I've always felt that Bone read best as trade paperbacks, and I'm looking forward to being able to read the whole series very soon in that format. However, while some of the power is lost in these sporadically-published single issues, it's still easy to be impressed by the epic feel that Smith is giving his last few issues of the series, and to get the sense of the mysteries and the revelations building up into one big explosive final sequence. Bone #54 has some of the moments we've been waiting for since the beginning, including the finale of the invasion of the locust that has been driving the series since early on and moments of destiny for Fone Bone, Thorn, Gran'ma Ben and others. While I was impressed by the action sequences and the fairly intense confrontations, though, I have to confess that my favorite aspect of this issue was a smaller one, the return of a long-running gag to provide much needed comedic relief to the more dire portents inevitable in the end of a fantasy epic.
I remember exactly what it was that hooked me on Bone in the first place. It wasn't the epic story of dragons and locust gods. It wasn't even the Great Cow Race. It was a pair of hapless rat creatures who were dangerous and goofy at the same time, and the slapstick humor that Smith derived from these characters. We get a little of that classic comic timing in the opening of this issue, as Smiley Bone hatches a silly (but also somewhat ingenious) scheme and the payoff results in the rat creatures being tempted once again by quiche. It's a throwaway gag before we get to the more serious stuff, but I was glad to see the humor return to Bone, as it's been fairly dark for some time now, and it was nice to see a little bit more of a balance.
The rest of the issue is all very dire and serious, though, which is what you'd expect in the culmination of a high fantasy story. In what has become classic storytelling for this type of thing, there are parallel quests to defeat the great evil, each one important in their own way. And Smith does something pretty clever in that one of these stories is more character and dialogue-based, and the other is more art-driven. It makes for an easy shift between each sequence, and it also highlights different aspects of the threat.
The quest of Fone and Thorn is driven very much by physical adversity, and that means it's important to see the expansive, foreboding nature of the Dragon's Burial Grounds or the threatening, immense presence of Kingdok, not to mention one of the creepiest silent shots of a rat creature horde that I've seen. Meanwhile, Gran'ma Ben's final confrontation with Briar Rose is driven by the malevolent intelligence of Briar and her master, and while Smith's artwork is important there too (especially in the creepy-as-hell shot of an elated, de-hooded Briar), much more is made of the Briar gloating over her near-victory.
And then, middle of the story, both sequences switch focus. Thorn's confrontation with Kingdok is driven as much by her desire to talk to him as it is the desperate swordfight, and the important moment between Fone and Thorn is all about the two of them connecting and talking about what they need to do. Meanwhile, Smith just cuts loose with a huge battle between Gran'ma Ben and her allies and Briar and hers, and while I could have wished for a couple more splash pages to show just how big the battle had gotten, it all does culminate in a really effective splash of power and destruction. Leaving the reader with the deaths (?) of two major characters and one hell of a cliffhanger for the final issue.
