Bone #4
☆ Be the first to review + Add to your collection — Join freeBone #4 (March 1992) is the first appearance of both Kingdok — king of the Rat Creatures — and the Hooded One, the series' primary antagonist, making it the pivotal issue where Jeff Smith's initially comedic indie series commits to its epic-fantasy identity. The issue also debuts Gran'ma Ben's 'gitchy feeling,' a supernatural dread motif woven through the rest of the 55-issue run. As part of the 'Out from Boneville' story arc, it represents the moment Smith's self-published black-and-white experiment became something with genuine narrative menace, a quality that would eventually earn Bone ten Eisner Awards and eleven Harvey Awards.
In Bone #4, Phoney Bone departs Gran'ma's farm for the village, setting off a chain of events that puts the entire farm at risk. With Kingdok and the Hooded One plotting an attack on both the farm and the mysterious Red Dragon, the tension builds in this pivotal chapter of Jeff Smith’s acclaimed series. The story unfolds with Smith’s distinctive art and storytelling, all rendered by him across writing, art, inking, and lettering, with the cover by Jeff Smith capturing the growing peril.
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We Buy Collections ▸History
Jeff Smith founded Cartoon Books in 1991 to self-publish Bone entirely on his own, handling lettering, printing coordination, order fulfillment, and bookkeeping alongside the creative work — a workload that caused production delays by the time issue #4 appeared. In 1992, the same year this issue was released, Smith's wife Vijaya Iyer formally joined Cartoon Books as president to manage the business side, freeing Smith to concentrate on the comic. Issue #4's cover was produced with airbrushing by David Reed, one of the few outside creative contributions to the early run.
Trivia · 8 facts
- Published March 1, 1992 by Cartoon Books; story titled 'Barrelhaven' (also the title of the Image Comics reprint edition of April 1996).
- First appearance of Kingdok, the massive king of the Rat Creatures and commander of the valley's monster army.
- First appearance of the Hooded One (later revealed to be Briar Harvestar), the chief villain who commands Kingdok and serves the Lord of the Locusts.
- Debut of Gran'ma Ben's 'gitchy feeling,' a recurring supernatural premonition device used throughout the series.
- Written, drawn, and lettered entirely by Jeff Smith; cover airbrushing credited to David Reed.
- Part four of the six-issue 'Out from Boneville' story arc, which forms Volume 1 of the collected Bone series.
- Issue #4 received at least six Cartoon Books printings plus one Image Comics printing (April 1996); later collected in the Cartoon Books black-and-white trade paperback and the 2005 Scholastic/Graphix full-color Out from Boneville edition (colored by Steve Hamaker).
- Excerpts from the Out from Boneville arc, which includes this issue, were also adapted and printed in the digest magazine Disney Adventures beginning in 1994, in colorized and editorially modified form.
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Reprints
Reprinted in The Complete Bone Adventures #1 (1993), Bone #1 (1996), Bone #4 (1996), Bone #1 (1998), Bone: One Volume Edition #[nn] (2004), Bone #1 (2005), Bone #1 (2007), Tommy og Tigern #4/2008 (2008)
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