Bone: Out From Boneville
by Jeff Smith
Scholastic, February 2005
144 pages

Bone might have been one of the first comics I was exposed to when I was little. I remember reading Bone in the pages of Disney Adventures Magazine back in 1994. I haven’t read Bone since but for the past couple years (about three years to be exact), I have been told by multiple people that the Bone graphic novels are worth reading.

In the first volume, Out From Boneville, the title character Fone Bone and his two cousins Smiley Bone and Phoney Bone are chased out of Boneville by an angry mob thanks to Phoney Bone’s get-rich-quick schemes. The three bones get seperated and it’s up to Fone Bone, with the help of Thorn (a pretty human) and Gran’ma Ben (a feisty human) to reunite the Bone cousins and get back to Boneville.

At least, I think that’s the goal, getting back to Boneville. They were chased out so I’m not quite sure they would be welcomed back with open arms. This is a nine book series so there is still plenty of time for things to happen. I enjoyed the first volume. Fone Bone develops a crush on Thorn and it’s cute to see Fone with little hearts over his head. There is also a bug named Ted and his much bigger brother who show up. Plus, there is a mysterious red dragon who may or may not be a figment of Fone’s imagination.

I can see why this series is so popular; It’s got charm, danger, romance, humor, stupid rat creators, and mystery. The color editions of the books are the ones to get. Having started with the colored editions, it would be hard for me to pick up the black-and-white releases and enjoy them as much as the ones I am reading.

It just struck me that my partner is missing volumes 7, 8, and 9. This may soon become a problem.

Second Opinions:
Running Mad
Capricious Reader
Book Lust

Dark Entries
by Ian Rankin
Vertigo Comics, August 2009
216 pages

John Constantine is hired to investigate supernatural activity on the set of popular reality TV show Dark Entries (hey, that’s the name of this book!). In order to investigate he must be locked in the haunted house and become a contestant in the Big Brother-like show that tries to scare the contestants. The problem the show is facing, and the read John is called in, is that contestants are being scared but not by the producers.

Before I continue, may I ask, does the name John Constantine ring a bell to you? It didn’t to me. I was expecting a mystery-noir story with a dash of reality TV criticism. I expected the mystery of the unexplained spookings to be explained by a ratings hunger producer who was wearing a mask the whole time a la Scooby Doo. But if the name John Constantine does ring a bell to you, you’ll know that he is an occult anti-hero/detective who frequently fights demons and other supernatural beings. He was portrayed by Keanu “Whoa” Reeves in the 2005 film, Constantine.

Going back to the book, I had different expectations. I like mysteries that are based in the real world or at least a world real enough to were I don’t have to suspend my disbelief. The first half of this book was pretty good I’ll admit. It set up the mystery and weird things were happening inside the household. John’s fellow house guests had also developed amnesia. John was confronting the show’s producer through the Confessions Room when the producer proudly proclaimed “Welcome to Gameshow Hell!”.

. . .

I nearly put the book down. All the mystery that was set up in the first half of the book got solved in the next few pages. The story then focuses on John’s attempt to get out of hell and back to the real world. Maybe this is my fault for not reading serialized comics like Hellblazer or seeing the Keanu Reeve film. So did my lack of familiarity ruin this book for me? Yes. Quite simply this isn’t the type of story I would sit down and read. I don’t care for supernatural stories because it’s so easy to explain ANYTHING. Mystery stories shouldn’t be wrapped up so easily. Anyway, I would pass on this book unless you’re a fan of the Hellblazer series.

Second Opinions:
Bookslut
Big Shiny Robot
Emma Lee’s Blog

BONUS: Go watch the film Stay Tuned from 1992. It’s fantastic satire.

Stay Tuned (Theatrical Trailer)

The Dark Tower: Fall of Gilead
by a wide cast of people
Marvel Books, February 2010
208 Pages

Things are finally starting to come together. After building up tension throughout the previous three books, John Farson and his army of mutants and old machines are finally at the gates of Gilead and ready to tear it down. They have some help of course from the traitors and spies that are lurking in the castle itself. Anyone who has read The Dark Tower book series (or even the title of this volume) should know that this isn’t going to end well. What surprised me was just how badly it was going to happen. A lot of important people die in this book including Roland’s father making way for Roland to lead the gunslingers in defending Gilead.

One topic that this volume covers very well is the importance of Roland’s lineage. It is often mentioned that Roland is a descendant of Arthur Eld and this is the first time readers see what Arthur Eld was like and what made him a great leader.

Also returning in the volume is Aileen who pulls a Mulan and dresses up like a boy in order to fit in with the other Gunslingers. Rightfully so! I really like her character and since she was first introduced in the comic, readers do not know what becomes of her. I can make educated guesses on the fate of Roland’s friends Cuthbert and Alain, but whether Aileen will survive or not is entirely unclear. In the novels it is stated that Roland is the last Gunslinger. But since Aileen is a girl and girls are not allowed to become Gunslingers, then there is a pretty good chance she will survive. And maybe get her own spin-off comic? Please?

