One Word: Bone

I remember when I was a child in the mid-1990's, I found a Disney Adventures magazine and out of curiousity leafed through its pages. The magazine was filled with content tailored for child and teen fans of Disney: articles about Disney movies and cartoon shows, fun facts that kids would be interested in learning about, and even comics which included both Disney and non-Disney characters and stories.

One comic stood out for me upon first glance. It was simply titled "Bone", created by artist Jeff Smith, and the story was about three cartoony-humanoid creatures known as the Bone cousins named Fone Bone (the normal guy), Phoney Bone (scheming and greedy), and Smiley Bone (silly comic relief, no pun intended). They are trying to find their way through a desert after being run out of their town due to Phoney's botched attempt at becoming the mayor. From here on out, the three cousins get separated and end up discovering worlds they never knew had existed before, and encounter several friends and enemies along the way as they play a part in an epic quest to save their world from a great evil.

At first, with such a cartoony art style and goofy sounding names of the protagonists, you would be forgiven into thinking this would be a real simple story. However, the tale is much more complex than that, and the artwork even takes a tonal shift as the story progresses into more serious territory. The main characters find themselves enveloped in all sorts of antics and life-or-death situations where they will need all the help they can get to survive against the antagonists. Nevertheless, the story still maintains the entertaining cartoony bits throughout which attracted me to the comic in the first place.

I only got a chance to read the entire comic book story when I found the complete hardcover edition, which consists of the full color version compiled in a single huge volume. The edition that I have is limited; number 953 out of 2000 first-printed editions, and each of these copies included a signed art card from the author himself.

The comic is still sold at book stores in separated color volumes as well as a black-and-white complete edition. The full color version of the complete edition is rare to find in stores, and even if found it would probably be the paperback type like the black-and-white version. Still, whatever the edition you manage to discover, I highly recommend Bone. Rarely will you find an imaginative epic comic story meant for all ages that reads like an adventure novel.

SPOILERS: Below is a sneak peak from the book. The beautiful blend of cartoon and graphic novel art styles makes me wish for a feature film to be made based on the book. If this happens, the film version had better stick as close as possible with the source material. I am hoping for that.