Bone: Out from Boneville

Out from Boneville, the first of nine volumes in Jeff Smith's self-published series (later collected by Scholastic's Graphix imprint), is generally recommended for ages 9 and up. It has the cartoonish visual appeal of a Disney or Peanuts comic but gradually introduces darker, Lord of the Rings-style fantasy elements in later volumes.

Jeff Smith self-published Bone through his own Cartoon Books imprint starting in 1991, running 55 issues over 13 years before concluding in 2004. The entire epic spans over 1,300 pages, with Out from Boneville serving as the entry point that introduces Fone Bone, Phoney Bone, and Smiley Bone.

The three Bone cousins are Fone Bone (the moral center), Phoncible P. 'Phoney' Bone (the greedy schemer), and Smiley Bone (the laid-back simpleton). In the first volume, they're run out of Boneville due to Phoney's scams and get separated in a mysterious valley populated by talking bugs, rat creatures, and a girl named Thorn.

The rat creatures, led by the sinister Hooded One and their master the Lord of the Locusts, serve as the primary antagonists across the full Bone saga. Even in Out from Boneville, Fone Bone's first encounters with the 'stupid, stupid rat creatures' foreshadow the epic conflict that unfolds across the remaining eight volumes.