Graphic Depiction: Bone and Classics Illustrated

Out from Boneville, The Great Cow Race, Eyes of the Storm, The Dragonslayer, Rock Jaw: Master of the Eastern Border, Old Man’s Cave, Ghost Circles, Treasure Hunters, and Crown of Horns, by Jeff Smith.

The nine books of the graphic fantasy story simply called ‘Bone’. I dithered around Bone for years as we visited comic shops, attracted by the action figures, but put off by the original black-and-white art of the comics and what I considered its rip-off of Walt Kelly’s style. Also I didn’t think I had the patience or the attention to follow a story in media res, which, being self-published, stood a good chance of never being finished. It was only years later, when it was complete and colorized, that I finally gave it a fair shake, and was then swept away by the epic fantasy of it all. The simplistic Bone cousins come fleeing into the reclusive Valley, where the Hooded one and her minions the Rat Creatures are starting to stir up apocalyptic trouble. An enthusiasm both Kameron and I enjoy. They are always going to make a movie, but never have yet. Scholastic Books.

Ranking: Essential.

File Code: Graphic Novel. Epic Fantasy. Softcovers.

 

Rose, by Jeff Smith. Illustrated by Charles Vess.

The story of when Gran’ma Ben was the young Princess Rose, and how her sister became the Hooded One. I imagine Smith let Vess draw this one to indicate its more serious and fairy-tale-like tone; the Bones are not here. A Scholastic book.

Ranking: Essential.

File Code: Graphic Novel. Fantasy. Softcover.

Bone: Tall Tales, by Jeff Smith with Tom Sniegoski.

A series of stories, mostly about Big Bone Johnson, legendary folk hero of the Bones, and his outsize exploits. A Scholastic book.

Ranking: Essential.

File Code: Anthology. Comics. Softcover.

Bone Handbook, by Jeff Smith.

A guide and companion, listing the characters, plotlines, and the process behind producing the story, plus some collected ancillary material. A Scholastic book.

Ranking: Essential.

File Code: Handbook. Softcover.

Bone: Coda, by Jeff Smith.

A new story (in black-and-white) that follows the Bones adventures as they leave the valley to return home. Then there is a section called “A Bone Companion, by Stephen Weiner, and other bits and pieces (including photos) connected with the Bone books.

Ranking: Essential.

File Code: Graphic Novel. Companion. Softcover.

Classics Illustrated: Treasure Island, by Robert Louis Stevenson; Robinson Crusoe by Daniel Defoe; A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur’s Court, by Mark Twain; Frankenstein, by Mary Shelley; and Faust, by Johann Wolfgang von Goethe.

Before we ever even went to grade school, Mom would sometimes buy us Classics Illustrated, these comic book adaptations of great literature. We would get them from a display by the service counter, right along with the Gold Key Comic Digests. We had the first three (as well as “The First Men in the Moon’ and “The Time Machine” by H. G. Wells, and maybe some others); I’m sure Faust and Frankenstein were seen as too grim for us. They re-printed a lot of these in recent years as softcover, and I bought these at Half-Price. They were pretty formative, and the originals were read to rags.

Ranking: Essential Nostalgia.

File Code: Graphic Novels. Classics. Softcovers.