Bone is a popular independent comic book series by Jeff Smith. Smith's drawings are inspired by animated cartoons and comic strips, a notable influence being Walt Kelly's Pogo. However, although the series contains a great deal of both visual and character-based comedy, the main storyline is dark and serious, drawing its inspiration from J. R. R. Tolkien and others.

The human characters are drawn in a more realistic style than the Bone cousins, which reflects the comic's mixture of humour and drama.

An attempt to produce a film of Bone through Nickelodeon Films was unsuccessful. According to Smith, Nickelodeon saw the story strictly as children's entertainment, and insisted that the Bone characters be voiced by child actors and that the film had to include pop songs by the likes of Britney Spears.

The series is self-published by Smith under his Cartoon Books imprint, but for a time was published by superhero publisher Image Comics. The first 20 issues were reprinted by Image with new covers. These reprints are identifiable by having color reproductions of the original covers on the back. Original printings have black covers inset with a single panel reprinted from inside.

It was also published in the semi-independent magazine, Disney Adventures, during 1997-1998.

The comic ended with its 55th issue, dated June 2004. The back cover has, in place of the usual comic panel, a black and white photo of Smith in his studio drawing the last page on May 10.

Story

The three Bone cousins - the avaricious Phoncible P. "Phoney" Bone, the goofy, cigar_smoking Smiley Bone, and the everyman character Fone Bone - are run out of their hometown of Boneville and must make their way across a fantasy landscape pursued by locusts and rat creatures. There they encounter humans and other creatures who are threatened by a dark lord, the Lord of the Locusts. Fone Bone is drawn into the events around him and finds himself on a hero's journey to help save the world.

Collections

• Regular series
  1. Out from Boneville
  2. The Great Cow Race
  3. Eyes of the Storm
  4. The Dragonslayer
  5. Rockjaw, Master of the Eastern Border
  6. Old Man's Cave
  7. Ghost Circles
  8. Treasure Hunters
  9. Crown of Horns
• Spin-offs - both prequels to the main storyline
  • Stupid, Stupid Rat-Tails: The Adventures of Big Johnson Bone, Frontier Hero
  • Rose (with Charles Vess)

External links

• Boneville.com - official Bone site (http://www.boneville.com/)