Out from Boneville

Out From Boneville is the first story-arc in the Bone series. It collects the first six issues of Jeff Smith's self-published Bone comics. It marks the beginning of part one (of three) of the Bone series, titled "Vernal Equinox". The book was first published by Cartoon Books in its original black-and-white version in 1995; excerpts were printed in Disney Adventures over the course of 1994-1998. Paperback and hardback colored editions were published in 2005 by Scholastic.

The first volume follows the three Bone cousins as they meet the inhabitants of a mysterious valley and seek their help in finding the way back to their home in Boneville.

Synopsis

The Map

The three Bone cousins are lost in the desert. After finding a mysterious seemingly hand-drawn map they are attacked by a swarm of locusts. Fone Bone barely escapes with his life, but falls off a cliff. Climbing up the other side, he finds a trail of Smiley's cigars. Following it, he meets two rat creatures who attempt to eat him. However, he is rescued by the Great Red Dragon. Soon after, he meets Ted, a wise bug who suggests that Fone seek counsel from Thorn, but warns he should do so before winter arrives. Following a spontaneous blanket of falling snow, marking the beginning of winter, Fone decides to stay in the Valley until Spring when he can continue his search for Phoney and Smiley.

Thorn

Fone Bone (now donning boots, a blanket cape, and a paper bag hat) is in the process of working on his house when Miz Possum comes by with her three sons to give Fone Bone some more supplies. Miz Possum leaves her sons in the care of Fone Bone for a short while. The kids get away from him while playing, and he chases after them to find they have been caught by the two rat creatures from earlier. Fone saves the kids and tells them to run away while he leads that rat creatures off of their trail. The rat creatures chase Fone Bone for a while, and the chase ends with the Great Red Dragon scaring them away. Fone, angry with the dragon, asks why he didn't use his fiery breath, at which point the Great Red Dragon sets Bone's hat on fire. Afterwards, Fone Bone tries to tell Miz Possum about the dragon, but she, despite seeing his burnt hat, refuses to believe an ounce of it, as dragons are believed to be purely mythical. Making his way to the hot spring to clean up, Fone runs into a beautiful woman removing her trousers to collect some water from the spring. Fone is immediately smitten. She reveals her name to be Thorn, the person whom Ted told him to seek, and Fone goes off with her to her home.

Phoney Bone

Fone Bone is staying at Thorn's house, and helping with chores prior to the arrival of Thorn's grandmother, Gran'ma Ben, who is coming from the annual Great Cow Race, while Thorn makes a pie. Fone Bone shows Thorn the map they found in the desert, which Thorn finds strangely familiar. Meanwhile Phoney Bone meets Gran'ma Ben, and instantly gets on her wrong side. He and Fone Bone are reunited when Gran'ma Ben arrives at the farm house.

Kingdok

The day before the Spring Fair at the nearby town, Fone and Phoney are helping out at Thorn and Ben's farmstead. Seeing the opportunity to make some money, the greedy Phoney sneaks out to go to town early, but he encounters the two Rat Creatures and their ruler, Kingdok. He overhears the Rat Creatures are on the lookout for a "small bald creature with a star on its chest", a clear description of Phoney Bone himself. The Rat Creatures are called to high council with The Hooded One, a mysterious figure who wears a brown cloak with the hood pulled down over his face, and wields a scythe. The meeting adjourns with The Hooded One sending every Rat Creature in the valley to attack the farm house.

Barrelhaven

With the farm house under attack, Gran'ma Ben fights off the Rat Creatures, giving Thorn and Fone the chance to escape. When Thorn and Fone get surrounded, the Great Red Dragon appears, announcing its arrival with the smell of brimstone, and chases the Rat Creature army away. They return to the farm house to find it wrecked and smoldering. Meanwhile, Phoney Bone arrives at the Barrelhaven tavern and discovers, to his astonishment, Smiley Bone working there as a barman. He then meets Lucius Down, owner of the bar, and instantly gets on his wrong side. It is then that Phoney discovers that the residents of the valley use products and services as pay—Phoney's drinks cost "two eggs"; Phoney gives Lucius two dollars, which are ripped apart, much to Phoney's shock; Smiley explains to him Lucius is asking for real eggs.

Phoney's Inferno

Thorn, Fone and the Dragon arrive back at the farm to find Gran'ma Ben alive. Clearly she and the Dragon know each other (the Dragon addresses her by her first name, Rose). However, Gran'ma Rose Ben remains distrustful of the Dragon, despite his driving off the Rat Creatures. Meanwhile, Phoney Bone is forced to work under Lucius Down, proprietor of the Barrelhaven tavern, to pay off his bar tab (his coveted Boneville money being worthless in the valley). As he plans ways to get rich off the villagers' goods instead, he is visited by The Hooded One, who claims to want his soul. When Thorn, Ben and Fone Bone arrive in town for the Spring Fair, the three Bone cousins are reunited at last.

Video game

Bone: Out From Boneville, a video game adaptation of this book developed by Telltale Games, is available for the P.C./MacIntosh, and is the first in a series of Bone games from the same developers.^[1]

References

External links

• Boneville - Publisher Cartoon Books official website
• WelcomeToBoneville.com - unofficial Bone community forum