People have been trying to adapt Bone pretty much since its publication — long before the current comic book boom. And now, it looks like it’s really happening, via an animated series at, where else, Netflix.
The book’s author, Jeff Smith, was elated in a statement. “I’ve waited a long time for this,” Smith said. “Netflix is the perfect home for Bone. Fans of the books know that the story develops chapter-by-chapter and book-by-book. An animated series is exactly the way to do this! The team at Netflix understands Bone and is committed to doing something special — this is good news for kids and cartoon lovers all over the world.”
Jeff Smith’s sprawling fantasy epic deftly veers from slapstick humor to heartfelt emotion to big, fantastical mythos — kind of like if Walt Disney, Charles Schulz and J.R.R. Tolkien had teamed up on a graphic novel for kids. It follows the increasingly astonishing exploits of the Staypuft Marshmallow Man-like Bone cousins: noble, courageous Phone Bone; scheming, duplicitous Phoney Bone; and friendly, dimwitted Smiley Bone. The three get lost in a mysterious land and caught up in a battle between wicked rat creatures and kindly humans. There’s a missing princess, an evil witch, a mysterious dragon and, of course, a Great Cow Race. It’s a blast, and was rightfully chosen by TIME Magazine as one of the best 10 graphic novels of all-time.
The rights to the movie have languished at Warner Bros. for years, while various attempts to adapt the whole thing in a film series fell apart. A TV show lends itself to Bone‘s episodic nature a lot better than a movie, so let’s hope this one happens.
