I made a rule that I’m only allowed to talk about one thing that happened at Comic-Con and I’ve decided I want to talk about Jeff Smith. I’ve been a fan of his since I was a little boy. “Bone” was the first comic I ever read. Then it and “Ultimate Spider-Man” were the comics that made me start reading comics again when I was in college. So needless to say I’m super excited about “RASL” (pronounced “rassle”) and if anyone bought one of the 6 page previews in San Diego, I’ll totally pay good money for it.

In an interview with Newsarama, Smith described the book as:

The story is about a thief — an art thief — who is known to the police as “RASL,” because that’s the tag he leaves whenever he steals a piece of art. He spray paints RASL on the wall in the spot where the art was. RASL has this … how do I describe it? … a full spectral immersion suit that he’s invented that really, basically, is made of these giant jet engines that he straps to his shoulders and his knees that have magnets in them, and he can create thermal-magnetic disturbances through space-time and step between dimensions. So if you were a really rich person who wants to collect, say, a Mona Lisa, you could pay RASL, and he’ll go to another dimension and steal the Mona Lisa for you!

Where as “Bone” lasted 60+ issues “RASL” will be put out five to six times a year for the next several years and will later be collected in a 200-250 page graphic novel. Even crazier is that Smith wants to publish it in an 11×17 format!

Man I’m so excited for this. Here is the six page preview (click to make larger):