Happy 52nd Birthday, Jeff Smith!

Jeff Smith is best known for his work on the creator-owned series Bone, which combines elements of cartoon humor and stirring fantasy adventures. Starting in 1991 he published this black and white comic book series' through the company Cartoon Books. The series ran 55 issues and became increasingly popular and collected in various compilations. It is now available in vibrant color collections through Scholastic. Bone has also been translated into numerous languages and published internationally.

After Bone, Smith created the Shazam! The Monster Society of Evil series for DC Comics. Here he put his own spin on the story of Captain Marvel in his efforts to fight aliens and the evil Dr. Sivana. In recent years, he has returned to self publishing with the series RASL, a series that follows the exploits of an art thief who has the ability to cross dimensions.

Jeff Smith has received many accolades for his work. In addition to the 1o(!) Harvey Awards and the 10(!) Eisner Awards he has already won, he has also won the National Cartoonists Society award for Best Comic, as well as France's Angoulême Alph-Art award for Best Foreign Book, and Sweden's Adamson Award.

Smith cites his influences laying in comic strip creators like Charles Schultz (who did Peanuts) and Walt Kelly (who did Pogo) who crafted excellent, affecting stories as writers and artists. More about his life and career can be found in this interview with Tom Spurgeon. Also there is another great interview with him at The Onion A.V. Club.