Bone: Full Colour Addendum

This book uses technology that through a combination of sewing and glue the nearly 1400 page color One Volume Edition lays flat when open!

The 20th anniversary of Bone #1, and to celebrate Cartoon Books have put together the BONE: 20th Anniversary Full Color One Volume Edition.

It’s the whole thing in a beautiful hardback book and will include extras. The dimensions: 9 1/4″ x 7″ & the spine is 3″ (very similar to the current black & white paperback) and comes in a slipcase

And now onto the review...

Shortly after Bone was completed and collected into the one volume edition, Scholastic Books started to publish the individual books that comprised the overall story, but this time in colour.

Creator Jeff Smith is quite happy to admit that he wasn’t initially convinced about this idea. Nonetheless, those around him persuaded him to give it a go, including famed (black and white) Maus artist, Art Spiegelman. Teaming up with colourist Steve Hamaker, Smith gave it a shot and brought Bone from monochrome into Technicolour. He was so pleased with the results, that colouring the whole story was given the go ahead.

When the last of the books, Crown of Horns, was made available in colour this paved the way for the chance to collect the whole story in a one volume colour edition (which I shall call the “OVCE” to save typing).

I have perused the individual editions of the colour books, and would freely admit that I have never been that bothered by them. Partly because I didn’t have much desire to pick up nine separate books, and partly due to a sniffy-ness about appreciating the original black and white. I mean, who’d want to see The Maltese Falcon in colour?

With Bone’s 20th Anniversary this year, plans for a box set containing a hardback OVCE, and some very nifty extras were announced. After some serious thinking, I elected to order this. It arrived a couple of weeks back, and having re-read it again the whole story again, I am very glad I did.

I won’t repeat what I have previously said about the characters, story, brilliant comic timing and use of perspective. That still holds up as well as ever. The colouring is superb, and (although I did call it Technicolor above) quite muted. The strong blacks and shadows are as present as they were in the original black and white, but the colours really do add an extra dimension to the flora and fauna of The Valley. In a story where a large number of the cast are animals, and the setting plays a big part, this really is a welcome addition.

Currently this is only available in a limited box set, so there is an expense to this one, so at present probably only one for serious fans alone. A solo hardcover of the OVCE is due towards the end of 2011, which won’t hit the wallet so hard. The question for the uninitiated will be which version to get, or for the converted do you double dip? Appreciating the original black and white is unquestionably worthwhile, but there is much to commend the colour. If forced to come down on one side of the fence, I would say go with the colour.

Now, do I keep my black and white copy?

Jonathan Miller wrote this.