Bone Vol. 3 "Eyes of the Storm"

Tonight, I'm writing about the second volume of Jeff Smith's Bone (published through Dark Horse Comics and Scholastic's Graphix imprint).  In this post some parts of the past volume's story will be revealed so...

SPOILERS

In this post, I talk about "Eyes of the Storm."  It's the title given to the third volume of Jeff Smith's Bone.  After the calamity of the cow race, The story takes a turn for the more serious.  There's more adventure, mysticism, and a good deal of revelations as we start to learn some of the backstory.

Now, the volume is pretty much split in half.  After repairing the farm and the cottage, Lucius takes Smiley Bone and Phoney Bone back to the Barrelhaven Tavern so that they can continue working off their debts.  One Bone stays behind with Thorn and Gran'ma Ben as they take care of the chores.  With the ominous title we get the feeling that things won't be going well.  Fone Bone and Thorn continue talking about their dreams.  They don'y why the dreams have become so strange all of a sudden or why the Red Dragon is conscious of what's going on in their dreams.  (Please don't ask why a character in this medieval setting is reading a Herman Melville book, because I'm not sure who understands that angle.)  ...  The two continue speaking about the dreams, and how they can teach us about the past and the future.  As they tend to a garden, Thorn teaches Fone about her grandmother's cultural traditions.  For example, using special stones as protections from "ghost circles."  Ghost circles are places where the barrier between the physical and the spirit worlds is especially thin.  They're places where you feel a chill that's almost unexplainable.

They get caught in a rainstorm and take cover while discussing their dreams.  Fone Bone's dream is a reenactment of Moby Dick, and the strange thing is that the dragon comes up out of the ocean.  For Thorn, it's different.  We realize that the dreams are of her when she was younger, but nobody can tell who the hooded people are that are hiding her in a mountainside with dragons.  What's stranger is that an evil person in a hood uses Fone Bone's visage to try tricking young Thorn.  Gran'ma walks in having heard them speaking of subjects that were forbidden, and she runs angrily in to the woods.  

For the length of story so far, the only problem for the other main characters was Smiley's pestering Lucius and Phoney.  Through Smiley Bone's persistence, we learn that Lucius once had a significant other, but she didn't want to marry him.  The vulnerability was cut short as they're attacked by the rat creatures.  The same thing happens to Fone Bone, Thorn, and Gran'Ma Ben.  Against the wishes of Lucius and Gran'ma (who we've learned has the first name "Rose), the Red Dragon comes to their aid in both encounters.  

Lucius takes Fone Bone's cousins to the tavern, and Phoney devises a new gamble about bar management.  Sure that the villagers won't take kindly to a stranger who had just tried swindling them, Lucius agrees.  But then, Phoney starts using the concept of dragons and the villagers' fears to start gaining the people's financial support.

Back at Gran'ma Ben's cottage, she discloses to Thorn and Fone Bone, that she and her granddaughter  are members of the royal Harvester family of the valley.  Thorn's dreams were of her family fleeing and taking cover in the dragons' stronghold of Deren Gard.  Gran'ma Ben claims that she was the traitor who got Thorn's parents killed.  Unbeknownst to them, we see updates passed from the rat creatures, to Kingdom, to an aged person in hood (the lord of the locusts), to another person.  

That is indeed one of the longest volumes of Bone.  As someone with a strong interest in mysticism, my interest in this story grows stronger.  For anyone who believes in multiple planes of existence, it seems perfectly logical that their may be ghost circles.  Then, there's the importance of dreams.  When we experience dreams, they often have some sort of meaning.  I also can't be the only one who wakes up in the morning, and searches some things up on the internet to see if the dreamscape and physical world match up.

To see the accompanying YouTube video follow this link.

Excuse Me While I Gush About Bone Vol. 2 (The Great Cow Race)

Tonight, I'm writing about the second volume of Jeff Smith's Bone (published through Dark Horse Comics and Scholastic's Graphix imprint).  In this post some parts of the past volume's story will be revealed so...

SPOILERS

As this volume kicks off, Gran'ma Ben, Thorn, and Fone Bone have had a rough night.  Thorn was having a vision in her sleep, and was awoken by a siege on her grandmother's cottage.  Kingdom's horde of rat creatures had come to the farm, ransacking the place.  As far as we know, the Bones are the only main characters who've encountered the rat creatures, so who knows what they want, aside from the one with the star on his chest (Phoney Bone).  

Gran'Ma Ben, Fone Bone, and Thorn run off to the nearby valley of Barrelhaven, and we meet Gran'Ma's old friend Lucius (the owner of the Barrelhaven Tavern).  We do find Phoney and Smiley.  Both of Fone Bone's cousins are now working off a tab at Lucius's place.  

Thorn's visions persist, and we learn about some of the big attractions of Barrelhaven.  There's a cow race where people place bets on the entries.  It's sort of like the running of the bulls in Pamplona, but more competitive.  There's also only one human running with the cattle (Gran'Ma Ben is more than your average senior citizen).  We learn more about Smiley and Phoney in that Phoney's leading a scheme to scam gamblers out of their money .  From this, we begin to get a good idea of how the cousins were run out of Boneville.  We also see that Fone Bone can have a little jealous streak.  When a honeycomb peddler at the bazaar starts hitting on Thorn and insults Fone, the Bone decides to forage for honey on his own, running into a swarm of giant bees.

We see another run-in with the rat creatures in the race (and a quiche joke), and all ends well.  Lucius joins Thorn, Gran'Ma Ben, and the Bones in returning to the farm.  We even get a quick comical vignette about Lucius and Smiley mending the roof.

Getting further into the story, I'm coming to really enjoy Bone.  Volume 2 shows us the larger world that the tale takes place in.  We meet more characters, and curiosity about Thorn's dreams continues to loom.  It also shows us what everyday life is like in this world.  There is more action and combat to come, but this adds dimension to the characters.  Just like in superhero books, I think that it's important to show what the characters are doing when they are (and aren't) in action.  

You can check out the accompanying Excuse Me While I Gush webisode here.