So Fall of Gilead is the penultimate volume in the the first series of Dark Tower comics. The last, The Battle of Jericho Hill, promises to be a bloody bloodbath with few survivors. Sadly, I don’t have a copy of it. I guess I should get around to placing that Amazon order…

Dark Tower: Treachery
by various people including Peter David, Robin Furth, Jae Lee, and Richard Isanove. Stephen King probably had something to do with it too.
Marvel Books, April 2009
144 Pages

I’ve been on a comic kick lately. Finally catching up on all the Dark Tower comics I’ve purchased over the past year or so. Each one is better than the last which sucks because I have yet to purchase volume five which ends the first series.

Anyway, Treachery is volume three and it starts with Roland, Alain, and Cuthbert returning to Gilead. Roland’s encounter with Maerlyn’s Grapefruit has taken it’s toll on him. While his mind is no longer trapped inside it, he still obsesses over it to the point where his friends start to worry about it. For most of this volume Roland doesn’t do much but sleep in his read and play around with the Grapefruit. He stays in the background of the story and lets Alain and Cuthbert take the stage as they are forced to deal with the impending ceremony where they will be given the title of Gunslingers.

A new character introduced in this volume, who will probably play an important role, is Aileen. She is the niece of Cort, the guy who trains the boys in the ways of a Gunslinger. At heart, Aileen is a tomboy who wants to become a Gunslinger but because she is a girl, she can’t. I think so far she is an interesting character with lots of potential. No doubt she will become a regular in this story even if we know she wont stick around forever because there’s no mention of her in the books.

As the title stands, the overall theme of this volume is treachery. There are traitors hidden throughout Gilead working towards bring about the fall of Gilead, which is ironically the title of the forth volume, The Fall of Gilead. Spoiler alert? Nah, if you’ve read the books you knew it was going to happen.

The last few pages of this volume are perhaps the best as everybody starts to realize just how much trouble they are in and how they’re being manipulated. Roland, being tricked by the Grapefruit, ends up shooting his adulterous mother and serves as the cliffhanger that ends this volume.

Have you heard of this little known comic series called Scott Pilgrim? Not many people have, so I wouldn’t be surprised if you haven’t. I hear they might make a movie about it at some point. Again, these are just rumors.

Well, anyway, with the comic series having finally wrapped up. I thought I would re-read them all. Being forced to wait a year in between books makes it difficult for me to remember certain characters and plot events and whatnot.

Scott Pilgrim’s Precious Little Life
The Scott Pilgrim series is apparently about this 23 year old guy who starts dating a 17 year old high school student. Wait, check that. Scott Pilgrim is apparently about this 23 year old who starts dating a 17 year old high school student but then starts cheating on her by totally sleeping with this girl he meets at a party. I know that the above statement is not what Scott Pilgrim is about, but if someone just randomly picked up this book and started reading without having a friend tell them what it was about or without reading the back cover, then this is what I would think the plot is about. It’s not until near the end up the book that seven evil ex-boyfriends is mention. I find it odd that the book opens with Scott’s relationship with Knives (the high school student). To me that suggests that she plays an important role in the story. That, or the entire first half of this book is just filler. Couldn’t we have just started with Scott met Ramona (the party girl)? That would have made more sense.

Scott Pilgrim Vs. The Wold
Now that we’ve got the introduction to the series under our belt, Vol 2 can just jump right in to the meat and potato of the series, so to speak. In my mind this book is still trying to find the proper balance between drama/action/comedy. While the drama and comedy are there, the action is a bit of a let down. Vol 2 does contain my favorite fight scene in the whole series when Knives attacks Ramona in the library. I think the outfit Knives is wearing and Ramona’s ability to kick-ass come as a nice surprise to the reader. The Scott vs. Evil Ex battle in this book is an incredible let down. Halfway through the ex gets killed in a pretty pathetic skateboarding accident making him the most forgettable of the ex’s. The rest of the book is about Scott’s band and his need for a haircut.

Scott Pilgrim & The Infinite Sadness
Vol 3 is my favorite book in the series. I think it is the most well balanced. Todd, evil ex number #3, who was shown in the final pages of Vol 2, is a vegan and just happens to be dating Scott’s ex, Envy. I liked that, unlike the previous books, Scott and Todd have multiple confrontations instead of just one fight that was over way too quickly. I actually felt that defeating the evil ex’s was the main plot instead of just a convenient hook used to draw the reader in to Scott and his friend’s relationship drama. The relationship drama is extra heavy in this volume due to the inclusion of Envy, the girl who broke Scott’s heart prior to the start of the series. Her and Ramona have a pretty cool fight involving a rather large hammer. There’s now a duality in the series with Scott fighting Ramona’s exes and Ramona fighting two of Scott’s exes thus far. We could look deep into this a suggest that what Bryan Lee O’Malley is trying to say that in every relationship a person can not help but at some point have to confront the exes of the other person in either a symbolic, physical, or hypothetical fashion. Or, we could just see it as an excuse for Ramona to kick-ass and establish her as a strong female character.

Anyway, I’ll post tomorrow about the remaining three volumes.