Bone
Bone occupies an interesting place in the comic book genre. It
is, ostensibly, a children's story. It's generally filed in the
children's section. Any nudity is reserved for characters who are
essentially sexless, the violence manages to avoid gore, and the
saltiest language that appears is "fiddlesticks". Despite that, it's
considered one of the greats. It gets included on all those same lists
and Watchmen and V For Vendetta and Sandman. Really it's one of those rare gems: a book that actually appeals to all ages.
I went in expecting a fun, light adventure. I knew the basic premise: The Bone cousins are exiled from Boneville and find themselves in a hidden valley. I expected some fun stories and cute drawings. But it turns into a fantastic epic, complete with hidden royalty, betrayals, quests, destinies, and, of course, dragons. What would an epic fantasy be without dragons?
And then there's the rat creatures. The stupid, stupid rat creatures. It's actually impressive how they manage to be both incompetent and threatening. Though that mostly comes down to their large numbers - they're sort of like zombies that way. Except they're alive. And they're rather eat quiche than brains.
Really, it's the characters that make this book so much fun. Aside from the stupid, stupid rat creatures, we get the Bone cousins, Gran'ma Ben, Thorn, Lucius, and a whole host of people and animals that you end up caring about far more than you expected to.
Thorn is everything I want in a heroine: brave, resourceful, caring, and completely badass. She's not shy about asking for help when she needs it, but she also demonstrates that she can get by just fine on her own. That probably has a lot to do with her being a descendent of Gran'ma Ben, who is the coolest, toughest grandmother you'll ever encounter.
The first issue is available online if you want to check it out. They recently released a full-color edition, but the original was just black and white, like newspaper comics, so I chose to read it in that format. Although the full color version looks pretty cool. If you have a chance to check this out you definitely should. It makes for perfect summer reading.
I went in expecting a fun, light adventure. I knew the basic premise: The Bone cousins are exiled from Boneville and find themselves in a hidden valley. I expected some fun stories and cute drawings. But it turns into a fantastic epic, complete with hidden royalty, betrayals, quests, destinies, and, of course, dragons. What would an epic fantasy be without dragons?
And then there's the rat creatures. The stupid, stupid rat creatures. It's actually impressive how they manage to be both incompetent and threatening. Though that mostly comes down to their large numbers - they're sort of like zombies that way. Except they're alive. And they're rather eat quiche than brains.
Really, it's the characters that make this book so much fun. Aside from the stupid, stupid rat creatures, we get the Bone cousins, Gran'ma Ben, Thorn, Lucius, and a whole host of people and animals that you end up caring about far more than you expected to.
Thorn is everything I want in a heroine: brave, resourceful, caring, and completely badass. She's not shy about asking for help when she needs it, but she also demonstrates that she can get by just fine on her own. That probably has a lot to do with her being a descendent of Gran'ma Ben, who is the coolest, toughest grandmother you'll ever encounter.
The first issue is available online if you want to check it out. They recently released a full-color edition, but the original was just black and white, like newspaper comics, so I chose to read it in that format. Although the full color version looks pretty cool. If you have a chance to check this out you definitely should. It makes for perfect summer reading.
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