Bone.

Originally self-published bimonthly (with some interruption and in black and white) between 1991 and 2004, Bone won ten Eisner awards and eleven Harvey Awards. The entire series was eventually republished in colour as part of Scholastic's launch of their Graphix label and was just picked up for an animated Netflix Series - currently in production.

While I seem to recall that Jeff Smith caught some flack from his independent comic peers for creating such an inoffensive comic, I can't seem to find any backup for this. Perhaps this drama was just a farce perpetrated by my university professor? Either way, it does appear that he wasn't necessarily setting out to create a work so popular with children as it is now generally accepted to be with some exception. A few groups have tried to get it banned from libraries for smoking and gambling. The oddest thing that struck me during this re-read was the depiction of Thorn - but we will dig into that more later. It was actually the 10th most contested/banned book back in 2013.

Flipping this book over, positioned above the praise from the creator of The Simpsons, we find this book's synopsis: " After being run out of Boneville, the three Bone cousins, Fone Bone, Phoney Bone, and Smiley Bone, are separated and lost in a vast uncharted desert.
One by one, they find their way into a deep, forested valley filled with wonderful and terrifying creatures...
Humor, mystery, and adventure are spun together in this action-packed, side-splitting saga. Everyone who has ever left home for the first time only to find that the world outside is strange and overwhelming will love Bone."
The art, now in colour, is really fun and engaging. The mixture of old and new, cartoony and more realistic. The way information trickles out through the different narratives and and the pretty classic heroes journey... It's all engaging, and not just for kids. Like Nimona, but with a slightly awkward romance situation.
So yeah, digging into the female representation in Bone. It's just an initial impression, and don't remember how things continue, but it's maybe 25% off? Mostly it's just Thorn's outfit during the attack of the rat people, where it looks like it's about to fall off at any moment. Of course Grandma Ben's apron strings are perpetually hovering six inches above her shoulders, so physics doesn't seem to apply here? This threat of impending nudity just felt really out of place. Well, except for the part when she invites Fone Bone to take a bath with her? Which was also a point where perhaps we note that Smith did not intend to be writing a kid's comic. Although that certainly doesn't stop a lot of kid's movie from adding in sexual innuendo that children generally don't get. I don't know, it just seemed like a thing worth noting. The entire, inexplicable, love at first site thing thing for Fone Bone, eventually agreed to by Thorn I suppose, is probably the thing that has aged the worst out of all things. I would have appreciated some explanation, perhaps it is impending. Sexuality just equals heterosexual representation.
Race, like in the Lord of the Rings that Smith credits with inspiration, is a much more real thing then in real life. We have the bones, rat creatures, dragons, and humans to count a few. Almost everything in the valley talks, except perhaps the cows? Generally not a great idea.
Class is one of the more endearing things that Bone touches on, as it mostly revolves around showing the richest bone (Phoney Bone) to be a corrupt asshole who gets the rest of the bones into serious trouble.
Ability vs disability does not appear to be a thing as far as I can tell.