Product Description: Bone is an international publishing sensation with hundreds of thousands of loyal readers and no end in sight to its growing popularity. Now, for the first time anywhere, see the homemade comics, sketches and grand plans that set this masterpiece of literary fantasy in motion. From there, take a tour through piles of promotional art, holiday cards and pivotal storytelling moments from the revolutionary self-published years, where Bone went from "the little comic that could" to an industry leader that changed the face of comics. Finally, revel in the wonder of Bone as a complete 1300-page graphic novel, a work for the ages, filled with comedy and tragedy and adventure for generations to come.
A Beautiful Book Before we even get to the content, let me say that this is a gorgeous book - well bound, heavyweight paper, glossy.
Open it and it just gets better. I always read the foreword of the books I read. And the dedications when present. Heck, I even check the copyright. I tend to wait until I'm done before reading mini-biographies of the authors because I prefer to read books without having first coloured my perceptions (too much). It is not a rule I always stick to however. Good thing.
This book is a mini-tour of Jeff's mind. (I *can* call him Jeff you know. Like Stephen [King], he's slept next to me and been the first page I see in the morning). And what a lovely tour it is. Full of fertile hills and verdant valleys.
And the scenery (the art people - trying to keep up the metaphor here) - stunning. There might very well be art that is repetitive of the books. I did not notice. My nephew surely will. But given the frequency at which he re-reads the Bone books, I don't think he will care.
I bought this book for him (my nephew) who on Thanksgiving Day 2008 told the family he was thankful for "Jeff Smith writer of the Bone books". How does it better than that for any author?
I'm thankful to Jeff Smith myself, for fostering a young boy's imagination. I am also thankful for what on December 25th is likely to be Smith's most recent achievement - making this aunt the hit of Christmas gift unwrapping.
Amazing Art Jeff Smith is one of the greatest comic artists of our times, and it is inevitable that with the end of his epic series Bone, that we would have a one volume art collection of that series. If you're a fan of Bone, you won't be disappointed. Seeing the Bone covers and other color work in a larger size brings them to life. The artwork is amazing. The only reason that I give this four stars instead of five is that a lot of the work in this volume has been printed before, so if you've been following the series from the beginning, you probably already have 90% of the art that is included. This is not necessarily a bad thing since the images are printed in a larger format in this volume, but it would have been nice to see more sketchbook material. Another thing that dropped the rating is that there is hardly any text included other than a few captions. I appreciate that as much space as possible was kept for art, but it would have been nice to read about about the creation process, the origin and development of the Bone story, or Jeff Smith's philosophy on comics. Regardless of these minor quibbles, this is an excellent collection, and would make a wonderful gift to fans of Bone.
The art of dreaming...Bone style. Bone was a real surprise, many years ago. B&W art was uncommon and the story was magnetic, pulling you into a world where cartoon characters wondered about with humans. From the very first issues thev reader was presented with plots and beasts that seemed like many other universes we know, but with a charm that was totally magic. This book presents us with some marvelous art, sketches and behind the scenes info on how these stories came to be, form and style wise. If you like to know a bit how Jeff works and structures ideas and styles and how the wonderful mix of Bone was born just don't miss this book. There's a few extras as well... but I won't spoil you the surprise.
Hit of the birthday! My son became "addicted" to the Bone series about a year and a half ago. I've never been a fan of comics but when my non-reader decided these books were what he wanted to read I was on a quest. He started by reading the color re-releases of the first few books and when Old Man's Cave had not come out yet I bought him the all-in-one book with 1000+ pages. My non-reader finished it in a short amount of time and was left with wanting more. When I came across "The Art of Bone" I was thrilled. It talked about how Jeff Smith created the characters when he was 9 years old. My son turned 9 last month so I got it for his birthday. As he was going to bed and talking about the day (which included 9 friends and The Reptile Guy) he said his favorite part was receiving "The Art of Bone"! THAT made MY day! It is a beautiful book and is very informative. I would recommend it highly to anyone interested in this series, beautiful comic book art or looking for inspiration.
ONE OF THE GREAT COMICS OF THE LAST 25 YEARS Jeff Smith truly has lived the American Dream...he found one thing he liked to do and he's done it for his entire life. OK, that may be simplifying things a bit. But even as a child, Smith knew he wanted to be a cartoonist. In fact, inside this fantastic book you'll get to see one of the very first Bone comics, drawn by Smith when he was just ten years old. The characters had yet to be refined in terms of their look and personalities, but the spirit is still there. Bone is really one of the great comics and one of the great comics success stories of the modern era. A wacky and wise-cracking strip that is one part Walt Kelly, one part J.R.R. Tolkien, and the rest all Smith. Smith took a chance on his creations, and self-published them. While most self-publishers fail quite quickly, Smith proved that talent rises to the top. Bone soon became a cult-hit on the part of Cerebus the Aardvark.
This volume from Dark Horse Books is chock full of 200 pages of rare Jeff Smith Bone art. Some of it unpublished, some of it pencil versions, alternate covers, etc. You get a little bit of everything in this book: Finished panel pages, completed, full color covers, unfinished panel sequences, rare sketches, pencil versions of completed covers, often side-by-side with the finished product, and so much more. The editors are along to provide captions to the art at the bottom of the page, often noting Smith's influences such as the valley scene from Bone #1 and its comparison to a similar scene from one of Joe Kubert's Tarzan pages. Not that it is a copy of the Kubert scene, but rather how smith uses perspective in the scene, dwarfing the characters by the sheer expanse of the area that Bone is looking over.
The book also reprints perhaps the seminal page in Bone's history. Bone is being chased by two of the fearsome Rat creatures that are ever after him. He leaps to a tiny branch thinking he is safe as the two large predators could not possibly fit on the same branch, and would be stupid to try. When they are both on the branch, Bone screams the immortal words, "Stupid, Stupid Rat Creatures!" This phrase has even been included in Random House's Cyberspeak dictionary.
The book introduces the reader to all of the main characters including Fone Bone (the star), scheming Phoney Bone, dim-witted Smiley Bone, Thorn (bone's human love interest), Gran'ma Ben, and Lucius who runs the local tavern. With heroes you need villains and we can't leave them out...they include The Lord of the Locusts, The Hooded One, and Kingdok, who rules the Rat Creatures.
Bone is so rich in its story and scope that it really humbles comics that have been put out by the "larger companies". Even if you haven't read the comics you're sure to be dazzled by the art in this book. Smith is without a doubt one of the best cartoonists and best storytellers of the past twenty years. And if you are a Bone fan then the book will provide a lot of interesting anecdotes to many of the stories that you've enjoyed over the years. The good thing is that even though the series ended in 2004, Scholastic Books is reprinting the series in collected editions and in full color. This book gets my highest possible rating. Get it...NOW!
Anything Goes Trivia
Trevor
Megaton Man
