Rose

Bone #0

by Jeff Smith, Charles Vess (Artist)

The stirring prequel to the award-winning, bestselling BONE series!

When a terrifying dragon attacks the small towns of the Northern Valley, a young Princess Rose (known later as Gran'ma Ben) must defeat it. The beast is actually the ancient evil, the Lord of the Locusts, and while Rose faces danger with honor, her elder sister, Princess Briar, follows a more sinister path.
An unforgettable story with beautiful, sweeping artwork, this prequel explores the fateful beginnings of the epic BONE saga.

Genres: Graphic Novels, Comics, Fantasy, Fiction, Young Adult, Adventure, Comic Book

160 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 2000

About the author

Librarian Note: There is more than one author in the GoodReads database with this name. See other authors with similar names.

Born and raised in the American mid-west, Jeff Smith learned about cartooning from comic strips, comic books, and watching animation on TV. In 1991, he launched a company called Cartoon Books to publish his comic book BONE, a comedy/adventure about three lost cousins from Boneville. Against all odds, the small company flourished, building a reputation for quality stories and artwork. Word of mouth, critical acclaim, and a string of major awards helped propel Cartoon Books and BONE to the forefront of the comic book industry.
In 1992, Jeff’s wife Vijaya Iyer joined the company as partner to handle publishing and distribution, licensing, and foreign language publications. In the Spring of 2005, Harry Potter’s U.S. publisher Scholastic Inc. entered the graphic novel market by launching a new imprint, Graphix with a full color version of BONE: Out from Boneville, bringing the underground comic to a new audience and a new generation.
In 2007, DC Comics released Smith’s first non-creator owned work, SHAZAM! Monster Society of Evil, a four-part mini-series recreating a classic serial from comic’s Golden Age. Between projects, Smith spends much of his time on the international guest circuit promoting comics and the art of graphic novels.

Reviews

[Patrick · Rating 5 out of 5]

Visually and tonally very different from the original story. But well worth your time if you enjoyed bone.

This has more of a faerie tale feel to it than the original series, both in the art, and in the meat of the story itself. And because of that, I might have actually enjoyed it more than Bone.

That said, I wouldn't advise reading it alone. It works best as a prequel read *after* you've finished the original series.

[Chad · Rating 4 out of 5]

The prequel to Bone shows Grandma Ben as a young woman and details what happened between her and her sister, Briar, years ago. Charles Vess steps in for Jeff Smith to illustrate the story giving it a fairy tale look to it. It does lack the humor of the rest of the books. I do recommend reading this only after you've finished the rest of Bone.

[Mario · Rating 5 out of 5]

Wow, the art in this one really blew me away. It was so different than art in original Bone, but it's a prequel. It make sense that they changed it.

Would definitely recommend this to anyone who read and liked Bone series. I guarantee you won't be disappointed.

[Jack · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book crossed my mind unexpectedly during the last couple days. I was 9 years old when my father bought me this copy - not long after this edition was published. The entire Bone Saga blew my mind as a kid. Hard to believe the last time I picked up one of these books was 12 years ago…

[Jerome Otte · Rating 5 out of 5]

Jeff Smith first began Bone in 1991, and it's clear he still loves it, despite ending the series in 2004. He hasn't lost any steam over the ensuing years (he continues to do some of his best work in his ongoing, not-for-children series Rasl), and he is still visiting the world he created in Bone. Other books are in the works, but he's just recently released Rose, along with Charles Vess, who handled the painting.

Rose is a prequel to Bone, taking place years earlier and starring Gran'ma Ben as the title character. Her story begins with her as a young princess beset with a treacherous sister (the aptly named Briar), who is jealous of Rose's ability to magically dream. More evil is afoot in the form of a dragon named Mim, once glorious and benevolent but driven mad when she was possessed by the evil spirit of the Lord of the Locusts, who could not enter the world physically (which is why he needed to possess another).

Vess offers a perfect pairing with Smith's deliciously humorous and adventurous writing. The action is sharp, and the tale so pleasant and likable--for all its moderate bloodiness and imminent danger--that Vess's work makes it all the more readable. His artistry sizzles under his vibrant coloring, which is what really makes the book shine.

Rose is another winning entry in the entire Bone saga. It functions completely as a standalone tale, so you needn't be familiar with the previous works. If you are, however, you will quite a few familiar faces, and you'll love seeing this glimpse into Gran'ma Ben's early life.

There are some chills as well as some violence in the book, but nothing too shocking for most young readers. Like most of Smith's work, the wit behind the action makes it all easily accessible for most readers, young and old.

