Bone

 Way, way back in the 90's, when I was but a child, I remember that during a visit to the local library, I spotted a comic that I did not recognize. Its cover depicted a young girl, standing in a forest, surrounded by hairy red-eyed creatures, while carrying a white, cartoony-looking figure under her arm. Intrigued, I checked the comic out and thus, was introduced to Bone by Jeff Smith, in its Swedish translation.

There were two attempts to launch Bone over here, made by two separate publishers and neither of them seemed to have met with much success, because neither of them got farther than the third volume in the series (as a quick side-note, I should mention that the Swedish translation divided each of the original English-language volumes into two).  Sometime later, when my English skills had grown sufficiently, I bought two of the volumes that were never published over here: The Dragon-Slayer and Rock Jaw: Master of the Eastern Border. Then, I got into other comics and Bone fell to the side.

Until now, that is. For years I had been aware that all nine volumes of Bone (not counting prequels and spin-offs) had been published in one heavy tome, aptly titled Bone: One-Volume Edition and after having it sitting on my list of 'things that I'll get to, eventually' for a long time, I finally procured a copy. Meaning that, after left it on-hold since my teenage years, I have finally finished Bone. Was it worth it? Read on and find out.

For those of you unfamiliar with Bone, the titular characters are the three cousins, Fone Bone (sensible, altruistic, dependable), Smiley Bone (carefree, happy-go-lucky) and Phoncible P. Bone a.k.a. Phoney (selfish and greedy), all of whom looks like they have stepped out of some old-school cartoon or comic-strip. At the beginning of the comic, the cousins find themselves lost in the desert, having been chased out of their hometown Boneville (a place we never get to see, but which I always pictured being similiar to Duckburg), after Phoney's attempt at being elected mayor ended in disaster.  

Soon, the three of them end up in an unknown valley, populated by all sorts of creatures, including humans. It is here that we meet Thorn, a young girl who lives alone with his grand-mother, Rose, a tough-as-nails old lady whose main hobby is to race against cows. There's also the gruff tavern-keeper Lucius, in whose establishment, Phoney and Smiley soon find themselves washing dishes in order to pay off their debt, the unflappable red dragon, Ted the talking bug and many others. 

Characterization (at least early on, more on that a few paragraphs down) is one of Bone's chief strength. Pretty much all the characters the Bones encounter in the valley have distinct personalities and while not all of them are deep, nuanced characters, they are nonetheless very memorable

As for the artwork, it is lovely to look at. Smith has a real knack for visual storytelling and while Bone has a lot of dialogue (most of it really good), he knows when to let the images do the talking. 

I should point out that I read the comic in black & white. I know there's a colorized version of Bone, but I prefer it this way. in my opinion, Smith's art needs color about as much as Hugo Pratt's does.

Story-wise, Bone starts out fairly light-hearted and humorous, with Phoney and Smiley and their get-rich-quick schemes being the primary source for comedy, although far from the only one. 

It soon becomes clear though, that dark forces are at work in the valley and as the comic progresses, Bone takes a more serious turn. Although the comedic elements never disappear completely.

For all it does right, Bone is not without its weaknesses. Personally, I found the second half of the story to be less consistently engaging than what came before it, though it certainly not bad by any means. Smith introduces a whole slew of new characters and while there's nothing wrong with that, none of these newcomers leave much of an impression. I can think of other comics that have handled an expanding cast better.

I also found myself disappointed by the ending. I won't go into the reason why, because that would entail spoilers. I may do a follow-up post where I discuss it in more detail, but for now, I'll just say that I did not care for it.

Bone originally ended in 2004 (although Smith has returned to its world from time to time, most recently in 2016) and its creator has since worked on other comics. However, this is the one he will always be remembered for and for good reasons. While it may not be the unabashed masterpiece it sometimes held up to be (I certainly don't think its one of the ten best graphic novels ever as Time Magazine claimed) Bone is, at its best, a terrific comic; highly recommended and well worth checking out.