Bone Volume 1: Out from Boneville

I borrowed this from the library because I had heard a lot of great things about this graphic novel series and wanted something that me and my son could read together. This is the first graphic novel in a nine book series. Overall this was a great graphic novel and completely appropriate for younger children, yet complex and funny enough for adults.

Fone Bone, Phoney Bone, and Smiley Bone have been kicked out of Boneville because of Phoney's greediness. Fone Bone gets separated from his cousins and ends up wandering through a strange valley. There he meets Ted the Bug, horrible rat-creatures, the beautiful Thorne, the butt-kicking and cow-racing Gran'ma Ben, among many others. He main goal in this installment is to find his cousins.

This show more was an awesome graphic novel. The illustration is solid but what really makes the book are the wonderful characters, the humor, and a storyline that will appeal to both kids and adults. This is the first book I have read in the Bone series and it is already starting to explore deeper concepts of good vs. evil, greed, etc. There is enough slapstick and general funniness that even my four year old son gets a kick out of it; although the rat-monsters are a bit scary for him and some of the more complicated storyline is lost on him.

There are some hilarious characters here. You've got Gran'ma Ben who can kick monster butt with the best of them, the sweet Thorne, Smiley Bone (who is crazily positive), and even a cigar-smoking dragon that only seems to appear when Fone Bone is by himself. Fone Bone has an obsession with Moby Dick that constantly puts other characters to sleep, which is hilarious. There are the creepy, but somewhat dopey, rat-creatures that are constantly after the Bone with the Star on his chest...these add a sense of danger and adventure to the story and hint at some greater evil lurking in the valley.

I loved every minute of this graphic novel and loved how the story is already interesting and complex. The characters are awesome and the humor wonderful; I found myself giggling out loud a number of times. We have only read a little bit of this with my son and he seems to be enjoying it also (he is four years old). This is a great comic for the whole family to read together. A great intro to graphic novels and a great way to transition from picture books to more complicated story/chapter books. I will definitely be checking out more installments in this series. show less

I was recently surprised to find Bone mentioned among a list of indispensable comics works in Neil Gaiman's introduction to The Best of the Spirit. Remarking this fact to my Other Reader in a local comics shop, along with the circumstance that I had never read Bone and hadn't ever had it personally recommended to me, multiple store personnel, overhearing, piped up that they followed the title themselves and recommended it strongly. So, now I've finished the collection of the first six issues from the early 1990s, and I did enjoy it. It was somewhat different from my expectations.

Given its origins as a black-and-white underground comic, along with the art style and presentation of the covers, I was expecting something like the early show more issues of Dave Sim's Cerebus (at that point a Conan parody featuring an aardvark), and in fact protagonist Fone Bone bears more than a passing resemblance to the young Cerebus as drawn in Sim's later work. But as I read the Bone comics, I was most reminded of the work of Charles M. Schulz. It was as if the writer/artist of Peanuts at the height of his powers had decided to undertake a fantasy epic. The pacing of the dialogue, the facial expressiveness of the characters, the telescoping of major events into the gutter between two panels, all showed the sort of technique that I associate with Schulz's best work.

This first volume introduces a robust set of characters, and sets a dramatic tableau, but it does not complete a plot arc. I'm sure I'll read at least one more collection. show less

This is one of those things where I feel like I've definitely seen imagery from it in a lot of places in my life but I never knew anything about it and never had any interest in reading it. Then a youtube video of all things made it seem really interesting so I gave it a try and I was hooked. Bone is a very engaging fantasy epic with interesting characters and a very fun world. Like, it's a medieval fantasy with dragons that is actually inventive instead of stale. The rat creatures are my fave and the talking bugs are pretty cute (I wish we saw more of Ted's older brother tho).

The only qualm I have is that it's a bit dated in its depiction of women. The female lead, Thorn, frequently has torn clothing that just looks like it might fall show more off at any moment. And the one-sided "romance" between Fone Bone and Thorn is a little creepy. I mean, it's a bone creature of indeterminate age and a human woman. Weird. Luckily it's resolved well without ever getting toooo creepy and the sexualisation of her is minimal. So still a solid recommend from me. show less

I have long thought about reading this series, but the whim came and went, and never moved me strongly enough to actually procure a copy. It's strange what random occurrences can shift my reading: I was doing a bit of research on terms related to graphic novels, for a lesson I was writing, and came across an article describing the educational advantages for teaching with this format. The article also described a variety of quality graphic books for a range of age levels, and Bone once again came to my attention. This time, I took the book up on its offer.