[Daniel · Rating 5 out of 5]

Odlicna prica. Treba malo vremena da se prihvati novi art style u odnosu ma klasican Bone ali posle toga na momente bude jos i lepse u nekim delovima, narocito u prikazima zmajeva.

Naravno iako su nam i sami likovi kao i situacije poznate iz glavnog serijala, nacin na koji je sve prikazano je ipak i originalan i odlican.

Svaka preporuka narocito za ljubitelje Bone srijala mada ako i to niste citali slobodno procitajte posto je prica ipak zaokruzena celina.

[Amanda · Rating 2 out of 5]

This is a prequel for a series I've not read, but I thought I'd give it a try anyway. I found the story to be fairly standard. I wanted to love the illustrations, but Vess seemed to inconsistently draw his characters' faces, especially Rose. And the design of the Great Red Dragon seemed incongruous with the rest of the world's design. I did like the background and landscape illustrations, though.

[Juho Pohjalainen · Rating 3 out of 5]

This prequel is okay, but doesn't hold up to the main series. It tells very little we didn't already know, or that we'd absolutely have to know: it mostly just adds new and unnecessary conflicts and story elements. I didn't like the river dragon much as a villain, either, though the way of disposing him - in his very element of power - was clever enough.

[Tommy Hancock · Rating 4 out of 5]

I wasn't ready for this. This was heart breaking. I guess I was ready for that bit, the main books make it clear that Rose's past was quite sorrowful. But, man, Bone books are supposed to be funny. I expected some lightheartedness to ease me into heartache. Nope. Just stab, stab, stab!

All that whining out of the way, this was a very good story and should be read by anyone who doubts the comic book medium's ability to portray depth(these people still exist, sadly).

Your heart will ache. I knew what was coming and mine still does.

Jeff Smith is a genius.

[Matti Karjalainen · Rating 2 out of 5]

Jeff Smithin Luupäät on noin yleisesti ottaen kaikkien aikojen hienoimpia sarjakuvaromaaneja, ja niinpä tartuinkin innolla sen esiosaan "Orvokki" (Like, 2018).

Sarjakuva ei ollut suoranaisesti huono, vaan ei kyllä erityisen mieleenpainuvakaan. Smithin kynäilemä fantasiatarina on sanalla sanoen aika tavanomainen ja kliseinen. Charles Vessin taide tuppasi myös tökkimään, vaikka moni on sitä myös täällä Goodreadsissa kehunut.

Odotuksiin nähden pettymys. Siksi vain kaksi tähteä.

[Fritz Villanueva · Rating 3 out of 5]

3.5/5

Oh Rose, you could have ended it here and now.

A solid prequel to the Bone series by Jeff Smith, this time focusing on Rose Harvestar, or more commonly known as Granma Ben. The story is great as always, and the art by Charles Vess is quite good. Maybe off in some parts but very vivid and perfect for the dreamlike flashback the scenes require.

[Cale · Rating 3 out of 5]

A precursor to the Bone saga, this follows the story of Rose and Briar and how they got to where they are by the start of the saga. The story is okay; not nearly as strong as the main Bone series, but the artwork by Charles Vess is gorgeous. I'm too far away from the main series to see all of the connections and details, but it does add depth to two of the primary characters, and touches on several others.

[Nathaniel Spencer · Rating 3 out of 5]

Bone was a favorite comic as a kid, and Jeff Smith’s art was the reason I quickly became attached to it. It proved to have a great story also, with many wonderful characters and mysteries. Danger lurked and darkness lay behind the Valley’s bucolic exterior. Bone’s genius was in the way these elements coexisted and captured attention alongside the beautiful and the comical.

Rose shares these qualities to some degree, but they are muted, and of course it lacks the key ingredient: Jeff Smith’s art. Without it, the story and characters don’t have quite the same magic. Written by Smith, Rose seems a bit like an afterthought, or even an obligation. Bone left a clear open door for a prequel, but ultimately the heart and soul went into the main story. Much has been made of Charles Vess; he’s decent but I honestly don’t find his work that compelling. (What’s with his depiction of the young Rose, anyway? I find it to be pretty bad.) It’s an impossible task to follow Bone’s artwork in a Bone spinoff. Vess does ok here, but it’s not the same.

I think this would have worked better if Smith had drawn it, and if it was framed as a present day telling (in Bone universe) by Grandma Ben as the Bones and Thorn listen on. There could be a lot of opportunities for humor and surprise that way, as in the main story. I’m glad Rose is out there, though, and I’ll definitely keep it in my library.

