I mean, it will be known in the first two or three issues. But I don't want to give it away just yet. It all ties together.

NRAMA: And you told us in July that we'd find out the meaning of the initials "RASL" and what the "Maya" tattoo on his arm means, as well as how he got this immersion suit in the first place.

JS: All will be revealed.

NRAMA: And you've started on production?

JS: Yeah, of course. And we're moving right ahead. It's really looking good, and I feel really good about the story. I'm having fun again.

NRAMA: But you're just doing one issue at a time, right? I mean, I know it's an ongoing, but you're not getting way ahead on this or anything like you did on Monster Society of Evil. On that comic, you were done with all four issues before they released the first one.

JS: Yeah, exactly. I'm going back to the way I did Bone, which does mean I'll be chasing deadlines again. But it's also a process that is more organic, and I'll get letters and feedback from readers. And I like that. Instead of just making a book and putting it out there, this serialized process is more fun and more organic. I didn't have as much fun doing Shazam that way, because it was just me doing the story and I didn't get any feedback as it went. So I want to do this the way I did Bone. I'll probably have an issue done by the time people see an issue. But comments can still affect the story. Know what I mean?

NRAMA: Yeah. You'll be maybe two issues ahead. But this will be an ongoing and will evolve somewhat as the story continues?

JS: Yeah. That's how it worked with Bone, and a lot of really good things came from the dialogue with that, between me as the writer and the people who were reading this stuff.

NRAMA: And you mentioned on Blog@Newsarama that you were re-thinking the oversized format.

JS: Yeah. The oversized format scared people. I think retailers have a lot of experience at trying to sell oversized comics. And what they were telling me is, "Don't do it." [laughs] The retailers I talked to -- and I tried to talk to a good cross section of them because I know a lot of retailers after all these years -- and they all gave me the same advice. And I trust these people. They're friends and they're good businessmen.

It's going to be comic book size. It will actually have 32 pages, which is longer than most comics. And a really cool cover. And then when I do a collection in a year, I can do that oversized. Because I'm told that whatever I want to do then would be fine. But with the comics, 100 percent of the retailers I talked to strongly recommended I do comic book size. And I'm going to listen to them.

NRAMA: But it's still going to be black and white?

JS: Yes. It's going to be a good black and white, indy comic book.

NRAMA: Are you still thinking the collections will be colored?

JS: We're keeping that option open. Right now, I think the collections are still going to be black and white and oversized like the preview was that came out in San Diego. They were 11" x 17". And I'll have three or four issues in there at a time. So it will be a nice, big, thick book.

NRAMA: The desire to do something oversized: Is this your reaction to them making Bone so small in the Scholastic collections?

JS: Yeah! Actually, it is. Ironically, as Bone became more successful and started going to larger and larger markets, it got smaller. So yeah, in some ways I'm kind of wanting to go back to black and white and a normal size comic again. And although we won't do the series in oversized format, the collection will definitely be oversized.

NRAMA: But it sounds like, as you're getting closer to the release of the first issue, it's got you really excited about doing comics again.

JS: I am. And I'm serious about what I said about how good it feels to not have it all done. It's much scarier this way. I'm excited, and I know what the ending is, like I did with Bone. But it's not all planned out. With Bone, there were really terrifying moments where I lost control for a little bit. Some of the best stuff came out of that terrifying process of trying to kind of, you know, think on your feet. A lot of it just bubbles up and you don't even know where it's coming from. So I'm hoping that happens with RASL. It's like stepping off the edge of something and not knowing where the bottom is. And it's an exciting feeling. Scary too. It might kill me. But I'm psyched.

NRAMA: You missed the stress!

JS: [laughs] That's exactly it! I missed the stress! There's your headline right there.

[BryanS7]

Jeff Smith is everything good about comics.

[Kevin T. Brown]

Dimension-hopping? Check.

Time travel? Check.

Jeff Smith writing and drawing? Check.



Count me in!

[80Pork]

Check out the lower portion of my signature...we are definitely fans!

