Sunday Splash Page #93

"Long Way From the Cow Races", in Bone (vol. 7) Ghost Circles, by Jeff Smith

I bought Bone in the immense, one volume collection, which is why the right side of the scan in blurry. Trying to get a 1300+ page book to lie flat in a scanner is not easy. I have no excuse for forgetting to undo the dog ear I marked the page with, though.

The story progresses from the three Bone cousins meandering their way into a valley and trying to decide what to do next, to the three of them being caught in a massive war between some ethereal nightmare creature with its armies, and the few remaining humans and dragons. Once the dragons actually get off their asses to get involved, that is. 

The dragons are kind of like elves in Lord of the Rings, in that they keep saying they're done with this shit, and it is the World of Man's problem now, but they will help, sometimes.

I've read some people prefer the earlier stories, focused on Gran'ma Ben and the cow races, Phoney Bone's dumb scams, the two stupid, stupid rat creatures. Forced to choose, I would probably pick that part as well, because I enjoy the small-time, more madcap adventures. But I don't mind the escalation of threats. The encroaching horror as the Bones and Thorn are thrown into a much larger, more violent war none of them had any inkling of has its strong points.

I'm not sure he really had a plan for Roque Ja, after his initial appearance as a threat. He hangs around, but Smith doesn't seem to know what to do with him. Maybe that's supposed to be Roque's character, that he only cares about himself, but can't figure out which path best serves his interests, so he drifts. Attack the Bones, leave them alone. Parley with Kingdok, fight the rat creatures.

Smith's able to do comedy in his dialogue and his art, and he's very good at drawing chase sequences in a way that shows the progression of things. Which is good, since the Bones spend a lot of time running for their lives. There's one I especially like early on, where Fone Bone draws the rat creatures away from the opossum kids and one page is him being chased and angling his course so the rat creatures slam headfirst into a tree. Although what I like best is how he draws storms at night. Heavy black dominating the panel, with streaks of white for rain, and the characters are almost overexposed, glowing in contrast to what's around them.