[Rindis · Rating 3 out of 5]

Bone is, of course, a wonderful series, so I have to admit to feeling some guilt at taking so long to getting around to the prequel that came out while Bone was still running, especially as a long-time fan of Charles Vess.

Vess' art and colors are as always superb, and his style fits the story very well. Parts of the story are in the dream world, and well... most of Vess' art looks like it's in a dream world. I wish he'd done the cover as well, as it jars a bit with the interior, though I'm sure it's to make the book fit with the look of rest of the series for people who just know Jeff Smith's work.

As a prequel to the epic that is Bone, the events in Rose seem like they should have an 'epic' quality to them too, but somehow a lot of the book just feels a bit disjointed and out of place even though it all technically fits together. Perhaps it's just a too-quick introduction to the situation and secondary characters in the opening chapters. But the main problem with the plot is that the main 'twist' is cliche enough these days that the foreshadowing of it ends up really telegraphing it to the reader. It is a tragedy, where most of what is lost you aren't given much motivation to mourn for.

[Mari Mankle · Rating 3 out of 5]

The art style was completely different than the other books (which is fine, but I wasn’t expecting that) and the story just seemed to be a rehashed version from the original series. I wanted to see the relationship between Rose and the dragon to determine why they disliked each other so much, but there was literally nothing that helped narrate that aspect of the story.

[Gary Butler · Rating 4 out of 5]

44th book read in 2017.

Number 155 out of 609 on my all time book list.

[Teague Hannes · Rating 3 out of 5]

Too many people, not enough bone people. (its a book if you were wondering)

[Rebeca]

Si lo llego a saber no lo leo, esto no te lo perdono Rose

[kyla · Rating 3 out of 5]

What were girl’s motives

[Michelle · Rating 3 out of 5]

Review originally posted here.

Why I Read It: I read and ended up really enjoying Smith's Bone series earlier this spring/summer so I knew I had to read the prequel at some point. Spoiler-free review ahead.

A prequel Bone comic with Gran'ma Ben (though she's a strapping young lass here and nowhere near a grandmother) as the main character? HELL YES!! I was quite excited to read this, especially since the original comic series doesn't touch on the past with Rose and Briar all that much. You know it happened, but they never go into very much detail.

One thing I immediately appreciated about this story was that it was fairly self-contained, despite being a prequel. There's a little preamble at the beginning that talks about some important stuff so that readers who have never read the original Bone series shouldn't be lost. I do still highly recommend reading the original series though as you're likely to enjoy the story more, I would think.

The story itself was pretty good and made good use of the page-count it had, but there was something about the writing that was strange. It was written by Jeff Smith (despite not being illustrated by him -- more on that in a bit), but it didn't read like the original series at all. There was something about it that felt like it was written for a younger audience. One of the things I loved about Bone was that it *wasn't* written in this way, but was still appropriate for children as well as adults.

The drawing style used by Charles Vess for this story didn't really work for me either. His water-colour backgrounds were beautiful, but the way he drew characters was just... blehg. The proportions of the characters' heads looked all wrong, and it was not pleasing to the eye at all.

This review is shaping up to be pretty negative, so I want to make it clear that I *did* like this and I am glad I read it. It just wasn't on the same level as some of the later volumes of Bone.

Final Verdict: A solid one-volume prequel to a really good series. I think fans of the series will like this volume, but I'm of the opinion that it wasn't as well-written or illustrated. The writing style felt like it was aimed at a younger audience, and Vess's art style wasn't my favourite. I'm still glad I read it though, and would be more than happy to own it (whenver I get around to buying the rest of the Bone series for myself.)

[Uuttu · Rating 3 out of 5]

Alkuosa Luupäiden seikkailuille vaikutti lupaavalta, mutta jäi harmillisesti puolitiehen. Se on mielenkiintoinen ja hyvä, mutta ei saa kuitenkaan vangittua Luupäiden charmia. Tarina itsessään tuntuu hieman keskenkeräiseltä: ensin se on pitkään paikoillaan ja päättyy sitten nopeasti.

Lukemisen arvoinen Luupää-sarjasta pitäneille, mutta mitään hirveän isoa lukukokemusta ei kannata odottaa.

Sijoitin Helmet-lukuhaaste 2019:n kohtaan:
29. Kirjassa nähdään unia

[Nikki in Niagara · Rating 3 out of 5]

Reason for Reading: A prequel to the series, but the last book published in the series.