I'll be getting this, no doubt! Looking forward to it, Jeff!!!

[pop monkey]

I'm VERY excited about this! Welcome back Jeff! Your SHAZAM mini was great, but it is nice to have you back at your own creator-owned stuff! Can't wait!

[Blackbeard]

Excellent news! Can't wait to pick this up!

[KoozyK]

what a shame about the oversized format. i was looking forward to it.

i'll be waiting for the trade just because i like reading smith in chunks, not pieces.

[Truthseeker]

I am working on my own indy comic right now. Meeting Jeff Smith at the San Diego Con was a real inspiration and his work and the way he has built his career are something that have really helped me to take the chance and give this whole thing a try.

I am adding RASL to my pull list right now. Keep up the good work Jeff!

[jonjesper]

The general public and retailers will still not be appreciative of an oversized collected format....
Just stick to a normal hardcover and reach out to everyone, the art and story make the format interesting not the size...

[TheMightyGeek]

Sounds like an awesome concept. I'll be looking forward to February!

[jasinmartin]

Can't wait for this!!!

[J. Dincauze]

I think oversized works best with big collections... put out trades in smaller chunks, and then when you have the first 12 or so done, release an oversized omnibus trade. I think that's a better bet.

[panicbxmb]

i was a huge fan of Bone, and this honestly sounds even better. i'm stoked for this, and Jeff seems like a really cool guy.

[Timothycat]

Originally Posted by jonjesper

The general public and retailers will still not be appreciative of an oversized collected format....
Just stick to a normal hardcover and reach out to everyone, the art and story make the format interesting not the size...

I really don't get this sentiment. The bigger the size the better the art looks in my opinion. Unless, of course, the art sucks. The general public could care less about the size of a collection. In fact the larger the book the more likely it is to be noticed among the hundreds of thin collections on the store shelf. There's many a reason manga are doing so much better than comics in general book stores. One is that they are much easier to browse through than a shelf of 1/4 inch wide tpbs. As for comic retailers, they really need to stop being so rigid. Go to the art section of any book store, you won't see many art books in comic book size. This reminds me of a librarian at Wesleyan University way back in the early part of the last century who trimmed the books so that they would all be the same size. Guess what, he's the object of ridicule now.

Best,
TimK

[Ace]

I would much rather see in canon, big two, universe building stuff out of every writer I like in the world except for Jeff Smith.

He's the only guy I'd rather see do his own thing (including Gaiman, Rucka, and Vaughan, though Mark Oakley is questionable and I'd rather see more Leave it to Chance by James Robinson than anything BUT Starman or JSA).

That's got to tell you something about how much I liked Bone and that I'm really looking forward to this.

[J. Dincauze]

Bone is the first GN I'm going to give my children.

[cookiejar]

Originally Posted by Timothycat

. As for comic retailers, they really need to stop being so rigid.

I think that while some comic retailers are doing well, quite a few are trying to turn a profit... and I think that when Jeff Smith asks a bunch of em, and 100% say "do it standard-sized", they are thinking about what will work best for the retailers to avoid losing money.

I posted when the variant cover came out, that I wasn't going to buy it because it was oversized, and I wanted something to go in the long boxes... I got ripped a new one by some fan boys who called me stupid and some said I should not to be so shrewd.

Either I collect a lot more than them, or I am just more sensible, but I learned with Mouse Guard that I would rather get it in standard format.... I still buy Mouse Guard, but you know where it ends up? not in a long box, but on my wife's bookshelf (she likes it too)... and consequently the books have gotten banged up.... if I wanted something for the book shelf, I would buy the trade.

that being said, kudos to Jeff for listening to the retailers... I love art and teach art history, and now am looking forward to this series VERY VERY much!

[samnoir]

Looking forward to Smith's return to the realm of creator owned stuff. As much fun as Shazam was, it's nice to see new original material as opposed to a remix of an existing character.

