New Year, New Comics: Getting Beautifully Lost With ‘Bone’

It’s a whole new year, and that means plenty of more time to devote toward reading comics old and new. Once more the Comicon.com team is taking a moment to share our comic related resolutions for 2026.

These comics could be something we’ve read before and want to revisit, something that deserves a second chance, or even something we’ve never delved into before. I choose the last one for my choice, and then I pivoted right before writing this to choose another that, well, I’ve never read before.

That choice is the entire iconic Eisner and Harvey Award-winning series Bone from Jeff Smith. I know, get your gasps out of the way now that I haven’t fully read Bone before.

Be a little less shocked, as I have read a bit of it before and actually own a few of the books (thanks to thrift shop finds). I actually was first introduced to Bone through the reprinted snippets featured in the 1990s Disney Adventures magazine (another blast from the past). There was something so intriguing and alluring about the story, as it really spoke to things I’ve always liked in stories.

Yet, I somehow still didn’t really seek out the series. At the time, my only comic options were from the grocery store magazine stands or read by sneaking into my mom’s comic book stash. Yeah, my “bad kid” moments were literally sneaking into my parent’s room to read comic books.

Anyways, back to Bone.

Following the eponymous Bone family cousins, Bone sees the purely white cartoon humanoids lost in a desert (on the run from the aptly named Boneville) before a swarm of locusts separates them. The trio of Fone Bone, Phoncible P. “Phoney” Bone, and Smiley Bone end up in the fantasy space known as The Valley. Humor and darkness collide in this adventure series built across 55 issues, as well as a prequel graphic novel that came out later.

Some real hero’s journey style stuff is wrapped up in a fantasy adventure cloak. Yeah, that checks so many boxes for my little nerd heart. Yet, I’ve never fully read the series before. In 2026 though, this is something that is my plan to rectify.

Black-and-white was how the story was originally conceived, and that adds so much to the whole ordeal. I love color and the work that colorists do, but there is just something striking about some stories being monochromatic in appearance.

We could use some heroic journey energy in this year that’s already starting off on a dark footing. So that’s where you’ll find me, in The Valley dreaming of the never seen but oft mentioned Boneville. I’ll be spending time with Rat Creatures, cow races, girls named Thorn and their tough grandmother, and three silly little guys with the last name Bone.

Sounds like a good time to me.