Review: Stupid, Stupid Rat-Tails

Did I mention that I like to read comic books?

I was reminded of this recently when Real Live Preacher made a comment which indirectly questioned the literary quality of Neil Gaiman's Sandman series. Along with several other commentators, I expressed the opinion that the series was literature.

Anyway, I've got boxes full of the things. I started out reading the standard DC line — Supes, Batman, etc. Then, Brother Dave introduced me to the unique Marvel vision. Tellingly, the reward of a Marvel comic book was the incentive for me to wash the dishes when I was 13 or 14. At the time, Marvel was reprinting classic stories from their beginnings - Fantastic Four, Doctor Strange, The Hulk - in an anthology series. I was hooked from the first Kirby splash page for Fantastic Four.

The mid 70s to early 80s were new glory days for comic books: Frank Miller was re-inventing Daredevil, people were re-discovering Will Eisner (thanks to Kitchen Sink's reprints of The Spirit), and some saw comics as an investment. At an average of $3 - $5 a pop, I do have a considerable investment in those little magazines.

Comic books as an investment went bust somewhere in the mid-to-late 80s, when DC and Marvel both glutted the market with product (much of it negligible at best). But I continued finding value in them, especially the independents, like Terry Moore's Stangers in Paradise (Self-published by Abstract Studios).

In 1991, Jeff Smith founded Cartoon Books in order to self-publish his epic fantasy, Bone. It was a story he'd been imagining since high school, with a definite beginning, middle, and end. It's a story that was completed just last year. It is available in nine volumes, or in this single "complete" edition.

Here's the standard synopis, from the inside front cover of one of the individual issues:

After being run out of Boneville, the three Bone cousins, Fone Bone, Phoney Bone and Smiley Bone are separated and lost in a vast, uncharted desert.

One by one, they find their way into a deep, forested valley filled with wonderful and terrifying creatures..

It is not necessary to go into more detail about the plot here. The collection under consideration may be read as a "prequel", but it takes place outside of the main story, and may be read indepently of it.

The main character is Big Johnson Bone, who is rather fond of telling somewhat convoluted versions of his adventures. These adventures, like the story itself, are in the "tall tale" tradition (e.g. Pecos Bill and Paul Bunyon). It fact, one sequence has Big Johnson riding a tornado — a probable nod to the Pecos Bill stories.

For me, part of the humor is that something incredible occurs in the action just as Big Johnson is telling one of his tales. Which could lead one to conjecture that there is some truth in Big Johnson's story.

Another source of the humor is the simian side kick, Mr. Pip, whom Big Johnson wins in a poker game. Mr. Pip's running commentary will be appreciated by anyone in the working week. "Why didn't I listen to my mother and join the circus?"

Recommended: Stupid, Stupid Rat-tailsby Jeff Smith.