 Smith got his start in the comics field as a letterhack, having written over 400 letters to various comics, and actually was solicited to send letters based on early preview copies.Smith's first professional comics writing job was with Pacific Comics, but the company went out of business prior to publishing the story.Beau Smith's first published work was for Eclipse Comics in 1985, a series of one- to two-page backup features in the "Scout" comic (created by fellow West Virginia native Timothy Truman).