Cartoon Books will release a collection of early works by Bone creator Jeff Smith, including his college strip THORN, in July.  THORN: The Complete Proto-BONE College Strips from 1982 to 1986 and Other Early Drawings will be the first time the complete run of THORN, where the Bone characters first appeared, has ever been collected, and earlier incomplete collections, released in 1983 and 2008, are long out of print.  The strip appeared five days a week in The Ohio State University student newspaper The Lantern in the early 80s.  Bonus material will include early drawings of the BONE characters, essays, and interviews.

BONE, of course, was the successful indy comic picked as the launch title for Scholastic’s Graphix imprint, which currently dominates the kids graphic novel business.

Smith described the genesis of the project.  “I confess I was a hard sell at first,” he said in a statement accompanying the announcement.  “But when I read them for the first time in over 40 years, I was surprised to find I enjoyed them! It’s fun to see these stories and know they eventually evolved into BONE.”

The 304-page trade paperback edition follows a hardcover edition, for which funds were raised on Kickstarter last year.  The Kickstarter project raised $328,134 from 3,387 backers. 

Release to the trade is planned for July 30, 2024 at a $30 MSRP.