Bone Sourcebook

By Jeff Smith

The Bone Sourcebook I decided to check out since I was near the start of the series and it probably wouldn't hurt to get an idea about the characters involved. For instance, discovering the dinosaur in the first appearance issue is actually a reoccurring character which was a dragon who tends to save Bone from trouble, but not always. Phoney Bone meanwhile is being targeted by a dark force and has the ability to come up with terribly chaotic-inducing scams. Fone Bone, (which I had already figured out from the start), has a major crush on Thorn, to which she doesn't realize and he can't seem to profess to her, but has the ability to keep his head in difficult situations and is there to bail Phoney Bone out of whatever trouble he may get into.

Smiley Bone is down for any terrible scheme and likes to dress up in costumes with big heads. Mr. Down has a tavern in Barrelhaven, which Phoney continues to try and commandeer, but having his plans foiled by Mr. Down, he also having a romantic interest in Grandma Ben. We also get descriptions of Ted the bug, (which I didn't realize had a large part in this series and one of Grand'ma Ben) of course and her ability to run faster than the fastest cow and a strength which belies her size. The Hooded One, who has a indecipherable interest in Phoney Bone doesn't have many facts known of him, other than he being not the highest in power, being claimed by Lord of Locusts. It continues to describe the Bone's enemies, including Kingdok and his rat creatures.

Then we are given a timeline of the story so far, which one should wait on unless they've read at least up to Lonesome Road. After which we get a blurb of Jeff Smith, telling us he'd come up with his Bone characters as a kindergartner even though he hadn't started to draw them up to four years before the release of this source book. We learn what had inspired him most when he discovered he wanted to be a cartoonist, also at an early age. This is a nice summarization if one needs to get familiarized with the story and characters, but then there's also the Bone Handbook, which goes into greater detail. Now I'll be getting back into the swing of Bone.