Customer Reviews

Stupid, Stupid Rat-Tails: The Adventures of Big Johnson Bone, Frontier Hero

5 star:		(3)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(5)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

Jeff Smith, Stupid, Stupid Rat-Tails (Cartoon Books, 2000)

Yes, folks, it's Bone: The Prequel! Here we have the story of Big Johnson Bone, explorer by trade and founder of Boneville, and (obliquely) how he came to do so. This, as to be expected if you've read the Bone saga (and if you haven't, what on Earth are you waiting for?), involves a lot of cute baby animals, a dragon or two, and a large, incredibly stupid army of rat creatures. It's chock full of the same kind of stuff that makes Bone such a treasure.

Also added, for your reading enjoyment, is a Riblet comic. Set in the same world as the Bone stories (i.e., a world inhabited by stupid, stupid rat creatures), the Riblet stories are concerned with, no surprise here, Riblet, a baby boar. In this tale, Riblet has been kidnapped by a couple of rat creatures with a taste for pork, and must escape. Which is somewhat difficult, if you're not actually smart enough to realize you've been kidnapped.

Everything that comes out of Cartoon Books is worth reading. You want it all. I'd suggest starting with some of the earlier Bone stories before this, but you will eventually get around to it. Trust me. ****

This volume will serve better as a treat for fans than as an entry-level series for those unfamiliar with Bone.

Two stories are contained in this one volume. The first features an adventure of "Big" Johnson Bone, founder of Boneville and ancestor of the three Bones from the original series. Jeff Smith's artwork is up to its usual beautiful standards and Tom Sniegoski's writing gives Smith plenty of opportunity to exhibit his predilection for adorable baby animals and hare-brained adventure. The story is a self-conscious "tall tale" depicting Big Johnson as a self-aggrandizing pioneer with a tendency to get in and out of dire situations. The story is nothing new and lacks the depth (and length) of the original Bone, but that is to be expected. No one can write rat creature dialogue quite like Smith, but the rats are still humorous. Less funny and even annoying is the uptight talking monkey, Mr. Pip, who serves little purpose to the storyline and never quite lives up to his intended role of comic sidekick.

The other story, "Riblet," features the writing of Sniegoski and the art of Stan Sakai. Related to Bone by the presence of talking animals and stupid rat creatures, the story follows the rats' unfortunate run-in with a sadistic baby boar. The antics that ensue are reminiscent of Woody Woodpecker cartoons and, like Woody, may annoy readers who find inflicting injury on others less than funny.

Bone fans hungry for more will likely enjoy Stupid, Stupid Rat-Tails, but the neophyte may walk away underwhelmed and not overly interested in pursuing Bone further.

Although this prequel to the 'Bone' series isn't quite up to the storytelling standard fans are accustomed to, it still is a recommended read of sorts for the die-hard fan interested in the backstory of Jeff Smith's fantasy epic. The first 3/4's of this book, "The Adventures of Big Johnson Bone, Frontier Hero," delves into the story of the founder of Boneville and how he came to establish his trading post on the Rolling Bone river. Drawn by Jeff Smith, this story looks great but suffers in pacing and tone as it is written by Tom Sniegoski. The last 1/4 of the book deals with a young pig and other assorted forest animals in, 'Riblet,' a very forgettable segment that most readers could easily do without.

I expected so much more from this - it was a really big letdown. I love the rat creatures, but this comic wasn't drawn nearly as well and the quick wit I've come to expect from the Bone series was replaced by something much more dull and predictable. If you love the series, don't get this book.

I read "Stupid Stupid Rat-Tails" before I read the original "Bone" series (I randomly grabbed it off the public library book shelf and hadn't really heard of Bone yet) - so maybe this makes me a little less harsh in my review of the book. I think SSRT is a nice, quick, tall-tale of a story with a fun adventure, and humerous characters and dialogue. It wasn't meant to be an epic like the main series "Bone", just a quick romp to fill us in on a bit of history of the rat creatures.

Being that it is a prequel-esque story, no previous knowlege of the Bone series is required. And long-time Bone fans should be aware that when you boil it down this book has very little connection to the larger "Bone" story other than Big Bone Johnson and the rat creatures themselves; I don't think it was meant to be any kind of lead-in to the Bone series.

Anyway, good rainy-day read when you need a chuckle or two. :D

I wish you could rate each story rather than the book as a whole. That said, the first story that Jeff Smith illustrated was excellent. It was witty, had roots with the main bone comic books, and very enjoyable. However, the second story was horrid. I have never read a comic that was so god awful! I honestly felt like my IQ had dropped about 10 points just by reading the dang thing.

I would NOT recommend buying this book because of the second story. It pains me to say that too, because the first story is really good, but not good enough to fork out 15 bucks for a few pages.

After getting into the magical world of Bone, I was looking up some other books that are related to Jeff Smith's masterpiece. As it were, I stumbled upon Rose and this book.

Although different and erratic from the main compilation, Stupid Stupid Rat-Tails is a humorous and enjoyable story about the Bone character Big Johnson Bone. A culmination of Smiley, Phoney and Fone Bone, Big Johnson Bone and the forest creatures he encounters stumble upon an adventure that tries to tell the origin of the rat creature tails.

Though I found this story, as I already stated, enjoyable to read, I felt a little lacked compared to reading the main books. The book's aim is to merely tell a sort of "cute" story, and it indeed works, but it's no where near as creative and deep as Bone. Fun to read, nonetheless, and highly recommended for Bone fans.
Also included is a short strip illustrated by Usagi Yojimbo creator, Stan Sakai.

Some fun stories that are prequels to the Bone series by Jeff Smith. There are actually two stories in this book done by different writers and artists. The first story is fun and creative well the second is kind of immature and just fluff. It is a fun read and highly recommended for those who have already read the Bone series, not as good on its own.

Coming from reading over 1300 pages of the one volume edition of Bone and wanting more, this work fell a bit short.

The story has a tall tale feel instead of the fantasy feel of Bone. Because of this, the story progresses in a very silly and predictable way instead of the surprising twists of the Bone book. The situational humor isn't quite as good as bone, and the dialog is also not as well done.

The artwork and production is also a little sloppy. I love Jeff Smith's art in Bone, and still do in the first section of this book, but this work seems to show just how well Bone was done. Almost every page has faint lines under the blocks of dialog where you can tell pieces of paper were placed over the illustrations. There are also times when little things are off in the illustrations. For example, Big Johnson Bone's hat is missing in one panel while falling through the air, but present in the two surrounding panels. It's not a huge problem, but all the little things compound and make it feel a bit sloppy.

I bought this book for my 9 yr old son and he is very pleased.