Bone: Volumes 1-4

Thirteen years in the making, 1300 pages long, translated into 15 languages, 44 awards to its credit, more than a million copies sold”“ Jeff Smith’s Bone comes packaged with an array of impressive credentials. You don’t really need to know any of that to understand the most important part, which is this – Bone is a masterpiece of sequential storytelling for all ages. Featuring a cast of adorable characters (and some not-so-very-adorable ones) in an idyllic world humming with secrets and histories, it boasts of a storyline that is as intriguing and ambitious as it is funny. Originally self-published as a 55-issue black-and-white series and later collected into nine volumes, the series is now being reprinted in a gorgeous full-colour edition. Graphix, the graphic novels imprint of Scholastic Books have released four of the colour volumes in India so far, a little less than the half-way point of the complete saga.

At first glance, Bone is about the three Bone brothers, whose basic character traits are sketched in the space of a few pages. Fone Bone is the practical, good-natured brother through whose eyes most of the story unfolds. Smiley Bone is the Groucho-Marx-like comedic foil, and Phoney Bone the cranky, scheming money-lover, whose schemes are primarily responsible for driving the trio into trouble. The story begins with the aftermath of such a failed venture, as the three cousins wander through an uncharted desert after having been driven out of their hometown. Circumstances lead them apart, and Fone Bone (and as we find out later, Phoney and Smiley as well) finds himself in a valley filled with both friendly creatures and dark enemies. The early stories in the first volume are paced like comedic set-pieces ”“ our protagonist escapes a pair of quiche-loving rat creatures, is stalked by a laconic, cigarette-smoking dragon, makes friends with a fast-talking bug and then loses his heart to the beautiful Thorn.  The only remotely sinister element in these stories is a menacing hooded figure who shows an unnatural interest in the brothers.

The second volume, The Great Cow Race is completely woven around – you guessed it – a cow race where Phoney Bone’s plans to hoodwink the valley-folk end in hilarity. But by the third volume, the core of the story slowly metamorphoses into a mysterious drama involving Thorn’s past and the secrets her super-strong grandmother, Gran’Ma Ben carries within herself. Not that the comic loses its goofy charm – but it becomes apparent that Smith is building something that goes much beyond cute escapades and can be read at multiple levels. Note the uncomfortable real-world similarities that Phoney’s grand-standing takes on in the fourth volume, The Dragonslayer; preying on the superstitions of the villagers, he fuels public opinion against the peaceful dragons of the valley. This volume also marks the beginning of my favourite subplot, that of Smiley adopting Bartleby, the stray rat creature cub who goes on to play quite an important role in the future volumes.

Smith expertly churns his comic-book influences – the Americanisms of Segar’s early Popeye strips, the wordplay and anthropomorphic antics in Walt Kelly’s Pogo, and the humour of Carl Barks’ Disney stories – with high fantasy. It is needless to say at this point that Jeff Smith has a flair for flawless dialog, and his comic timing is impeccable, but it is his formidable artistry that breathes life into his world-building. With a few strokes of his brush, Smith conveys far more than the hyper-detailed realism prevalent in mainstream comics. He uses silent panels to carry the action forward at break-neck speed, and then makes you pause and gasp at an immaculately-rendered pastoral scene. Two things struck me while rereading the volumes in colour. One, Steve Hamaker’s vibrant colour palette brings the story to a whole new level, highlighting and rounding off subtle details one might have missed in the b/w editions. (The rat creatures had glowing red eyes? I never knew!) Two, the fine balance of humour and action that Jeff Smith maintains consistently in these stories is brilliant – even as the Hooded One’s forces pose a mounting danger to the valley, there’s Phoney concocting a scheme involving chickens, candlelight dinner and Smiley’s fiddling skills that makes you collapse with laughter.

Today, every other multi-volume fantasy offering in bookstores screams “epic saga” on back-cover blurbs and press releases (most of which is a lot of hooey, as the Bone cousins would say). This book is one of the few that rightfully deserves the epithet – and every accolade and award that has come its way. It remains one of the few comic-book titles that are compelling all-ages reads If you haven’t read Bone yet, I envy you the wonder of your first read. Go ahead, and don’t be surprised if at the end of it, you find yourself smiling every time you see Moby Dick in a bookstore, or when someone orders a slice of quiche. Sure, it’s a bit of a downer to realise that there are five volumes yet to be released here but let me assure you, it only gets better and better.