Try fitting THIS Bone in your mouth.

Grant · Post by **Grant** » Wed Oct 27, 2004 2:50 pm

So, I finally picked up the 1300 page Bone: One Volume Edition last week, and it is fantastic! I was a bit concerned initially about the binding of such a monstrous thing, but it's actually bound better than some graphic novels half the size.

I know a few on this board have already admitted they enjoy Bone (Esrever and Zeta definitely do, if I recall correctly), but if you haven't ever read it before, you might want to think about picking this up. 12 years of comics in one edition for $27 on Amazon.

Even if you already own all of the individual graphic novels (like I did, except the last one), you might want to consider it, too. Not only is it nice to have it all in one book, but there were quite a few changes I noticed that helped the story flow a little better and some continuity errors were edited.

(...minor spoilers ahead, I guess)

Anyway, now that I was finally able to read it all in one sitting like I've always wanted to (taking only one seven hour work shift), I can properly analyze the story as a whole. And I've gotta say I agree with Esrever, that the ending is a bit of a letdown. In fact, the entire third act of the story feels very forced and anticlimatic.

Actually, I got the impression that the ending to Old Man's Cave may have been intended to be the ending for the series but there were just too many loose ends to tie up. I much prefer Briar's death scene in Old Man's Cave than at the true ending. It's a lot creepier; plus, the whole scene is just so vintage Bone. I loved the idea of Phoney's campaign balloon being the reason for all of the fuss over the star bearer... it at least felt a little more planned than the deus ex machina of the Crown of Horns.

The whole third act felt that way, like it was largely ad-libbed. The whole Ghost Circles concept came out of nowhere (although, in the OVE, Smith does add some things in here and there in earlier books to help foreshadow it a bit more; there's actually two completely new pages added to Eyes of the Storm to introduce Ghost Circles and prayer stones). The Tarsil arc didn't lead to any payoff at all. I didn't feel anything when Lucius died; he'd been pretty much completely gone since the Dragonslayer arc and then he comes back for two seconds just to shout something heroic, and then fall over dead.

I sound like I didn't like the book, which isn't true. Bone is actually quite incredible. The art is fantastic, the characters are likable and the story is often laugh out loud funny without being mean or crude. You should definitely check it out, certainly.

So, what'd some of you guys think?

Post by **Esrever** » Wed Oct 27, 2004 5:57 pm

I kind of wonder if maybe, by act three, Smith just kind of wanted to get the sucker done and rushed it a bit. Smith always said Bone would be a set of three trilogies... maybe he was just too dedicated to sticking to that formula when it wasn't necessary. I know the third act was meant to be the climactic giant army battle that you get in all fantasy epics... but those kind of large scale battle scenes really just don't work well in comic books.

That said, there is still a lot of stuff in that last book that I really love... the scenes with Mim, the last appearance of Rock Jaw, and pretty much all the interaction between Fone and Phoney were great. And on the whole, I was pretty happy with Volumes 7 and 8. It was really just some of the things in the final book, like the death of Lucius and the final battle, that just seemed a bit anti-climactic. And I didn't entirely understand why Fone Bone's leaving was treated as being so permanent. I mean, sure, it's a long way across the desert, but it's not like he couldn't take the big trip every once in awhile to come back and visit, right?

If there are that many changes, I may have to go get the one volume edition after all! :D

Zeta · Post by **Zeta** » Wed Oct 27, 2004 6:04 pm

And I didn't entirely understand why Fone Bone's leaving was treated as being so permanent. I mean, sure, it's a long way across the desert, but it's not like he couldn't take the big trip every once in awhile to come back and visit, right?

I think it was like supposed to be one of those moments in typical fantasy stories in which the character is brought to a fantasy world via magical portal and leaves the world forever at the end (Wizard of Oz). THe reason it didn't work in Bone is simply because the Bones only SEEM like they come from another world. Really, they're just in vastly different parts of the same world.

So that cliche of "Let us leave this magical land forever and return to the mundane world of the present" doesn't quite work.

Locit · Post by **Locit** » Wed Oct 27, 2004 6:07 pm

(Spoilers)
(duh)

I mean, sure, it's a long way across the desert, but it's not like he couldn't take the big trip every once in awhile to come back and visit, right?

That confused me too. Are the new pages about ghost circles and such well placed or do they disrupt the flow of the story? And I agree with the thing about Tarsil. I would've liked to hear/see more about his past and at least see him fight someone/thing before he got his noggin chopped off. Anyways, I really loved Bone, and wonder what Smith's going to do next, if he is going to do something at all.

Zeta · Post by **Zeta** » Wed Oct 27, 2004 6:12 pm

I'd actually like to see Smith take on Science Fiction, now that he's done a great fantasy. Although, idealy if he does do a follow-up project - hopefully it won't take 12 years to complete.

Grant · Post by **Grant** » Wed Oct 27, 2004 6:37 pm

Locit wrote: That confused me too. Are the new pages about ghost circles and such well placed or do they disrupt the flow of the story? And I agree with the thing about Tarsil. I would've liked to hear/see more about his past and at least see him fight someone/thing before he got his noggin chopped off. Anyways, I really loved Bone, and wonder what Smith's going to do next, if he is going to do something at all.

The new pages are in the middle of Eyes of the Storm when Fone Bone and Thorn are making a garden, right before they talk about the dreams in the barn. It's pretty well placed and seems to fit right in, but to me it seems weird, mainly because I'm used to reading it without that. It works really good to introduce the concept early on in the story so that it's like "Okay, what? Ghost Circles? Where the fuck did that come from?" which was my initial reaction when I read them in single issues.

And Jeff Smith is doing a Shazam! miniseries next.

