I love good comic books. That’s a given. I don’t aim to find comic
books that annoy me and waste my money on. So me having read many great stories
isn’t anything new or indeed special. I’d like to think all the comics
I own in some way or another are good in their own way… well except for
Get Kraven, I just had to see how terrible that was.
However every now and then I pick up a comic book and once I put it down all I can think of is that it was so good, I wish I had thought of it. It hasn’t happened a lot and it’s perhaps the greatest compliment I can give to a piece of fiction.
The first one I want to discuss is Bone. Fantasy stories like this have a special place in my heart as I’ve been crafting a story I’ve had for years that I hope one day to self-publish and sell one copy to Mam.
I will attempt to be as vague as possible, simply to try and not reveal any major plot points and spoilers in the book as I really want you to buy the book.
I would argue that Bone isn’t terribly original. There are lots of basic storytelling archetypes such as the anti-hero; the everyman and the funny man are all there in the core cast. Other characters share apparent influence from Lord of The Rings and other corners of pop culture. The idea of an evil army trying to take over a peaceful kingdom is a very basic idea.
Where Jeff Smith excels with this book is in the execution. You can tell he loves the characters and the world he has created and the fun for the reader is being allowed in that world for an issue. The fun of being there just seeps throw the panels. It is a real labour of love and you can tell that before reading any interviews with Jeff where he says it is.
What makes this book so clever is that it all moves on because of the characters. You don’t get from point A to point B because the story has to do that, it gets there because the characters and their little quirks demands that the writer take them to that point.
If the money crazed Phoney Bone is in a city, he’s going to look for gold. If he looks for the city’s gold, it’s going to cause trouble. Trouble is going to bring unwanted attention the group and this unwanted attention is going to bring the evil and mystery Hooded One closer to them. It all works and feels natural, it feels life like.
The book starts out with a fairly light-hearted tone with many comical moments. Over time, to fit the story, the characters begin to joke around less and less. These moments are still there and are the highlight of the book to me but they aren’t as frequent and only appear when appropriate.
The art, also done by Jeff Smith is just as superb as the writing. Every character has a unique design and you can instantly tell who is who, despite three of the main characters all having the same basic design. The character design I particularly like is The Hooded One once unmasked. At first I thought it was quiet a basic design but the more you see the character’s eyes the more they seem to torment you and dig under your skin. I don’t think I’ll ever forget those eyes and that is an amazing thing to accomplish.
I would recommend Bone: One Volume Edition, containing all 55 issues in a 1300+ page package, to anyone who is a comic book fan. It would also be excellent for people who are interested in or are open to fantasy based stories. It is not for children but it is excellent from teenagers and up, even if the package of a very cartoony character might turn those people away.
This is very easily the best independent work I have ever read and that makes it all the more sad that Jeff Smith really hasn’t produced anything of note since. He’s done two prequels to the Bone story and a Shazam mini for DC. I really hope that it is because it takes him so long to draw and write his work, and not that he was only good at his own creation. Because if Jeff Smith can produce work of this calibre on any other book, and I mean any, then he has to do it. To not do it would be a crime against humanity.
Oh and to answer how terrible Get Karven was. Very, very terrible.
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