A look back at the Bone Holiday Special
Midweek update: An indie comics favorite celebrates the winter solstice in 1993
It’s the last week before Christmas! I encourage everyone thinking about holiday spending to drop a few bucks at their local comic shops, if possible!
During this midweek update, I’m taking a quick look at a holiday special that dropped in 1993. The “Bone Holiday Special” by Jeff Smith was included with an issue of Hero: The Magazine, which covered comics and related culture back in the 1990s and often came with some neat promo items like pack-in cards and comics.
“Bone” was one of the huge indie comics hits of the 1990s, as Jeff Smith created the all-ages epic Bone, about the three Bone cousins who leave Boneville and become lost in the valley. With dragons, cow races, rat creatures, romance, and adventure, Bone is enthralling for all kinds of readers. Bone was the 1990s answer to Carl Barks' "Uncle Scrooge" and Walt Kelly's "Pogo," with high adventure fantasy to boot. And it remains timelessly readable today. It was collected originally in black and white, and then later by Scholastic in color.
By 1993, “Bone” was a high-profile indie property, and this Holiday Special served as a small introduction to the characters with a four-page story that fits into the continuity of the storyline.
Fone Bone, Thorn, and the Bone cousins are celebrating the winter solstice with Gran’ma Ben, and Fone Bone does his best to bring some “winter solstice” joy to some of the other creatures of the valley in this short tale. The issue also features an interview with Jeff Smith and some reprints of the “Thorn” comic strips from Jeff Smith’s college days.
The official Boneville site republished the main story last December, and it’s reprinted in the “Bone” complete collected edition as well.
Speeding Bullet Specials
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Do your Christmas, holiday, or other shopping at Speeding Bullet, or just buy comics like you do every week. With every $50 purchase, we’ll give you a 30% off coupon that you can use on any one item you choose from Dec. 27-31.
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Matthew Price, matthew@matthewLprice.com, has written about the comics industry for more than two decades. He is the co-owner of Speeding Bullet Comics in Norman.