Jeff Smith’s Bone is the best comic book series – but much more, it is a populistic phenomenon, which has entrenched itself as bestseller since 1991. Laughter, action, and emotional resonance stamp Bone as today’s modern classic of graphic novels. But what behind the charm of the series? Let’s venture into the mystical world of Bone and find out what the secret behind its continuing popularity is.
A Tale of Three Bones: Characters That Really Hit Home
The three cousins- Fone Bone, Phoney Bone, and Smythe Bone-form the heart of this novel. They are an anthropomorphic crew who have just been exiled from their small hometown of Boneville into the greater fantasy world. Fone Bone is both protagonist and emotional center: He’s kind and bold and profoundly sympathetic. Phoney Bone is the trickster, always on the look out for an easy way out, and Smiley Bone is the comedy bit with his devil-may-care attitude and smoking cigars. Both of them complement each other in such a manner-they both do comedy, drama, and development all together; and one is impossible to forget by their readers.
A World of Wonder: The Valley and Its Inhabitants
The Valley, that is where all the action is; it is a world veiled vividly with dragons, rat creatures, and there is this obscure force known as the Lord of the Locusts. Smith’s world-building could be said to be meticulous, blending characteristics of high fantasy with a pinch of whimsy. The Valley teems with life; blooms in silence and green, as ancient prophecies start to unfurl-from the gorgeous Thorn, Gran’ma Ben, Red Dragon and many others are all players on this lengthy, fantastic roll.
The finest of Jeff Smith’s art indeed adds up and makes Bone stand higher than most graphic works. His clean, expressible linework and dynamic panels keep the strong narrative sense from fading away behind a visually fascinating storyline. As an original piece of work on black-and-white artwork, characters and their emotion seem to overshadow everything else. Nothing is nearly as strong an epitaph of the art of the medium as have been Jeff Smith’s transitions – without jarring a wit-whipped or wrenching audience mind – from slapstick to poignant or vice versa to action and action-action.
Bone is a children’s comic book; however, issues are intrinsically universal, and themes run easily with age. The issues of friendship, loyalty, coupled with the values of courage, stuff, mixed with the battles of good over evil, extend much deeper, involving identity and destiny and desire. This multifaceted quality ensures that, rather than appealing, Bone provokes.
Legacy Endures
This series has evoked a lot more than three decades since the release of the first volume of Bone. This work brought in so many Eisner Awards and translated into more than 30 languages. Video games and an animated series are underway based on this property, and so it leaves its mark over popular culture all over.
Why Bone Endures What sets Bone apart as that graphic novel is the way it manages to keep the simple balanced in depth. As much as Smith’s story has an accessible quality to it and richness, so much so, that it could be a welcome treat for newcomers to get hooked on comics, or for some seasoned aficionado to grab, and get away with. To be timeless is to let us laugh through its pages cry through them but make sense of things done within those forty pages.
In a world full of flash-in-the-pan trends, Bone stands out as a great and powerful storytelling technique. Re-reading or first-time reader: the trip down the Valley with the Bone cousins is not going to leave anyone’s mind soon.