I'm glad I did. Bone is a good story that is different from other graphic novels I have read. At times it possesses the light and comic touch of the Sunday morning funnies, and at show more other times it evinces a dark and more serious tone similar to epic comic stories. The two styles blend seamlessly in a fun and adventurous story, that has a plot compelling enough to command my attention, but enough lightness offsetting the dark that I can even read it with my daughters.

The story begins with three bones, small little creatures that are rounded and white, and while their appearance is simple and streamlined, their personalities are vibrant and distinct. We quickly learn that Fone Bone is the settled one of the group, the thinker, the one with a stronger moral compass. Phoney Bone is the crank, who cares more about money than anything else, and will use cunning and crooked means to get it. Smiley Bone is the mellow one, laid back and funny, although sometimes his is a dry and sarcastic humor. We also learn in the first few pages that the trio have been run off from Boneville, their home town; to be precise, Phoney Bone was run out of town because of one of his underhanded shenanigans, and Fone and Smiley went with him to help, as he's their cousin.

Unfortunately, they are lost in a desert that is literally off the map, at least any Boneville map. Their troubles grow when a crowd of locusts runs them off a cliff. Fone Bone realizes he has been separated from his cousins, and ventures off in pursuit of them. He stumbles into a lush valley, just when he is thinking he will die of thirst, but then he is attacked by rat creatures and surprised by a sudden onslaught of winter. Fone survives his ordeals, and makes some friends in the forest, but spends months searching for his cousins with no success. Eventually, Fone meets the girl Thorn, who takes him back to her farmhouse, and promises to help him look for his family. This is just the first half of the book; after meeting Thorn, for whom Fone develops a crush, Fone is reunited with Phoney at Granma Ben's farm, rat creatures attack at night and the farm is destroyed (but tough Granma Ben is safe), the group retreats to Barrelhaven, and Fone is finally reunited with Smiley. Oh yes, and Phoney is visited by a super creepy creature in a robe, who intimates that the crooked Bone knows more about what is going on than he is admitting too. The entire volume was a fun and fast-paced ride.

I started reading this book on my own, but my girls saw it and wanted me to read it to them, and then it morphed into our bedtime story. In six nights we finished the first book, and my girls were clamoring for more the next day. Clearly they like it. I also am very pleased with the Bone series. The setting is interesting, the characters are great, and the plot is a blend of funny and scary and suspenseful and uplifting. The first book sets up several intriguing narrative threads that are sure to have a big impact on the story and the characters, and I am eager to read more to see how everything develops. show less

I don't really get Bone. I mean, what are the bones? They're like these doughy-shaped people who live in a world with humans, dragons, rat creatures (who, by the way, don't really look very much like rats), talking possums, giant talking bugs, and some kind of super-evil villain who wears a hood like the Emperor from Star Wars. It's just inexplicably weird.

But it's also high quality fantasy. The characters are well-drawn, the jokes work, the action flows, the world is interesting... Even though I'm perplexed by it, I want to read more. In fat, I can't believe I only bought volume 1. When you finish volume 1, you're going to want to read volume 2 immediately.

Tried just picking up a random Bone a couple months ago, bad idea. Couldn't really get into at all. Starting with volume one however is a whole different story, and much more enjoyable.

While Bone appears at first to be a simple tale for young children, it quickly turns into a nuanced journey through a bizarre and amusing world. I really enjoyed Smith's playful dialog, as well as the vibrancy and depth of his characters. I also thought that the way he manages to balance the foreboding over-arching plot with the silliness of the moment is rather skillful.

If you enjoy things like Walt Kelly's Pogo and Chuck Jones' animated work (Bugs Bunny, the Road Runner, some Tom & Jerry, The Phantom Tollbooth, etc.), you'll probably love this comic. It's witty, hilarious, tongue-in-cheek, adventure-packed, intelligently whimsical, and exquisitely drawn. Smith shifts without effort from the intimate to the epic, from the slapstick to the poignant. The story does deepen and darken as it progresses, but Phoney's greedy, shameless perfidy is forever. TPB compilations 1-9 present all the individually published issues. "Stupid, stupid rat creatures!"