Comic Recommendation: Bone by Jeff Smith
Through the ages comics have generally been seen by the public as something of comedy. This can be attested through the popular ‘funny pages’ in the newspaper, or the cartoons kids may watch on the television. However comics hold much more than comedy; they create a whole new world of fiction through visuals, and create marvelous stories of adventure to fit within the worlds they create. One such example of a comic that breaks away from the preconceived idea that they may only exist for comedy is a comic called Bones.
The story of Bone focuses on the three main characters: The Bones Cousins. They are all small, bald, and white cartoon caricatures. What makes the comic itself start off so silly is that the bones cousins are the only cartoon caricatures we see throughout the comic. All other characters are humans and are drawn realistically. This sets up a nice comedic contrast, and easily allows the reader to suspend their disbelief just enough to let the bone cousins get into many crazy scenarios, yet have the story still feel real for the world they are in.
The story does well to reflect this comical tone, however it slowly starts to bend and shape the direction of the plot as the comic progresses. A good example would be when the story starts, the three cousins are traveling away from their first village only to end up in a desert. They quickly get separated by a plague of locusts, and find themselves being chased after by strange and dangerous rat creatures. After escaping, and reuniting inside of a local village, they end up meeting a girl named Thron and her Grandmother. Things are a little off though as strange occurrences keep happening in the village and around Thron. The bone cousins then start to get dragged inside a situation that continues to spiral out of hand as a local evil, The Lord of Locusts, starts to awaken and cause havoc.
What started out as a simple journey away from their original home ended up as a grand adventure. The progression is neat and logical, yet in a way that seems to produce comedy at every turn they make. In this way Bone combines the original comedic tones comics are thought to hold with a grand and wonderful story that can grip the reader.
Bones is a very unique comic. A large portion of the book is comedic in nature; however the story contained within is still interesting and novel like in nature, and because of that the story Bones feels more like a small epic than it does a comic.
I highly recommend it to anyone curious enough to pick up a copy.
