He was promoting the release of his latest collection, Tuki.

He had four more stops lined up for the year, including an appearance at New York Comic-Con.

Thank you for your support and understanding at this time."

Jeff Smith and his character Fone Bone

‘Bone’ and its creator, Jeff Smith.Jeff Smith, DIBYANGSHU SARKAR/AFP via Getty

It propelled Smith into indie-comic-book acclaim.

Most recently,Netflix acquiredthe rights to the story.

Unfortunately, following huge changes to the streamer’s animation division, the project was shelved.