I Don't Get It.
After hearing about Bone for years, I finally decided to pick it up and read it. And, I can honestly say I don't get what all the fuss is about. Here's a comic that's won a crazy number of awards, can be found in nearly every public library in America, and has made die-hard fans out of some of comics' luminaries. But to me, it was just O.K.
Bone is the story of three little cartoon men (they are white and hairless - I guess they are supposed to be anthropomorphic bones), Fone Bone, Smiley Bone and Phoney Bone ('funny bone'?) who end up lost in the wilderness when Phoney Bone is driven out of their home, Boneville, for being a swindler. After getting caught in a cloud of locusts, Fone Bone gets separated from the other two and ends up in a valley of strange creatures.
I get that this is supposed to be an all-ages comic, and I appreciate the attempt at fantasy - there aren't enough good all-ages fantasies anymore, but there's a number of things here I don't get, beginning with the very setup. It's never really clear why Fone Bone and Smiley Bone accompanied the exiled Phoney Bone (who seems to just annoy them) in the first place. Aside from vague threats of eating him, none of the characters Fone Bone encounters in the valley seem to have much else going on either, kind of like they exist solely to interact with Fone Bone.
Don't get me wrong, I don't hate Bone, I just don't get why everyone thinks it's the cream of the crop. To me it was just a mildly amusing time-passer. Perhaps the series gets better...
