Bone

Hi everyone!

Hase's here!

Nice to see you all... ammm, gathered here around our blog :D

Today I'm gonna talk about yet another comic-book (I really read books too! really!). It's just a couple of weeks ago a friend of mine said to me: "By the way! I haven't yet thanked you for recommending me Bone!".

And coming from a really smart and selective reader, that was a big time compliment.

Aaaaaand, this is why I'm writing today about Bone, so you can all thank me.

Long time ago, my best friend by then (he still is, I just got a couple more..) was reading monthly this series called Bone. Was the end of the millenia, it was black and white, with some kind of big-nose-cartoon on it. My friend always told me I would love it... and I was waiting for him to lend me... but then, last year highschool happened and then we both went to live to a different cities.

I always was left with this "thorn" of not reading it.

Then, some years ago, while I was living at Berlin. While on my way through the tube, it appeared on the screens that that very same day, Jeff Smith, author of Bone was signing on a comic-book shop to cellebrate the new edition of Bone in German language.

I thought it would be nice, so I stopped by, and after a middle-long queue, I got to left-hand-shake this guy and get a personal Thorn+Bone drawing on my "Famous People who can draw Notebook". While in the queue, I got the last issue, US-edition of the series, and I asked for a small autograph and Bone character for my friend :)

Of course! I did not dare to read the whole last issue! Just some pages.

But still, I did not get to buy it for myself. I had few money by then, reaaally few.

I was not until 2 years ago, near Christmas that I saw with my girlfriend the extre-deluxe hardcover edition being 40 € of Bone in Spanish. It was gorgeous... the kind of thing I would never buy for myself (c'mon, 40 €!!), such as the huge cool edition of the Sandman.

Luckily I have a lovely mum who runs out of ideas for Christmas presents and who is so lovely to ask my gf something I might like and would never buy for myself.

And after some time. I read it.

Wow.

Bone is really an AMAZING series. Don't know how much I rated Hellboy for example, and they are separate styles and formats. But man, this comic is just GREAT. You don't need the extradeluxehardcover version. Just give it a chance.

I love it.

I'm actually over with the second arc, of three. It took me a year to get my hands on the second volume, and now I just got the third one (Though you can get it in like... 11 books or so? not sure, but definitely worthy).

If I had to be brief I would say that Bone is an amazing fusion of:

The Lord of The Rings + Ducktales

Waiwaiwaiiiit, Ducktales?

Yep, Ducktales, with Uncle $crooge McDuck, you heard well.

And this can make some people back off.

However, you must resist it! (People who feel attracted to the idea, please stay too).

Even Neil Gaiman loves it!

Really, this is a story that has EVERYTHING.

It has humour, of course.

It has adventure.

It has thrill.

It has drama.

It has romance.

It has epic stuff.

It has battle, swords and magic.

It have monsters! Stupid and Smarter than a devil.

And you can still think, "well, yeah maybe... pretty difficult to mix all of it". Of course, you are allowed to think is any kind of exotic beverage of a book, and some things won't mix up and stay like little pieces that when you drink are giving you a weird disgusting feeling.

And you will be WRONG.

This is the best visual+story+genre smooth you've ever drink.

Let's get some more into the characters and the story, it might be slightly spoily. I will try to keep it as minimum as possible.

We start the story with 3 cousins escaping their home town through a desert. They are the cartoon-like characters, coming from a city we never get to see, but from how they talk you can guess is something similar to Duckburg, in the middle of the 20th century. Fone, Phoney and Smiley. After some plan not going well by our beloved Phoney, they are force to abandon Boneville and are drag to a certain death in uncharted territories.

Territories inhabited by more-real-middle-age-like characters. And monsters, and talking animals until certain point. A land in which something big and dark is about to happen. A land where our three little friends will suffer an important role in such events.

Mmmmmm, I think that will do. I would talk hours, but you can always write a comment or send an email.

About Jeff Smith

You should not be surprised about the cartoon thingy, since Mr. Smith worked also for animation series, and not only on comics.

I cannot express how much I admire this guy, since publishing Bone, during the 90s [with all the Image-testosteronish superheroes economic bubble with 6 different covers for 1st issue people bought to sell some mobths later, and Jim Lee or Madureira still drawing] was a TITANIC enterprise (do you think google will make people looking for Star Trek or Titanic porn click here?). And if you pay close attention to the comic, you will see with how much love every little square have been filled, full of small details, with such an intense narrative you actually see the story moving like on TV in front of your eyes. And if the black and white is keeping you away... just give it the chance to see what you can do with black scary shadows and the white l light of a thunderstorm in a countryside full of monsters hunting you.

Coming back to publishing. This guy's work have been published in dozens of languages, in several formats and have won 10 Eisner awards, among others. But until there, until the very end, it was irregularly as few. I really would have loved to have followed such expectation for the next issue to come (55 original 24-pages issues I think). All done with independant publishers, also some by Disney magazines, supported by people like Charle Vess or even MacFarlane who had drawn covers for it.

The more the time goes on, the more public this comic gets.

Try not to fall like I did, and get to read it as soon as you can.

And now I have to go and pick up Miss Conejita.

I am looking forward to hearing your thanks :)

Train hard for next year's cow race!

Yours truly,

Mr. Hase