Fans of Jeff Smith’s endearing fantasy have cause to cheer, as 2010 will see the publication of all new Bone stories! Scholastic’s Graphix imprint has acquired the rights to publish Bone: Tall Tales, a collection of new stories featuring favorite characters, and Bone: Quest for the Spark, a trilogy expanding on the world of Bone and picking up where the original adventures ended.

Bone: Tall Tales will be co-written by Jeff Smith and Tom Sniegoski, with artwork by Jeff Smith. The Quest for the Spark trilogy will be written by Tom Sniegoski with artwork by Jeff Smith. “I always said I would find a way to draw more Bone stories, and now I have,” said Jeff Smith in the official press release from Scholastic. “Tom is great to work with and we’re going to have a lot of fun!”
 
Bone, which follows the adventures of three cartoon cousins who get lost in a pre-technological valley, spending a year there making new friends and outrunning deadly enemies, has soared in popularity since its original serialization began in 1991. Scholastic relaunched the series in colorized graphic novel form in 2005. Currently, there are over 4.5 million Bone books in print.

The series has won ten Eisner Awards and eleven Harvey Awards, and was named one of the top ten graphic novels of all time by Time Magazine.

Jeff Smith’s highly anticipated return to the world of Bone should also draw attention to his other noteworthy comics projects, including Little Mouse Gets Ready, a well-received easy reader from TOON Books, and Cartoon Books’ Rasl, an ongoing sci-fi adventure series for older readers.

The complete original series is also available in Cartoon Books' Bone: One Volume Edition.

Scholastic’s official press release is available here.