TUKI: Fight for Fire
Jeff Smith's prehistoric epic. Two million years ago, a mysterious traveler named Tuki protects three lost children from a rival species that hunts fire users. A stunning return to black-and-white adventure.
đź“– Cartoon Books • Started 2021
Two million years ago, when more than one species of human walked the earth, fire was the dividing line between survival and extinction — and its use was considered a dangerous blasphemy punishable by death.
Jeff Smith’s TUKI: Fight for Fire is a return to the black-and-white, self-published adventure storytelling that made Bone a legend. Set in the dawn of humanity, the story follows the mysterious Tuki — a traveler with a secret — who finds three lost children wandering the drought-stricken wilderness and leads them on a search for the legendary Motherherd of all Buffalo.
The Story
The journey takes them north through territory controlled by the Habiline, a rival human species that hunts and kills anyone found using fire. Tuki’s reputation precedes them — and soon they find themselves at the center of unwanted attention not just from Habiline warriors, but from gods and giants who roam this prehistoric landscape.
Smith’s fascination with human evolution — especially the period when Homo habilis and Homo erectus coexisted — drives the narrative. “This was the moment we conquered fire,” Smith told IGN. “Definitely our best party trick.” But in Tuki’s world, mastering fire makes you a target, and the story explores what it means to be human when humanity itself is just figuring out what that means.
From Webcomic to Graphic Novel
Originally conceived as a webcomic called Tüki: Save the Humans that ran briefly in 2013–2014, TUKI was shelved as Smith co-founded the Cartoon Crossroads Columbus (CXC) festival and dealt with a hand injury. During the COVID-19 lockdown in 2020, Smith returned to the material with fresh eyes — and he didn’t just revise it; he completely reimagined and redrew the entire story. What emerged was a 144-page graphic novel, the first of two planned volumes.
The Kickstarter
Smith launched his first-ever Kickstarter campaign in May 2021 to fund TUKI: Fight for Fire and its companion volume TUKI: Fight for Family. The campaign raised $269,595 from 2,943 backers — more than 13 times its $20,000 goal — and funded in just 10 minutes. Both books were released in an oversized, landscape format (11.375 × 8.875 inches) with black-and-white interiors and full-color covers, returning to the format that worked so well for Bone and RASL.
Perfect for fans of Jeff Smith’s Bone, prehistoric adventure like The Clan of the Cave Bear, and epic survival stories in the tradition of Primal.
