Bone (comic)

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Bone ( German Bone ) is a 1991 created comic book series by Jeff Smith .

General

At the center of the series are three bones , cartoon-like , bone-shaped beings: Fone Bone, Smiley Bone and Phoney Bone. Phoney, the richest citizen of Boneville (the resemblance to Carl Barks ' Scrooge McDuck), has been chased out of town and is accompanied by his cousins. On the run, the three find themselves in a mysterious valley in which not only humans but also dragons, rat monsters and talking animals live and no one can turn them back. In the course of the story, the Bones are taken up by grandmother Buster (in English: "Grandma Ben") and her granddaughter Thorn and involved in a clash of different races and kingdoms, which includes numerous characters and takes on monumental features.

Smith spreads the adventures of the Bones into 55 black and white drawn chapters. After 20 volumes, the series came to an end in Germany. In addition, two special volumes have now been published, on the one hand, rat monster stories , in which the adventures of Big Johnson Bones, the founder of Boneville, are told, and on the other hand, the volume Rose , drawn by Charles Vess , which is an adventure from the youth of Rose Harvestar, which in the actual receipt series known as Grandma Ben is told. It deepens her relationship with her sister Briar and shows the trigger for the events described in Bone .

Colored edition

In 2004 the American publisher Scholastic Press published a color edition of Bone. The artist Steve Hamaker is responsible for the coloring and was honored with an Eisner Award for the best coloring for his critically acclaimed work on Bone .

filming

In early March 2008 it was announced that Warner Brothers had bought the rights to a film version. According to a statement by the author, which was published on March 13, 2008 on the official website boneville.com , the film should stick very closely to the original. However, it was never implemented. At the end of 2019, Netflix announced that it would produce an animated series version. The streaming provider had previously acquired the rights.

main characters

Fone Bone is a helpful, dreamy, and sometimes overly gullible bone. At the beginning of the story, he helps his cousin Phoney Bone to escape Boneville and is separated from his cousins ​​in the course of the escape. In search of them, he reaches the mysterious valley, where he gradually befriends Ted, the bug , Thorn, Grandma Ben and the big, red dragon . Eventually he finds his cousins ​​again and gets more and more involved in the events in the valley, through the course of which he supports Thorn, with whom he is secretly in love, and her grandmother until the end.

Phoncible P. Bone , called "Phoney" , is the richest, or at least the most enterprising, resident of Boneville. Unfortunately, his greedy and sometimes ruthless manner does not make himself very popular with his fellow citizens, and so his expulsion from his hometown is also the starting point for Bone . Driven by an ambition to return to his homeland laden with fame and fortune, he stumbles from one unfortunate business to the next, and is, if unintentionally, responsible for much of the tangles and confusions of the valley. Phoney can be recognized by his dark shirt with the star on his chest and his mostly grim or insidious expression.

Smiley Bone is the most distracted and carefree of the three cousins. Almost constantly grinning, he does not feel discouraged in the face of deadly dangers and only becomes a little more serious when he worries about his friends. With Smiley's occasional, breakneck action, you can never be quite sure whether he has amazing instinct and courage, or is just completely crazy. His trademarks are his little bowler hat , his waistcoat and the one-sided "guitar" that he usually carries with him. Together with Fone Bone, he helps Phoney Bone to flee Boneville. He's also regularly hired by Phoney for his fraudulent machinations. Whether he does this out of naivety or out of the gleeful certainty that these will never work anyway, is sometimes difficult to decide.

Thorn is the first person Fone Bone meets in the valley. Thorn is a confident girl who helps her grandmother with the work on the farm. At night she always has unsettling dreams that are of central importance in the course of the story. It is Thorn who goes through the probably greatest changes and developments in the course of history when she learns the truth about her family and her very special role in the valley and matures into a young woman with special skills.

Grandma Ben (in the original "Gran'ma Ben", in the old German editions Grandmother Buster ) is at first sight an old, eccentric farmer's wife who lives on her farm with her granddaughter Thorn, and is the only local celebrity and the only person on her farm takes part in the annual cow race. Only gradually does it become clear that the old lady, who can develop amazing powers, has an eventful past until she reveals that she uses the secluded life in the country only as a facade to protect Thorn and herself from her enemies . Ultimately, Grandma Ben accompanies her granddaughter on the long journey the main characters take throughout the story, trying to support Thorn along the way.

The hooded man is one of the main villains in history. He is the unscrupulous deputy and subordinate of the "Lord of the Locusts" and tries to free him from his stone prison with his machinations. He has brought the tribes of the rat monsters under his command and uses them to spread fear and terror in the valley. His trademarks are the coat with the hood that is always pulled over the face and his scythe . The identity of the hooded man remains hidden for a long time, it is only later revealed that he has more in common with Grandma Ben and Thorn than both can be dear to.

