Bone

From 1995 to 2004, Jeff Smith’s Bone spun a sprawling, all-ages fantasy epic across nine issues from Cartoon Books, blending slapstick comedy with high-stakes adventure. The series follows the three Bone cousins—Fone Bone, Phoney Bone, and Smiley Bone—as they are run out of their hometown and lost in a mysterious valley filled with rat creatures, dragons, and a dark, ancient evil. Smith’s expressive, cartoonish art and masterful storytelling earned the series a devoted readership, making it a landmark of independent comics that proved a creator-owned work could rival the scope and heart of any superhero saga.