Book · 1991
Bone
by Jeff Smith
Three cousins get run out of Boneville and spend nine volumes finding out the valley they land in is already fighting a war.
What does Reddit think of Bone?
All 664 mentions live in one subreddit, so there's no cross-forum disagreement to report, only a single community that keeps returning to it for seven years running (149 mentions in 2023, its peak, tapering since). The ↑57 comment hands it to someone processing a loss and calls it 'a kid's version of Lord of the Rings' for readers of any age. The ↑50 comment repeats the same instinct for an actual kid. Neither treats it as a hard sell. r/graphicnovels also places it inside its own canon: the ↑43 list stacks it next to Maus, American Splendor, and Fun Home as a default recommendation, not a specialty pick. The ↑62 comment goes further back than plot, tracing Jeff Smith's inking technique to Walt Kelly's Pogo strips. One dissent surfaces: the ↑47 comment admits it 'doesn't cover all those bases,' whatever bases the thread was asking about, before recommending it anyway.
Community feedback & reader fit
Themes
- · All-ages fantasy epic
- · Recommended as grief or comfort reading
- · Treated as canon alongside Maus and Fun Home
- · Art lineage traced to Walt Kelly's Pogo
- · Single-subreddit, sustained multi-year engagement
Common praise
- + The ↑57 comment hands it to someone grieving and calls it a kid's version of Lord of the Rings.
- + r/graphicnovels stacks it next to Maus and Fun Home in canon lists without qualifying the choice.
- + The ↑62 comment traces Jeff Smith's inking directly to Walt Kelly's Pogo lineage, a strange compliment and a specific one.
Common criticism
- − The ↑47 comment admits it doesn't cover certain ground the thread was asking about, then recommends it anyway, so the gap matters less than the sentence structure suggests.
- − Every mention comes from r/graphicnovels. Nothing here confirms the book carries outside that specific audience.
- − Mentions peaked in 2023 at 149 and have dropped since, so the recommendation cycle may be aging out of the subreddit's current attention.
Who it's for
Grieving, or buying for a kid who is: the ↑57 comment reached for this exact book in that situation and reported that it worked. If you already treat Maus and Fun Home as required reading, this belongs on the same shelf per r/graphicnovels' own lists. Coming in only for the Walt Kelly art-history angle will get you a satisfying answer in the ↑62 comment, but not much reason to read all nine volumes for it alone. One-subreddit consensus is still consensus, just a narrow one to trust blind.
Mentions over time
Top subreddits
Which Reddit comments matter for Bone?
The most relevant excerpts across the subreddits where this book is mentioned — opinionated, argued takes first, then top-upvoted mentions. Click through to read the full thread.
“A growing library collection is such a fun project. Here's where I might start. I've roughly categorized by sections. I've tried to list only items that … Ethics of Immigration * March (3 vols) * Glenn Gould, A Life Off Tempo * What Is Obscenity * Tetris: The Games People Play * The Photographer * G…
“nausicca, bone (even though it is distributed by scholastic book, it is truly all ages and it doesn’t talk down to kids and entertaining for adults. maus is a heavy book, so that is pretty mature.
“Bone!
“There's a lot of good stuff on that shelf. Here is this sub's top 100 graphic novels list … earlier this year by /u/MakeWayForTomorrow you can use to reference and s…
“I guess I’ll be the first to say Bone. Really loved it too.
“Bone by Jeff Smith.
“I’m a big fan of Jeff Smith and Bone is a masterpiece. Most of the artwork for the series was drawn in non-photo blue pencil on two ply bristol board and inked with a brush (exactly as Smiths artistic and stylistic hero Walt Kelly drew all his famous Pogo strips for the newspaper so many years bef…
“Bone
“How about giving him “Bone”? That would be more age-appropriate and a fantastic present.
“I'm sorry for your loss and everything you're going through, OP. My recommendation is to check out Bone. It's a wonderful epic fantasy story with humor, excitement, and really great characters. Kind of like a kid's version of Lord of the Rings, but great fo…
“Bone by Jeff Smith is fantastic for a kid around that age, great fantasy story.
“Bone by Jeff Smith doesn’t cover all those bases but is well worth checking out.
“Can't go wrong with "Bone" by Jeff Smith
“Bone by Jeff Smith i feel should be in everyone's collection
“Bone by Jeff smith has an all in one edition that’s good. It’s a great blend of fantasy and comedy.
Convinced? Pick up Bone
What else does r/graphicnovels read?
Other books mentioned in the same sub, ranked. Shared-sub overlap with this title breaks ties.
Guides featuring Bone
Ranked best-of lists and editorial guides where this book's tracked mentions place it.
Bone — frequently asked
Is Bone still worth reading in 2026?+
Yes, though mentions are down from a 2023 peak of 149. Nothing in the data reads as backlash — r/graphicnovels keeps recommending it in fresh threads through late 2025. The decline looks like fewer graphic-novel recommendation threads overall, not a verdict on Bone specifically.
Who is Bone actually for, kids or adults?+
Both, per the same handful of comments. The ↑50 comment recommends it straight to a kid; the ↑57 comment recommends it to an adult processing a loss and calls it 'a kid's version of Lord of the Rings.' r/graphicnovels doesn't treat the all-ages label as a compromise.
Does Bone hold up next to Maus and Watchmen?+
Yes, at least by association: r/graphicnovels puts it in the same canon-list sentence as Maus, American Splendor, and Fun Home (↑43), without the hedge you'd expect for a lighter book sharing shelf space with Holocaust memoir. That placement is the strongest evidence here, stronger than any single line of praise.
Why does Bone keep showing up in r/graphicnovels recommendation threads?+
Because it's the rare all-ages answer to threads that usually skew toward heavier material. The ↑62 comment even traces its art back to Walt Kelly's Pogo, giving the book a pedigree beyond 'good for kids.' 664 mentions over seven years in a single subreddit is a lot of recurring relevance for one recommendation.