The red dragon is a mysterious figure who helps and stands by Fone Bone time and again throughout the story, even though his people, the dragons , have retired underground and have officially decided not to interfere in the affairs of the valley . The red dragon impresses with its very dry, serene and ironic manner and can often be found with a cigarette in its mouth.

Lucius , the gruff but basically good-natured owner of Barrel Haven , is good friends with Grandma Ben. The simple, honest man quickly harbors a deep dislike for Phoney, whose machinations keep pissing him off. In the course of the story it becomes clear that his simple existence, similar to Grandma Ben, is only a facade, and he actually once played (and will take on again) a much more important role than it seems.

Minor characters

Ted is the first living being Fone Bone meets in the valley. Ted is a talking bug who is friends with Grandma Ben, Thorn and the red dragon. A cheeky and cheeky little guy, he can always feel quite safe in dealing with others, because he knows that his big brother (a man-sized bug) will protect him at all times.

Kingdok is the leader of the rat monsters and has submitted to the hooded man , and thus the lord of the locusts, and passes his orders on to his people. It's especially big for a rat monster, which probably gave it its supremacy. Furthermore, in contrast to its conspecifics, it runs on its hind legs and has a huge jaw. He hates the inhabitants of the valley and hopes to gain more power with the help of the mask.

The two stupid rat monsters contradict the cruel and brutal image that is otherwise drawn by the rat monsters. Although they, like their peers, are equipped with sharp teeth and claws, they always manage to get themselves into trouble with their clumsy manner and show that even monsters are afraid of bosses or can argue about lunch (goulash or . Quiche).

Rock-Ra (originally "Roque Ja") is a giant mountain lion who captures Fone and Smiley Bone throughout the story. Since he is a cat, his motivations are not always easy to see through, and so he allows himself to be recruited as a mercenary by the masked man, although he cannot stand his subordinates, the rat monsters, for death. Later, at another point in the story, he quietly allows Fone Bone and his friends to escape. Rock-Ra is mainly concerned with its own advantage and always tries to get the best out of the strengths of the powers in the valley.

Bartleby is a young rat monster Fone Bone finds near the village and starts chasing after him. Fone is hiding it, knowing that the villagers would make short work of a rat monster. Smiley is the only one Fone Bone trusts its secret to. It is also Smiley who gives the little rat monster his name and finally makes friends with him.

Silas (originally "Wendell") is the village's blacksmith . As a simple man, at the beginning of the story, together with the other villagers, he lets himself be tempted into rash outbursts of temperament, usually either because they are seduced by Phoney, or to get revenge on Phoney. However, as the story progresses, given the events he is faced with, he grows beyond himself and becomes a kind of leader of the villagers.

Jonathan is a boy from the village where "Barrel Haven", Lucius' pub, is located, and who is good friends with Lucius. However, as the story progresses, his confidence is severely shaken by an observation he must make.

publication

20 volumes appeared in German, plus the two special volumes Rattenmonstergeschichten and Rose .

The German translation of the colored version has been published in ten edited volumes by Tokyopop since 2006 . The series was also published by the same publisher from 2006 to 2008 in a six-volume black and white paperback edition in German.

Awards and nominations

Prices

Eisner Award

1993, 1994, 1995 Best Humor Publication
1994 Best Serialized Story
1994 Best Continuing Series
1994 Best Writer / Artist: Jeff Smith
1995, 1996 Best Writer / Artist: Humor: Jeff Smith
1995 Best Continuing Series
2005 Best Graphic Album: Reprint: Bone One Volume Edition

Harvey Award

1994–1997, 1999, 2000, 2003, 2005 Best Cartoonist (Writer / Artist): Jeff Smith
1994 Special Award for Humor: Jeff Smith
1994, 2005 Best Graphic Album of Previously Published Work

Nominations

1993 Eisner Award for Best Writer / Artist: Jeff Smith
1995 Eisner Award for Best Single Issue
1995 Eisner Award for Best Comics-Related Item: Bone figurine, sculpted by Jeff Smith and Randy Bowen
1996 Eisner Award for Best Title for Younger Readers
1998 Eisner Award for Best Continuing Series
1998 Eisner Award for Best Comics-Related Product: Bone Red Dragon cold-cast statue
1998, 2005 Eisner Award for Best Comics Publication for a Younger Audience
1999 Eisner Award for Best Comics-Related Product / Item: Phoney Bone inflatable
2003 Eisner Award for Best Graphic Album Reprint
2004 Eisner Award for Best Writer / Artist: Humor: Jeff Smith
2006, 2008 Eisner Award for Best Coloring: Steve Hamaker, Bone

Other media

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Hollywood Reporter - News, March 8, 2008
  2. ↑ Hollywood Reporter: 'Bone' Animated Series Based on Comics in the Works at Netflix

Web links