Esrever wrote:That said, there is still a lot of stuff in that last book that I really love... the scenes with Mim, the last appearance of Rock Jaw

I didn't really get the whole Mim thing at the end, to be honest. Was she still insane even though she was no longer possessed by the Locust? Were the dragons just bringing her underground to try and bring her back to normal or what?

I know the third act was meant to be the climactic giant army battle that you get in all fantasy epics

Actually, if I'm not mistaken, in some pretty recent interview with Smith, he was really opposed to having a giant final army battle initially, but the story just kind of went in that direction and he decided to go with it anyway.

Locit · Post by **Locit** » Wed Oct 27, 2004 7:51 pm

It never really had the feel of a giant battle, though. It felt like something more along the lines of brief skirmishes and focus on the characters who were going to save everyone. The battles were good, but seemed secondary, almost avoidable. Literal case in point- I personally enjoyed it very much when Thorn just flew over that entire army.

Grant · Post by **Grant** » Wed Oct 27, 2004 8:26 pm

Yeah, you can tell that Smith really didn't want the big battle to be the focus. Which is a good thing.

Not to mention, it saves a lot of time drawing!

Locit · Post by **Locit** » Wed Oct 27, 2004 9:29 pm

Where did you find yours?

Neo Yi · Post by **Neo Yi** » Wed Oct 27, 2004 10:00 pm

Is this Bone book only an Amazon.com thing or is it available in bookstores. If it's the latter, I'll know what to get alongside the Mulan 2-disc DVD on my trip to the mall...which is...whenever.
~Neo

Grant · Post by **Grant** » Wed Oct 27, 2004 10:58 pm

I'm not sure if it's in book stores. It's probably in comic book shops, though.

I orderd mine through the official site for $40 before I found out it was on Amazon. This sort of thing always happens to me.

It's also coming out next year in color, too. They'll be rereleasing each of the individual graphic novels every couple of months.

From what I've seen on Newsarama and other similar sites, it looks awesome in color - and I thought I would've always preferred it in black and white.

I'll probably end up buying this story for a fourth time. Damn.

Post by **Esrever** » Thu Oct 28, 2004 12:59 am

Ah, it's worth it. When you think about it, it's pretty ridiculous how cheap the one-volume edition is. It's hundreds of dollars worth of books in there! :)

The deal with Mim at the end is that the Locust essentially WAS Mim. Remember, the Locust never had a form in the physical dimension. It possessed Mim, and as hard as the Dragons tried, they could get it out of her. So, they turned Mim into stone or burried her or whatever. But the Locust never left her.

The scenes at the end were actually of the Locust escaping. The Locust was just still inside Mim... Mim was still it's physical form. At least, that was what I thought was going on.

Grant · Post by **Grant** » Thu Oct 28, 2004 1:34 am

Right, but when Thorn touched the Crown of Horns, that killed the Locust spirit, didn't it?

One of the villagers says something to the effect of "The locust is dead!" and a bunch of the actual insects are falling from the sky and are on the rocks dead, indicating that it's so.

That would mean, I think, that the locust inside of Mim would have died and she would've went back to being pre-locust Mim. Maybe she was just still insane from the Locust, or being imprisoned for so long?

Even if the locust was still inside of Mim, what were the dragons doing bringing her underground? If they somehow managed to kill the physical form of Mim (which they failed to do in the first place), the Locust would've just taken on another mortal to inhabit, right? That was the whole deal in the first place.. the Locust wanted the strongest dreamer in the world to be it's host. We were led to believe that it would be Phoney, then Thorn, but it ended up still being Mim.

Even without this, there's still some unanswered questions. What's the new treaty? Are the Pawans and Rat Creatures still resentful of the kingdom? Were the dragons actually so pissed about being awaken that they were going to kill Fone Bone and Thorn or were they on their way to Mim the whole time? If they were actually pissed, and the Red Dragon helped Fone Bone and Thorn, and therefore betrayed his people, does that mean he's been exiled?

...GAH! I don't know. I'm just trying to understand it, is all.

But now, it's bed time.

Neo Yi · Post by **Neo Yi** » Thu Oct 28, 2004 5:16 pm

I'm not sure if it's in book stores. It's probably in comic book shops, though.

I orderd mine through the official site for $40 before I found out it was on Amazon. This sort of thing always happens to me.

It's also coming out next year in color, too. They'll be rereleasing each of the individual graphic novels every couple of months.

From what I've seen on Newsarama and other similar sites, it looks awesome in color - and I thought I would've always preferred it in black and white.

I'll probably end up buying this story for a fourth time. Damn.

Colored ones....hmmm...I'll be on the lookout at any malls I know (I know one of them has a comic book store). Thanks for the info.
~Neo

Post by **Esrever** » Fri Oct 29, 2004 3:30 am

Hmm, good point, Grant. Well in that case... I guess Mim WAS still crazy! Or something. HUAH

Baba O'Reily · Post by **Baba O'Reily** » Fri Oct 29, 2004 5:53 am

For the record, how come everybody else can come up with a nice innuendo for a title, and I have to scramble to have something be vaguely sexual? Is there a handbook for this shit?

Grant · Post by **Grant** » Fri Oct 29, 2004 1:11 pm

It helps to be unbelievably perverted.

Post by **Delphine** » Fri Oct 29, 2004 1:17 pm

Practice, dear.

Baba O'Reily · Post by **Baba O'Reily** » Fri Oct 29, 2004 5:49 pm

But I'm not old enough to be that shallow minded! I still believe in happy endings! And that Republicans are really for across the board tax cuts!

Grant · Post by **Grant** » Mon Nov 01, 2004 11:50 pm

Heads up for anyone considering buying this... twelve years of comics under twenty bucks, because it's foolishly advertised. I spent forty bucks on this sucker (and I don't regret it).

Buy it, you cock smokers!