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Title: Phoney's Inferno
Series: Bone #6
Author: Jeff Smith
Rating: 3.5 of 5 Stars
Genre: Comics
Pages: 28
Words: 1K

Synopsis:

From Boneville.fandom.com

Fone Bone, Thorn, and The Great Red Dragon find Gran'ma Ben alive. Upon seeing the dragon, Gran'ma Ben isn't as surprised as Thorn is, they both greet admitting that it's been awhile and leaves. Phoney Bone now has to work for Lucius to pay off his debt since they don't use money here and while he plans his scam to get rich, he is visited by The Hooded One who claims that he wants his soul (and the death of Fone Bone, because he woke up the Great Red Dragon). Fone Bone, Thorn and Gran'ma Ben arrive at Barrelhaven. Fone Bone finds Phoney and Smiley and the three cousins are reunited at last (although Fone Bone begins to strangle Phoney after tricking him).

My Thoughts:

As has been hinted at in the earlier issues, Gran'ma Ben is more than meets the eye. Not only does she survive the rat attack, but when Fone and Thorn “introduce” the dragon to her, it's quite apparent that they already know each other and that she's not impressed by it. Whatever the “Big War” she mentioned obviously had its heroes back in the day and my bet is that Gran'ma Ben was one of them.

It is ALSO quite apparent that Phoney made some sort of deal with the Hooded One, who has now come to collect. That piqued my curiosity, as it really comes out of nowhere. I'm looking forward to how Smith fleshes out that aspect of the story. Of course, it fits perfectly that Phoney would make a deal to sell his soul and then try to renege on it.

One thing that is quite apparent is that Fone Bone, while ostensibly the main character, is actually more of a vehicle for the reader to piggyback on than an actual character. Both Phoney and Smiley have clothes and characteristics that set them apart, while Fone is just a small Bone character, clothesless and while not characterless, not very inspiring. It could become bothersome so I'm going to try to remember that Fone Bone is the mouthpiece of Smith and not some sort of Conan character.

★★★✬☆ ( )