The Magical Fruit

Bone is an amazing tale of three main characters who have just been exiled from their hometown. While leaving Boneville, they become separated and are thrown into new circumstances. This story illustrates their journey and how they react to each conundrum they encounter along the way.

Quicker than the Bones realize, they rapidly become entangled into an overarching plot. A plot of good versus evil. The story will introduce you to some magic, mystical dragons, some shady business practices, a cow race, and even talking bugs.

Each character is well defined and plays an important role in the story. You’ll want to follow along until the end if you want closure. Overall, this book is well worth the read and it belongs on your bookshelf.

Background

For starters, this book was entirely written, drawn, inked, and nearly entirely published (all but 6 issues) by a single artist—Jeff Smith. It originally released back in 1991. It ran all the way up until the year 2004 as 55 individual comic book issues. The interior art was released in black and white instead of colorized panels.

While it was being published, it received a large number of industry awards. This includes ten Eisner awards including: Best Writer/Artist—Humor, Best Humor Publication, and Best Continuing Series among others. Not only did it receive Eisner awards, but it also won eleven Harveys. These Harvey awards were for Best Cartoonist (Writer/Artist) and Best Graphic Album again among others. There are not many other comics or cartoonists that can add this to their resume.

Since it has been released as individual issues, it has been collected into several formats. These include trades, hardcovers, compendiums, and as an omnibus. Also, as a special treat, for their 25^th anniversary, they released a single volume in color. This is a great option for many. However, my personal choice, I wanted to stick close to the original format and opted for the “All In One” black & white edition.

Plot

This story is about three characters, called Bones, who are just exiled from their hometown. While leaving their town, they abruptly become separated. After gathering their wits, they try to become reunited. However, by doing this, they immediately set in motion their individual subplots of the overarching adventure. This adventure takes you on a journey through a mystical and unfamiliar land. You encounter magic, dragons, a cow race, talking bugs, and new creatures that have never been seen before.

This book has been summarized as the “Lord of the Rings of comics.” I cannot disagree with this summation, in fact, I certainly agree with it. However, I’d even take it up a notch. This is the Lord of the Rings with Mickey, Scrooge, and Goofy. Now this doesn’t mean that it belongs in a “children’s book” box. For heaven’s sake, I’m a grown man and I enjoyed it. I can say, however, it is very light hearted and has some fuzzy warm feeling parts. Although, it’s not all sugar and spice. There certainly are some “dark” themes sprinkled throughout the plot. For example, there’s an evil wizard that spawns a swarm of locusts, herds of spooky lookin’ rat creatures, and plenty of suspense. This is, as suspected, the cliche theme of good vs evil or light vs dark.

Review

Overall, I was very impressed with this book. The art was great and very immersive. There is more within the panels than just the dialog. I often found myself studying the happenings in the background. I think this played very well along with the black and white version of the book. It added to the immersiveness and spookiness of the plot.

I think that this book is great for anyone. It’s certainly not just for kids and I think it is well-suited for a Teen+ rating. Believe it or not, the plot is very well put together. I can guarantee that it is not going to go down entirely how you predict. Stick with it until the end, and I promise you’ll be both surprised and satisfied. I can say though that the ending is ever so slightly underwhelming and abrupt.

Another thing I will say, however, is the all-in-one edition clocked in at more than 1,500 pages. It was a beast to have sitting on your lap while you read. Reading it all the way through is quite the undertaking. I believe it took me more than a month to read it. I read mostly on the weekends when I had some spare time. It was enjoyable but, again, you had to make plans to read it in chunks. What should I expect though, the story was 55 issues so if you cram them all into a single volume, it’s gonna be a beast. Cant really slight 'em for this. I picked that format.

Speaking more on the format that I purchased, there certainly was some gutter loss. Not a whole bunch, but you did have to open the book wider to see the art at times. Not horrible, just saying. In hindsight, I think it would have been more convenient if it was broken up into smaller collections, say 3-4 hardcovers.

I would highly recommend you read this book in chunks and while you’re in the mood for an warm hearted adventure story.

For the slightly underwhelming ending and the minor inconveniences of that format I’ll take a star from the total rating. This earns the book four out of five stars.