Bone: The Complete Cartoon Epic in One Volume (Bone Series) Paperback – November 1, 2010

This is by far and away my favorite graphic novel, compendium, book, whatever you wanna call it. From start to finish it’s a wonderful tale. I compare it to Lord of the Rings frequently, and that’s no small comparison. I cannot recommend this book enough, truly a 10/10 masterpiece.

I have this book in the Kindle version as I found it easier to handle then the print version. Also like that you can vibe w full pages or individual panels. Jeff Smith has nailed it. Humor, adventure, romance and a well constructed story. All of the characters have personalities that make them engaging. Some grow and some stay stubbornly the same. (Phony) Lol but it all works. A great read with really good art.

At the end of every epic journey, you can’t help to feel nostalgic. This comic books is so well written and designed that it feels real. Not easy to accomplish in a comic book.

I remember reading book 8 when I was a kid because that's all my family could afford now reading the whole series I love it and it brought back a lot of book fair nostalgia

I first read the Bone series as a kid, picking them up from Scholastic book fair events and inhaling them with enthusiasm. I was drawn to the trades by their fun and colorful covers. As a kid, I really liked how Jeff Smith combined silly, cartoonish characters with grit, danger, and smarts. In turn, it made me feel smart and empowered. And that encouraged me to continue on my path as a young illustrator and writer. I owe a lot to Mr. Jeff Smith. But enough about me-- let's talk about BONE!BONE is what happens when worlds collide. More specifically (and maybe a little less dramatically), BONE is what happens when some folks escape angry mobs in their town, wander through the desert endlessly, and stumble upon another, more magical land. The first thing readers will notice about BONE is that it feels like a strange mash-up of two different concepts. The silly, bald Bone characters from the modern town of Boneville are completely different from the high-fantasy humans they meet on their adventures. There is a feeling of cross-over, a blending of setting and time, a comical and bizarre mish-mash of total opposites-- and it feels like a match made in heaven. Strangers in a strange land have never been, well, stranger.BONE is an epic fantasy. Don't let the big-nosed, doofy protagonist throw you off. There are loads of light-hearted laughs and feel-good comical moments, but there are also waves of intense dialogue, dramatic sequences, and good ol' baddie butt-kicking. The story is surprisingly dense, with many layers that lift and reveal the next great arch. There are some serious surprises. A sense of mystery and magic lingers around some characters and events, reminding the reader that this is a dark and different world. Tense moments are interrupted by hilarious antics, silly exchanges between characters, and great visual gags by the talented hand of Jeff Smith.The characters (all of them, every one) are dynamic and lovable. Even the bad guys. Seriously. Bone has a pretty big cast of reoccurring minor and major characters, but Smith manages to breath a sense of consistency and personality into each and every one. They are all individuals that densely populate a sometimes beautiful, sometimes scary, but nonetheless interesting world.The world feels classic and timeless at first glance, but it is filled with its own set of unique twists and turns. The innocent beauty of idyllic forests and quaint villages masks the dark and strange happenings beneath the surface.The story? Well... I'll let you handle that one on your own. I wouldn't want to give anything away. But trust me, it's weird and wonderful.Although I first read BONE as a child, I definitely still enjoyed it as an adult-- and not just for the nostalgia factor either! If you are a fan of graphic novels and comics, or you just want to try something new, grab a copy of BONE and settle in for an adventure!

Bone (2004) collects all 55 issues of Jeff Smith's comic book Bone, which was independently published from 1991 to 2004. Three Bones - pantsless hybrids of Walt Kelly's Pogo, Casper the Friendly Ghost and Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles - are run out of their town. They cross the desert and arrive at a Valley, where the series takes place, just in time for an epic conflict to erupt there.Bone is often humorous and at times very funny. Smith constructs his situation comedy with the best of them, but he has also created a couple of characters who are innately funny, which is rare: the rogue pair of quiche-loving rat creatures is always funny, no matter what they're doing. Toward the beginning of its arc, Bone has something of a leisurely pace, which allows for more humor and frequent appearances of these "stupid, stupid" rat creatures. Some of Smith's gags are pretty thin (as is Fone Bone's crush on Thorn), but on the whole this is a fun book.Smith's humor works a lot better than his drama. Broadly, Bone features a fairly generic, been-there-done-that "epic" plot centered on a peasant girl who, unbeknownst to her, is both the long-lost heir to the throne and the hero of destiny. In fact, all the trusty, worn-out fantasy tropes are here: quests, a dark lord, the unwitting royal hero, magic, the pseudo-medieval setting. And the Bones are noticeably like Tolkien's hobbits in that they are outsiders caught up in a grand struggle they don't fully understand. Smith handles the story adequately, although as the story progresses, a great deal of the humor is lost, replaced by unpleasant amounts of bickering and expositional monologues.Bone has two main climaxes - one two-thirds of the way through and one at the end. The first feels sufficiently weighty, the second, less so. There's plenty of build-up, but the book's ultimate resolution is underwhelming, and a bit rushed. It also suffers because some of the book's most interesting characters have limited or no presence - Lucius is an obvious example, as is Kingdok, the best villain in the book by far.Smith's artwork is excellent. He does a great job of blending the cartoony style of the Bones with the more realistic style of the Valley and its inhabitants. Bone was originally published in black and white (as it appears here), and Smith's style suits it. His use of varying line thicknesses, his simpler (but no less immersive) backgrounds, his use of black and white to create ambience - Smith uses the medium to full advantage.This one-volume edition is monstrous, and horribly unwieldy. Over thirteen hundred pages long, it's two-and-a-half inches thick and weighs about four hundred pounds. One feels like it should be read at a lectern. Smith's many spelling errors remain.Despite its flaws, Bone is certainly worth reading. After all, any book that makes fun of Moby-Dick as regularly as this one does can't be all bad.