___________________________________

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[Cray_ws]

Originally Posted by cookiejar

I think that while some comic retailers are doing well, quite a few are trying to turn a profit... and I think that when Jeff Smith asks a bunch of em, and 100% say "do it standard-sized", they are thinking about what will work best for the retailers to avoid losing money.

I posted when the variant cover came out, that I wasn't going to buy it because it was oversized, and I wanted something to go in the long boxes... I got ripped a new one by some fan boys who called me stupid and some said I should not to be so shrewd.

Either I collect a lot more than them, or I am just more sensible, but I learned with Mouse Guard that I would rather get it in standard format.... I still buy Mouse Guard, but you know where it ends up? not in a long box, but on my wife's bookshelf (she likes it too)... and consequently the books have gotten banged up.... if I wanted something for the book shelf, I would buy the trade.

that being said, kudos to Jeff for listening to the retailers... I love art and teach art history, and now am looking forward to this series VERY VERY much!

You're saying its a bad thing for a book to be read (banged up) than to condomize it and never touch again.

Comics neeed to be read to be appreciated, not shrink-wrapped and itemized with a mint rating. I'm sure there are legitimate ways to preserve an over-sized comic. Try thinking outside the box. (pun intended).

[Zenstrive]

i am thrilled! Dimensions hopping by Jeff Smith! This will teach Paul Dini and Dan DiDiot something about dimensions and multi...thingie.

[Snotling]

NRAMA: But it's still going to be black and white?

JS: Yes. It's going to be a good black and white, indy comic book.

NRAMA: Are you still thinking the collections will be colored?

JS: We're keeping that option open. Right now, I think the collections are still going to be black and white and oversized like the preview was that came out in San Diego. They were 11" x 17". And I'll have three or four issues in there at a time. So it will be a nice, big, thick book.

I'm torn- I want to read this and buy the floppies, but if the collections are going to be coloured I want to wait for them...

(Yeah, I know Jeff said they'd be B&W, but he also said he was keeping that option open...)

I'm not going to say anything asshole-ish like "OMG don't do coloured collections," because I want the creator to create. But I can't afford to buy it twice, and I don't want to miss out.

(I'm bypassing the usual rant of 'buying the floppies ensures that a trade will come out' because if Jeff freaking Smith can't make an indy book sell enough to warrant trades, no-one can. )

[cookiejar]

Originally Posted by Cray_ws

You're saying its a bad thing for a book to be read (banged up) than to condomize it and never touch again.

Actually, read my post... I never said that... I read all the comics I buy, and sometimes read them multiple times before I put them in the box, and I take them out more often then not to read later on down the line... and hell, someday I would love to read comics to my kids as bedtime stories...

And to be honest, I read comics, and I am a comic collector... so sue me if I like having my collection organized and put away.... I dunno... maybe you like to read comics on the crapper, or fold your comics every which way from Sunday so you can read the words closest to the binding...who knows? Your dime, you can do whatever the hell you want... wipe your arse with the book...I dont care.

This is the reason I am so hesitant to post on here... some of the people on here love to rip into other people for posting an opinion...an opinion that is in any way shape or form different than theirs. I'm buying this book... and glad I can file em right next to my Bone collection..

[Tuck!]

Has Jeff mentioned whether this is "ongoing" (like Bone) was ongoing, or more of a limited series (more like "Shazam")?

[panicbxmb]

Originally Posted by Tuck!

Has Jeff mentioned whether this is "ongoing" (like Bone) was ongoing, or more of a limited series (more like "Shazam")?

i believe he mentions in this very article that it will last for "about two years"

[The_Adventurer]

Bring this on. And Bring on the over-sized format. People who fear comics being larger then 6.5"X11.25" are insane. It's a bigger canvas size to tell a bigger story with more detailed art. More regular ongoings should experiment with format as a tool for inspiring storytelling.

EDIT: Oh the collection will be oversized, that's cool too. I was hoping the actual issues would be larger. Now I wonder if I'll wait for the trade for the bigger format.

Naw, I missed Bone as an ongoing, I ain't going to miss this.