He Who Hesitates

This past year I found the coolest comic book ever. Oh. Did I mention that I like comic books? Well, I do. Yes, it turns out that lit. teachers can actually like comic books. Or should I call them graphic novels?

Anyway, this past year I discovered the Bone comics. They were created by the illustrious Jeff Smith and include the main characters of Fone Bone and his cousins Phoney Bone and Smiley Bone who are thrown out of Boneville after Phoney Bone has tried one two many money-making schemes. Their adventures out in the world beyond are both hilarious and perilous as they meet giant bees, rat creatures, scythe-carrying masked figures, stunningly gorgeous heroines (who may or may not be long-lost princesses), and amazingly strong geriatrics.

I read the books and loved them and so, of course, passed them on to my kids. They also loved them and began reading every single one of them that they could get their hands on. Jeff Smith is currently re-releasing them through Scholastic in a colorized version and so they are a bit slow in coming. I was looking at Amazon.com with one of my boys and was showing him the 1,000 page all-in-one edition that sold for about $35 or so. I went back the next day to buy it to find, it was suddenly out of print. Sigh. Weep. Weep. Gnash. Gnash. The cheapest I can now find it for online is $72. So, I'm off to Borders to see if I can track it down.

Wish me luck.