Fone Bone has been trapped in the Valley for the winter after being separated from his cousins, and now strange forces, both benevolent (Red Dragon) and bad (Rat Creatures), know that he's here.
VISUALS
In the Scholastic publication, there are a pair of wordless interstitial pictures between chapters 1 and 2 that show Fone Bone building a shelter and then meeting some friendly locals. That is all, I just wanted to point them out.
On specific characters, Mrs Possum has a very precise air of forthright motherliness and humility in her facial expressions that makes me think of Mrs Weasley from Harry Potter. This is the strength of Jeff Smith's caricatured style, and I have no idea how he does it.
On a bigger scale, the forest has changed quite a bit since the snow fell. This is perhaps best in the coloured version, but even in the black and white line version of the comic the environment is starkly different when covered with snow and lacking in bushes and leaves. There is a very good reason why this works, which brings us to ...
REPETITION AND REINFORCING THE STORY
The main take-away in Chapter 2, for me, was how the story uses both the rat creatures and the Red Dragon again, in much the same way as they were used in the first chapter. The rat creatures are once again stupid, but still a threat, and the Red Dragon is still a watcher and a protector. But this repetition works because the story's scope is expanding. The locations are different, and the reuse of these characters continues to give us new information.
For example: meeting the Red Dragon the second time, we learn that he protects more than just Fone Bone. And the rat creatures' chase of Fone Bone through the woods and over the waterfall makes the area seem more expansive and complex, setting up the wide, twisting paths of the forest for more confrontations down the line. So, not only is the potential negative of repeating these ideas mostly averted by using them to expand the world of the story, they also help to reinforce the peril and mystery that will become even more important later on.
TEASING A NEW MOTIVATION
After we learn that the others disbelieve the very existence of the Dragon, Fone Bone is tired, grumpy and a little singed, leading to an idle musing that (were he able to leave the Valley right now) he would leave, even without his cousins. This rash and unthoughtful decision dovetails right into his meeting with Thorn, who has been implied by Ted to be everything Fone Bone could hope for: including a way home. This also introduces a more racy element to the comic, since Fone is clearly smitten by Thorn ... more on this below.
Now we begin to see the true colours (or shades of black, if you're reading the original) of Bone: epic fantasy, with cartoon creatures thrown in. As they're introduced, we will discover -- contrary to the talking animals and Bone cousins being comic relief -- that for the human characters, the events that are coming to pass are no laughing matter. But this is all in the chapters ahead. For the end of Chapter 2, Fone Bone is so enchanted by meeting Thorn that he doesn't care about Boneville.
By now, the driving motivation we have associated with Fone Bone (and the basis of our following his adventures until now) has been his wish to find his cousins and return to Boneville. While this will continue to be brought up in the chapters to come, it is essential to note how even his motivation has expanded and changed with Chapter 2. Now, the newest character Thorn has become as important or even more important to Fone than returning home. And as the story progresses, we will see why we the audience should also see Thorn as important ...
Until next week, happy reading Bone!
P.S.
I always felt a little awkward reading that at least two months had passed between the end of Chapter 1 and the beginning of Chapter 2. If I were writing the story I would have wanted to wring the drama out of the cousins' separation for such a long time -- and really, the length of time once they finally reunite in the actual comic is mostly so unimportant that it seemed arbitrary.
However, on re-evaluating it, for the simple reason that the comic ISN'T supposed to be a drama (it's supposed to be fun and adventure) as well as the logistical problems raised if you tried to tell the remaining story during the cold of winter rather than the warmer months, I think the choice of time-jump makes sense. And upon this particular re-read, it didn't bother me very much anyway.
In the Scholastic publication, there are a pair of wordless interstitial pictures between chapters 1 and 2 that show Fone Bone building a shelter and then meeting some friendly locals. That is all, I just wanted to point them out.
On specific characters, Mrs Possum has a very precise air of forthright motherliness and humility in her facial expressions that makes me think of Mrs Weasley from Harry Potter. This is the strength of Jeff Smith's caricatured style, and I have no idea how he does it.
On a bigger scale, the forest has changed quite a bit since the snow fell. This is perhaps best in the coloured version, but even in the black and white line version of the comic the environment is starkly different when covered with snow and lacking in bushes and leaves. There is a very good reason why this works, which brings us to ...
REPETITION AND REINFORCING THE STORY
The main take-away in Chapter 2, for me, was how the story uses both the rat creatures and the Red Dragon again, in much the same way as they were used in the first chapter. The rat creatures are once again stupid, but still a threat, and the Red Dragon is still a watcher and a protector. But this repetition works because the story's scope is expanding. The locations are different, and the reuse of these characters continues to give us new information.
For example: meeting the Red Dragon the second time, we learn that he protects more than just Fone Bone. And the rat creatures' chase of Fone Bone through the woods and over the waterfall makes the area seem more expansive and complex, setting up the wide, twisting paths of the forest for more confrontations down the line. So, not only is the potential negative of repeating these ideas mostly averted by using them to expand the world of the story, they also help to reinforce the peril and mystery that will become even more important later on.
TEASING A NEW MOTIVATION
After we learn that the others disbelieve the very existence of the Dragon, Fone Bone is tired, grumpy and a little singed, leading to an idle musing that (were he able to leave the Valley right now) he would leave, even without his cousins. This rash and unthoughtful decision dovetails right into his meeting with Thorn, who has been implied by Ted to be everything Fone Bone could hope for: including a way home. This also introduces a more racy element to the comic, since Fone is clearly smitten by Thorn ... more on this below.
Now we begin to see the true colours (or shades of black, if you're reading the original) of Bone: epic fantasy, with cartoon creatures thrown in. As they're introduced, we will discover -- contrary to the talking animals and Bone cousins being comic relief -- that for the human characters, the events that are coming to pass are no laughing matter. But this is all in the chapters ahead. For the end of Chapter 2, Fone Bone is so enchanted by meeting Thorn that he doesn't care about Boneville.
By now, the driving motivation we have associated with Fone Bone (and the basis of our following his adventures until now) has been his wish to find his cousins and return to Boneville. While this will continue to be brought up in the chapters to come, it is essential to note how even his motivation has expanded and changed with Chapter 2. Now, the newest character Thorn has become as important or even more important to Fone than returning home. And as the story progresses, we will see why we the audience should also see Thorn as important ...
Until next week, happy reading Bone!
P.S.
I always felt a little awkward reading that at least two months had passed between the end of Chapter 1 and the beginning of Chapter 2. If I were writing the story I would have wanted to wring the drama out of the cousins' separation for such a long time -- and really, the length of time once they finally reunite in the actual comic is mostly so unimportant that it seemed arbitrary.
However, on re-evaluating it, for the simple reason that the comic ISN'T supposed to be a drama (it's supposed to be fun and adventure) as well as the logistical problems raised if you tried to tell the remaining story during the cold of winter rather than the warmer months, I think the choice of time-jump makes sense. And upon this particular re-read, it didn't bother me very much anyway.
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