Bone

As has been said elsewhere, cartooning is generally better respectd in Europe than in the US. The creators in Europe get more control and, in general, better pay (or at least royalties) than their American counterparts. Remember, Jeff Smith turned out every issue of Bone in two months. That's everything, writing, pencils, inks, lettering, and color covers. How long does it take Canales and Guarnido to turn out a volume of Blacksad? Production schedules are a big factor, too.

I just finished reading the black and white omnibus, which is quite a brick. It was amazing, great stuff.

So what did people think of the ending? Should Fone have stayed or not?

From what I understand, people find it a bit of a sad ending, but I think the ability to go home again is in itself a happy ending as well. Many great epics end with the journey home, all the way back from the Odyssey to the Lord of the Rings, and when that journey is impossible due to home being a Doomed Hometown, it is usually treated as a bittersweet ending, if not a great tragedy in itself.

And comparing it to the ending of Lot R, in that story "home" was nonetheless forever altered by the war, whereas in Bone, as far as we know, Boneville remains unchanged, making this arguably a happier homecoming than that of the Hobbits.

For me it was a bit upsetting to see the Bones leave the valley and everyone there. Since the story is almost entirely set there and the focus of the story is on Thorn, with Fone Bone acting as the POV character, the valley and its inhabitants are what people were attached to. That’s what makes the ending bittersweet.

That kind of "the normal hero leaves the magical world behind, and/or it leaves him behind" ending has been obligatory since LOTR, but in this case while it makes sense narratively imo it's one of the very few things in the series that imo could have been handled better.

The fact that we know basically nothing about Boneville, and that everything the protagonists care about - that we know of - is in the valley makes it more of a "well, I guess they have to, but it's still a shame" feeling. It's an And the Adventure Continues ending where the adventure explicitly doesn't continue, that suddenly thrusts Boneville from the subject of Noodle Incident backstory to something vitally important.

So yeah... bittersweet. I think I might've preferred an short but wistful epilogue with the brothers arriving in Boneville and trying to settle back in, at least for context.

Edited by KnownUnknown on Feb 10th 2019 at 4:30:16 AM

Is Warner Bros. ever going to get around to making the animated movie? Last I checked it was still on their slate, but given the number of other movies they've announced (Scooby, Tom and Jerry, Space Jam 2, and so on) without any mention of it, I'm not optimistic.

Do we really want a movie from the studio that makes terrible live action versions of cartoons? Mentioning Scooby and Tom and Jerry does not exactly recommend them.

Edited by Redmess on Mar 25th 2019 at 10:39:42 AM

I think our best chance of getting a good Bone movie is if Jeff Smith opens his own animation studio.

The bad news is that we're not getting a movie.

The GREAT news, however...

My god. This sounds literally like the perfect arrangement! I hope the animation is 2D

And it's in colour, too! I've only read the black and white version so far, though I want the colour version too someday.

Netflix animation dead; alongside all shows, including this one.

Aww, that's a shame.

Good grief.

Bone creator Jeff Smith reacts to the Netflix Bone series getting canned in a way that rings more than a few bells.

Yeah, this is... strangely familiar.

Bone deserves so much better than this.

I'm not even surprised any more.

I hope they can shop it around to another service or something. Even Amazon.

A new anthology featuring stories from a variety of creators has been announced called Bone: More Tall Tales for 2023

Sounds fun.