This was a really hard book to give a rating to. The story is written by Jeff Smith and the cover illustration is by him as well but once one opens up the book all familiarity is gone. The illustrations are by Charles Vess, who has a completely different style than Smith, and the font used is actually a little hard to read. I loved the story but did not like, at all, the illustrations, even though Vess won an award for them. I was not impressed as I started to read because of the change in illustration but as the book progressed the story won me over and I stopped thinking about the artwork, however my rating does reflect my opinion of both the text and illustrations.

On to the story, which was as wonderful as I could have expected. Though being a prequel, it was predictable as we already knew the outcome. This tells the story of when Rose and Briar were young princesses together training to become one of the Veni-Yan. It tells how Briar turned evil and how the Lord of the Locusts started his plan to escape his trap, as well as why and how the rat creatures broke their centuries old peace with the humans. An exciting story with lots of action, an insightful look back at Rose's (Gran'ma Ben) background and her early history with Lucius. I enjoyed the story and the familiar faces (though there were no Bones) very much, but the illustrations did put a damper on it for me.

[Christine · Rating 3 out of 5]

This isn't as good as Bone. In terms of a comic unconnected to Bone it is proably good, but like the Star Wars prequels, some of the plot doesn't match what came before. Which annoys me, though this is faaaaarrrrr better than SW.

I want to know what happened to the cows. There is horses here, not cows. There should be cows. I don't care if it is nitpicking. The cows were cool.

But what I really, truly didn't like was the whole Briar foreshadowing thing. If you've read Bone then you know Briar is the bad master. Here that is foreshadowed by three things. (1) Briar doesn't like dogs (2) Briar doesn't like the outside (3) Briar shows her cleveage. Simplstic characterstics of evil always annoy, especailly the dog one. The reversal of that is that everyone who loves dogs is good, and we know from history that is not true.

Yet, the story was overall engaging.

[Glasdow Teacosy · Rating 3 out of 5]

This prequel to the Bone series was epic in scope, full of archetypal myths and the foundation for the battle to come. Although Princess Rose was well loved, she was not a perfect character. Her pride and naïveté were to be the near downfall of her kingdom. Normally, I am an enormous fan of Charles Vess' art, and certainly there were wonderful landscapes and magical touches here and there, but the faces were a disappointment. Their features seemed to swim from panel to panel and felt deformed at times. Still, for Bone fans this will be a nice treat. Jeff Smith has captured the more serious aspects of his tale here without the comedic touches of the Bones. For some this will be a disappointment, but the Rose miniseries was not in any way a departure from his narrative skills. It fits nicely into the canon.

[Max's Comic Reviews and Lists · Rating 3 out of 5]

After I had read the ending of the main Bone series, I remember walking around with my mom at Costco and seeing this book on the shelf. I lost my mind. So she got the book for me, and I was shocked. I understood everything. I knew this was a prequel and Grandma Ben's early life. But damn this was a violent ass book! I think this is my least favourite entry into the Bone series, but I still like it quite a bit. The whole story as a whole is kinda scary and dreamlike. I love seeing Grandma Ben and her relationship with Briar, and how that all goes to hell. Even though I never really cared for the romance love triangle stuff between them and Lucius though. The art is a good change because I think Jeff Smith's art while it is a style I really like, would have been less effective. But I will restate. This is a DARK and VIOLENT ass book, and to be honest I don't know if they hit the demographic they wanted to. Letter Grade: (B+)

[Madison Henson · Rating 5 out of 5]

A terrifying dragon "Balsaad" attack the town in valley.
Rose against Balsaad for death. But she was blackout and dream, when she cut of sword to Balsaad's head off, hit her face by his body and fell. her dreams really so awful. She finally awake, but Balsaad awake, too. Just because his powerful have a reattaching.
Rose made washes Balsaad's body away, when she cut his body in the river, because the great red dragon tolds her how is he gone.
And sadly, her elder sister been ruined of her face as old, by the Locust because he turn her into an old crone to punish her for her failure.

[Mitchell Friedman · Rating 3 out of 5]

Well Charles Vess is doing the art, so obviously the art is better. But it is offset by the font on the lettering being almost unreadable. This is a prequel, but really it doesn't contain any surprises. Other than the large number of bad choices Rose makes. Still not a bad story, just not a great one.

[Mir · Rating 3 out of 5]

I borrowed this from the library a few years ago, without having read the original series. I didn't find the story hard to follow, but I suspect I wuld have found it more engrossing had I read it after.

[Patrick · Rating 3 out of 5]

Charles Veda’s art is beautiful. But if you didn’t read Jeff Smith’s Bone, I doubt you would find this to be good. It fills in a bit of the backstory from Bone, but it is not a very strong story on its own.

[Brent · Rating 4 out of 5]

Now I want to reread Bone... Highly recommended.