Cover of Bone: The Complete Cartoon Epic in One Volume (featuring protagonist Fone Bone and one of the antagonist creatures). There have been a few editions – this one was the 2010 paperback edition by Cartoon Books, Jeff Smith’s own self-publishing company, the edition I had (fair use)

(11) JEFF SMITH –

BONE (1991-2004)

Bone is like if Mickey Mouse and Donald Duck suddenly popped into Game of Thrones – which I suppose could happen now that Disney owns Fox? Who knows? Anyway – literal cartoon characters placed in the middle of an epic fantasy of an increasingly desperate struggle against an otherworldly foe. Or in the words of TV Tropes – a “lengthy independent comic book series by Jeff Smith that took 13 years to complete, mixing the sensibilities of a joke-of-the-day comic strip like Pogo with the sweeping story of an epic fantasy à la The Lord of the Rings”

The cartoon protagonists, the Bone trio of cousins, are indeed cartoon characters, both visually and in personality, who’ve been exiled from their (unseen) cartoon village Boneville. The main protagonist, Fone Bone, is the most dependable, resourceful and moral of the Bone cousins. Smiley Bone is good-hearted but dim-witted (although his good heart sees him through most of the time). Phoney Bone is the reason they have been exiled from Boneville – a greedy, hotheaded schemer with perpetual plans to make money (usually by a con or cheat).

The epic fantasy protagonist Thorn and her family are at the heart of a war against the Lord of the Locusts, the Hooded One and their minions of ravenous rat-creatures.

Stupid, stupid rat-creatures! As Fone Bone dubs the duo of ineffectual rat-creature henchmen in their hapless pursuit of him and the other protagonists. They are indeed not the brightest – and strangely endearing for it. They’re just not cut out for this evil villainy business

Apparently Netflix has the rights to a TV adaptation – presumably animated. It seems unlikely but maybe they’ll do it and do it right.