SO FAR ...
Having met and fallen head-over-heels for the young woman Thorn, Fone Bone returns home with her to hopefully find a way out of the Valley.
JEFF SMITH IS QUITE THE ARTIST
This issue is off to another great start with a single still of a forest clearing, juxtaposed by the very next image we see of Phoney trumping grumpily through the trees. I had to start with the way this issue looks because this reminds me of why I love the look of Bone.
Even in the scenes with multiple, repeated panels, Jeff Smith redraws the characters: it reminds me of a joke in Calvin and Hobbes, showing a bunch of talking heads and talking about how so many comics these days are xeroxed talking heads (of course, in the strip in question, Watterson also redrew each panel ... nice).
Another thing that became clear in the last few pages was just how cleverly distinct the different Bones are. Despite their facial features being basically the same, you can always tell Phoney's face from Fone Bone -- and I don't just mean because one of them is wearing a t-shirt.
FONE AND THORN
So we come to the continuing development of Fone and Thorn's relationship: an element that I understand added to the banning of Bone in several schools (also the sometimes "abrasive" language and the dragon's smoking ... pssh). Anyway, there's a lot to like here and it all comes down to tone.
First we have a reminder that Thorn rescued our little hero, that he certainly idolises her and later that (again) no one is going to believe him about the dragon -- all done with a light and humorous touch to establish the safety of the humans' home (this will also be important later in our "burning the homestead" phase of the Hero's Journey). We even get some deftly handled "sexism humour" that shows how Thorn and Fone Bone subvert their gender stereotypes -- she's the strong, earthy type, and he's the more poetic, nerdy type who likes comic books and Moby Dick (I love how going through his backpack leans on the fourth wall about how deprived Thorn must be, not to have grown up with comics).
And, in addition to all this, in another storytelling sleight of hand (that we'll go in depth on at the end) we get MORE world building info with the suggestion that the Red Dragon doesn't even want people to know he exists, as well as the examination of the scrawly map from chapter 1. To the first, we now know that the dragon isn't all powerful -- nor is he completely nice to Fone. As for the map ... well, I try to stick to hard knowledge that we have chapter to chapter in these recaps so let's just say that Thorn's reaction clues us to complex plots much further in.
MEETING GRAN'MA
I love the introduction of Gran'ma. Right now, she's the epitome of "cool old lady", and more than a match for Phoney Bone. This also handily belies the reveals to come but, again, let's just see what the story has to say for us. Right now, there's more than enough slapstick action and unconventional reunions in the second half of the chapter to keep us engaged and hoping to see what's next.
THIS CHAPTER'S TAKEAWAY
Each of the major sequences in this chapter -- Thorn and Fone; Phoney grumbling through the woods; meeting Gran'ma -- has a huge amount of exposition to get across, especially regarding world building as mentioned above but also the new characters. So the way that the narrative does this without boring the reader with an information dump (infodump) is to focus the characters on a chain of otherwise mundane tasks and subdued but character-centred conversations.
This lets the story transition between dropping hints to what is to come, cluing deeper character traits and progressing them towards new resolutions -- whether it's how affectionately Thorn refers to her Gran during the morning's housework (indicating their family relationship), moving right into Fone sharing his favourite book (allowing for more about Thorn herself), or just Phoney disliking everything and everyone.
The take away for this week is how to use concurrent actions and double or triple-layered discussion scenes to keep the story moving, the reader engaged and foreshadowing what's to come, all at once.
Next week: Kingdok!
P.S. 2.
Following my next-to-complete reconciliation with the time jump I mentioned in last week's postscript, I was reminded in this issue why the jump irked me so much. It's not a big thing, but man is it harder to believe this time that Phoney, as helpless as he evidently is, could have been grumping around all winter without his cousins to help him survive the cold (and even find food!). Sure, we know that this isn't some accidental oversight because Ted the bug references the long winter in the very same scene.
So in the end, I have to admit it's an *unimportant* inconsistency that it seems Mr Smith chose to leapfrog for the sake of humour and pacing. Maybe one day I can come to terms with it myself!
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