Jeff Smith’s 10 Best Characters In Bone

Jeff Smith’s epic graphic novel fantasy adventure, Bone, spans 9 books and starts as a tale of three brothers coming across a fairytale world and ends with those same, bone-shaped cousins saving it from complete destruction. It’s been enjoyed by children, adults, and anyone in between. The Bone cousins are smart, funny, and prone to bouts of arrogance and stupidity, but it all makes for an excellent ride.

Netflix had even planned to create a series, but plans fell through in the spring of 2022, according to AV Club. It’s not the first time a tv adaptation has been canceled but with such a wealth of story and characters, more studios are sure to take a crack at the series. The characters of Bone are a big part of its success; the friends and foes met along the way are all unique and well-crafted with light-hearted comic moments and dire personal tragedies that drive the story. The main characters of the graphic novels are a significant reason for the series success.

Phoncible P. “Phoney” Bone

Phoney Bone is the oldest of the three cousins and the most selfish and greedy of the three. He is the reason the trio were run out of their home of Boneville in the first place and hints about what really happened are slowly revealed throughout the series. The absurdity and obnoxiousness of his scam is heightened every time.

Related: The 10 Best Simpsons Characters Introduced After Season 1

Phoney is always looking out for a way to get rich and his schemes tend to get himself and the Bones in more trouble. But he is also extremely protective of his cousins and goes out of his way to keep them safe. His hard-nosed attitude means that even in the face of eldritch evils, he’s stubborn and insolent.

The Hooded One

The main antagonist of the series, The Hooded One, is a frightening, stooped-over dark wizard who lurks in the background for the first three books, adding an edge of malice and darkness to an otherwise light story. When book four comes around, The Hooded One is revealed to be behind the misfortune visited on the magical valley of Bone’s setting.

The Hooded One’s face is not revealed until halfway through the books and before that, readers only see her dark hood from which scraggy word bubbles come out, implying an ancient and malevolent voice. Jeff Daniels draws the villain as an insane old crone and the close-ups of her face are appropriately chilling.

Smiley Bone

The middle cousin of the Bones’ is Smiley Bone, the tallest and by far the least intelligent character in the book. Smiley is constantly looking on the bright side of life and because of obliviousness, he’s never aware of ever being in any danger.

Smiley is constantly chewing on a cigar and playing a lute, which he refers to as a banjo, and generally cracking jokes about the events the gang is experiencing. He can seemingly make friends with anyone, including the Bones’ enemies. He’s the funniest character in the series and much-needed comic relief as the story grows somber.

Kingdok

The Rat Creatures in Bone are a race of human-sized, monster-like creatures with personalities that range from dangerous to incompetent. But the most formidable of them all is their leader, Kingdok. A massive Rat Creature that towers over nearly everyone in the story and commands his army through fear.

He is much smarter than the average Rat Creature and works for the Hooded One so that he and his people can rule the valley over the current citizens. Kingdok is hate-filled and violent but by the end he realizes he’s been a puppet for a more evil force and his death is tragic for it.

Rose “Gran’ma” Ben

Gran’ma Ben is the matriarch of the humans that the Bone brothers run into and subsequently have to work for after getting into debt with them. She is shrewd, wise, kooky, loving, and seems to possess superhero levels of strength as much as any Marvel female hero. She’s not unstoppable but Rat Creatures tend to run from her rather than at her.

She is a very interesting character who at first seems to just want a quiet farm life with her granddaughter Thorn, but her past comes back for her, and she is forced to reveal she was once Queen of the Valley Kingdom. Gran’ma begrudgingly takes command again to stop the Hooded one and has to contend with the lies she’s told the past years.

The Great Red Dragon

When the Bone cousins get separated early in the story, the main character Fone Bone runs right into a giant red dragon, with white tufts of hair on its tail and ears. The Great Red Dragon is a frustratingly mystical creature that defends the Valley and seems to have relationships with many characters that are kept secret.

Related: 10 Best Cartoon Character Catchphrases Of All Time

He is extremely powerful and is the first dragon to awaken after a long sleep. But he’s also something of a trickster and takes a lot of pleasure in reveling in the Bone cousins’ confusion. The Great Red Dragon is almost the narrator of the story and often explains the state of affairs to the characters he meets.

Thorn Harvestar

Thorn Harverstar can be considered the deuteragonist of the Bone comics and is the first human from the valley any of the Bones meet. She is Gran’ma Ben’s granddaughter and a young, vivacious woman who knows little about her past. But when she starts to dream about her childhood, the central plot of the Bone adventure begins.

Thorn is actually the long-lost princess of the Kingdom of the Valley and with that comes some magical powers that let her travel in and out of dreams. Thorn’s grapple with coming to terms with her life drives the main story without resorting to following classic princess tropes.

Lucius Down

One of the first humans that Phoney and Smiley meet after everyone is separated is Lucius Down, the ox-like tavern owner. Due to Smiley’s misunderstanding of currency, the two bones end up working for Lucius. Who comes to regret having the troublesome pair in his bar.

Related: 10 Best Mortal Characters In The Sandman Comics

Lucius was once the palace guard for the Harvestars and has a crush on Gran’ma Ben. He is constantly butting heads with Phoney who tries to trick the other townsfolk into giving him money. And Smiley ends up injuring him on multiple occasions due to incompetence. All the same, he stays a stalwart ally of the heroes.

Fone Bone’s Two Rat Creatures

After the Bones are separated, the first creatures of the Valley that Fone Bone meets are two Rat Creatures. And these two end up being constant figures throughout the story. They are notable for being two of the dumbest creatures in the forest. They are constantly trying to eat the Bones but end up getting in trouble or actually setting back the Rat Creatures’ plans.

The usual refrain when they show up is “Stupid, stupid Rat Creatures!” as they will often take the dumbest approach possible to capture Fone and end up putting everyone in harm’s way. They often bicker about how they should eat their prey when they finally catch it. One says Rat Creatures are monsters, and they should eat him whole while the other prefers to make Fone into a quiche with a flaky crust. They’re like a comedy tv duo with their banter and are used to show that the Rat Creatures aren’t all necessarily evil.

Fone Bone

The hero of Bone and the point-of-view character for most of it, Fone Bone is the youngest of the Bone cousins and the most reasonable. He first identifies the Great Red Dragon to Gran’ma Ben and encourages Thorn to try and understand her dreams. Even when some members of the Valley try to stop him from pulling loose threads, he goes ahead anyway.

Fone is not the bravest or the strongest character, but he’s a true epic hero who refuses to leave the people he just met without helping them. The story is as much about Fone’s growth as a person as it is about Thorn’s growth as a Queen, and he grounds the whole story in an Everyman character.

Next: 10 Best Non-Human Disney Characters