Into the Archive: Taller Tales

More Tall Tales: A Graphic Novel (BONE Companion) (Paperback, September 2023, Scholastic, 128 Pages)

by Jeff Smith (Author), Tom Sniegoski (Author)

 

“Smiley Bone, Fone Bone, and their Rat Creature pal, Bartleby, take a group of young scouts to a legendary landmark that the Bone cousins found when they were kids. They share stories around a campfire, spinning tales of trips to the moon, the delights of quiche, an imagined monster come to life, and an encounter with the two stupid Rat Creatures gone hilariously wrong!

“This volume includes stories written by Jeff Smith and Tom Sniegoski, and illustrated by Jeff Smith, Stan Sakai, Katie Cook, Matt Smith, and Scott Brown.” – Amazon.

I was unaware of this latest addition to the Bone collection until just last Saturday. It arrived yesterday (Tuesday) and now (very early morning Wednesday) I am done with it. I found it to be a strangely uneven experience due to the variety of artists involved. It is rather jarring after becoming used to Jeff Smith’s characteristic style. I am sure that kids eager for more Bone adventures (as, indeed, am I) may not mind, or even notice, the dissonance. Unfortunately for me, it seems to smack of the exploitation of what has come to be the Bone ‘franchise’. Jeff Smith, having already produced a classic series of graphic novels, appears content now to share the labor with other artists. That is surely his right, and ordinary comics are the work of many hands, but when I’m offered a sausage, I like to know how much is meat, and how much is other byproduct. Of course, he makes no bones (ha!) about the shared credits, and the stories are on the whole enjoyable, especially for the suggested reading age (8 – 12), and again I liked it as an amusement, which is what it is meant to be. It is a welcome leftover snack after a feast.

A note in passing: The book contains some work previously published in Bone: Coda. Jeff Smith (now 64) suffered cardiac arrest just before this volume was released and had to cancel its publicity tour.