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Title: Stupid, Stupid Rat-Tails
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| CONSUMER ADVICE |
Parents, have nothing to worry about here. "Stupid, Stupid Rat-Tails" is about as safe as they come. There is no real violence, no real danger, and the overall goofiness of the whole thing will make sure that kids aren't bothered by anything in this book. Fans of "Bone" who are looking for a good prequel and/or a mini-series that would add more depth to the story will be sorely disapointed in this book, as there is nothing in here that effects the overall story of the "Bone" saga in any way. Fans of comedy may like this better then fans of drama, but despite the focus on humor over drama the story still fails to provide any serious laughs for the readers. Hard-core "Bone" fans will want to pick this up to complete the story, but casual readers of "Bone" will not have any reason to buy this. |
When Act II of the Bone saga ended, people were pretty anxious to read Act III of the story (Act II ended with a pretty heavy cliffhanger). Instead of getting Act III right away, it was announced that there would be two prequels for the Bone saga released before Act III would be released. The two prequels were "Rose" and "Stupid, Stupid Rat-Tails." Today we are taking a look at "Stupid, Stupid Rat-Tails." "Stupid, Stupid Rat-Tails" is a supposed prequel to "Bone" that asks the question that no one was thinking about in the first place: How did the stupid, stupid rat creatures lose their tails? The story revolves around Fone Bones great ancestor Big Johnson Bone, who is on a journey with a talking monkey named Mr. Pip, who Johnson had won in a game of cards. Big Johnson Bone views himself as the Davy Crockett of comic books, and his mouth is about as big as his ego. Big Johnson had lots of tall tales to tell everyone, and Mr. Pip happens to be the only one to listen to them, so there is already some discomfort between these two characters (aside from the fact that Mr. Pip believes that Johnson cheated at the game of cards).
However before these two can break out into a fist fight, a huge tornado sweeps up Big Johnson and Mr. Pip! However Big Johnson makes an impression on everyone by riding the tornado safely into the strange valley that Fone Bone and his cousins found themselves stuck in, proving that there's more to him then a load of wind. Anyway, upon landing in the valley Johnson runs into a little dragon named Stillman. Stillman has a problem, the Red Dragon appointed him the duty to protect the forest from the stupid, stupid rat creatures, but he can't breath fire, and very soon someone is going to show up to replace him. Another problem is that not only is Stillman helpless to protect the critters, but the stupid, stupid rat creatures leader Queen Maud wants to take over the whole valley, and her rein in territory is increasing! This all sounds terribly dangerous, except for the fact that Queen Maud is one fat tub of lard who makes Queen Latifa look skinny (no offense to Queen Latifa if she ever reads this). Making the so-called "evil leader" a fat tub of lard underlines that this prequel was not created to be taken seriously, but it was actually created to be funny. And that's where the whole thing comes apart.
This was meant to be a light hearted comedy (they were most likely aiming for this since the third act of "Bone" was going to be very serious and grim), but funny isn't the first thing that comes to mind when you read this. Oh sure there's a chuckle here and there, but the humor leaves a lot to be desired. Not only that, but Big Johnson Bone is only enjoyable at certain times in the book. Whenever his ego gets in the way he can be pretty funny, but when he turns on his whole Davy Crockett show he becomes more of a spoof then a fully realized character...and a poor spoof at that. Mr. Pip is also quite possibly the most annoying character in the book, always being sarcastic but never having the sarcasm work on any humorous level. The cute critters that Johnson vows to protect are also flat, with no depth or complexity at all. After all, they were created for the sole purpose getting captured and then being saved. The only person who has any real depth is Stillman, and even his character is a pretty shallow one. Of course, it also doesn't help that the usually funny rat creatures feel more stupid then usual, and fail to provide any real danger or humor.
And then we have the biggest question that also poses the biggest problem with this book: What's the point of the story? That's the thing, there really isn't a point. The only thing that you really find out is how the rat creatures lost their tails, and that's it. No extra background information about the valley, no extra explanation about the dragons, heck, with the exception of a guest appearance by the Red Dragon himself you would be hard pressed to find anything in common with this and the "Bone" books! Basically there was absolutely NO reason for ANYONE to waste their time making this book since it doesn't contribute ANYTHING to the "Bone" universe!!! Jeff Smith did the art for this book (which looks excellent as always) but he did not write the story and it shows. Apparently he was too busy writing the final act of "Bone" to get seriously involved in the writing of this book. Tom Sniegoski may be an okay writer in other things he's done, but he still just doesn't have the same flair in his storytelling that Jeff Smith has.
There's also a short story called "Riblet" by Stan Sakai in this book, but the less said about this pointless story (which has NOTHING to do with "Bone" at all) the better. At the end of the day "Stupid, Stupid Rat-Tails" ends up being exactly what the title says it is: Stupid.
- -Review By Kevin T. Rodriguez- -