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Bone

Bone, Vol. 5: Rock Jaw Master of the Eastern Border

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Fone Bone and Smiley Bone strike out into the wilderness to return a lost rat creature cub to the mountains.

128 pages, Paperback

First published June 1, 1998

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4077 people want to read

About the author

Jeff Smith

622 books1,430 followers
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.

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Displaying 1 - 30 of 627 reviews
Profile Image for Chad.
10.3k reviews1,060 followers
August 3, 2021
Fone and Smiley Bone take Barteby to the mountains to return him to his own kind, the rat creatures. There they come into contact with the giant mountain lion, Roque Ja, Master of the Eastern Border. He's not a fan of the dragons or the rat creatures but only seeks power. It puts Fone and Smiley along with the orphaned animals they befriend in quite the predicament.

This volume is a bit different in that there are no subplots. It's a smaller story with a smaller cast but still packed with adventure and high drama.
Profile Image for Raquel Estebaran.
299 reviews290 followers
February 11, 2022
Este volumen de la saga se centra en menos personajes, aunque aparecen otros nuevos. Con mucha acción, ternura y manteniendo el sentido del humor.
Profile Image for Rhea.
215 reviews87 followers
September 10, 2013
Yuck.

There was something so very enticing about the previous BONE comics; reading them was a treat. Sadly, that is gone from ROCK JAW.

Firstly there's the problem of balance. The first four BONE books had something grand and mysterious about them: cosmic forces, mysterious backgrounds, a landscape with ancient history.

description

Of course, the grandness was balanced with some very down-to-earth silly humor. But while we have the plain Bones running around, we also have more mysterious, more compelling characters - Lucius, Rose, the Great Red Dragon, even Thorn.

ROCK JAW's main flaw was this lack of balance. The whole story was about Phone Bone and Smiley Bone running around the mountains, trying to escape the Rat Creatures and Rock Jaw/Roque Ja. But the part that made me headdesk was the cutesification of the whole thing. In OUT FROM BONEVILLE, there were cute little animals, and they helped balance out the darker edges of the story. Here, however, our friends the Bones and their cute animal pals (don't ask) must use the power of teamwork to defeat the bully Rock Jaw and the mean Rat Creatures who ate their poor parents!

Even the more deliciously mysterious elements do not make it through unharmed; the hum of the earth can apparently be heard by the cutie patootie animals, and guess what they call it? Hum-hum. Yes. I'm serious. The spirit worlds, the magic... all these things which helped the world feel grand and mysterious, are reduced to some hum-hum nonsense.

Cheap, stupid humor also overrides this volume - I usually HATE "idiot characters" used only for comic relief, but I actually liked Smiley Bone... until his idiocy started running rampant in this volume, and I actually considered DNFing, even though the BONE series are one of my favorite comics ever.

Then there's the problem of plot, where Jeff Smith eschews a beautiful, elaborate, complex plot, such as those in previous BONE books, for a straightforward "OMG ESCAPE THE BAD GUYS!!" plot. Then things started falling apart. There are plot holes. The twist about Phoney Bone is ridiculous. The Rat Creatures are turned from a serious threat who's plans are hard to guess into a silly bunch who can't do anything right. The story is overly exposition-y, which bogges down the story. Yuck.

The art is still dynamic and expressive, but even that... the mountains are plain and rocky, so even in the occasional larger panels, there's nothing eyecatching. Even the temple is plain and unmysterious.

If there's one good thing I'll say, it's that there was a little, little, tiny little bit of good/evil exploration that I always look for in books. However, it's not even explored well here.

No matter how much it pains me to say it, don't waste your time with this one and read a summary instead.


Profile Image for Christopher.
354 reviews61 followers
May 12, 2015
2015 reread

"This is insane! It's stupid!"
"HEY! Nothing we've done so far has been un-stupid, and we're still alive, aren't we?!"
"I can't really argue with that, but I feel like I should."

Do you need more than that? You do? Well, there's a whole bit about how "We'll outwit them to death!" that is amazing, but I'm not typing it all out. Trust me, that page is worth 5 stars by itself.
Profile Image for Václav.
1,127 reviews44 followers
March 7, 2018
Bone's story gets more adventurous and more epic here, keeping the level of previous book and adds more intensity
Profile Image for Ritika.
329 reviews43 followers
March 29, 2021
The beginning was so stupidly funny- Smiley bones tries to deal with the rat creatures by reading them Moby Dick and they actually fall into a slumber.😂😂
The possum kids are hilarious and I really liked the concept of 'hum-hum', i.e. the earth hums but not everyone can hear it except animals. For humans it's the dreaming which connects us to the HUM.
It's adventurous and thrilling.
Profile Image for Max's Comic Reviews and Lists.
264 reviews
March 13, 2018
What I love about this book is how it does not contain any of the other main plots. At the end of Bone Vol. 4 The Dragonslayer Fone Bone, Smiley, and Bartleby ran off into the woods and ended in the mountains where they meet the infamous Roque Ja. Undoubtedly one of the coolest characters in the series. The story, upon recent re-read is a little bland compared to the other volumes, however. Many discoveries are made and the action is exciting, but I couldn't help wanting a bit more. Roque Ja as a character is quite a presence. You can always tell he is boss and is true to his namesake. The Rat Creatures in particular Kingdok were good as the main antagonists for this volume. But one thing that has always bugged me, is the size of Kingdok himself. In all other iterations including part of this book, he is a huge beast, but no bigger than a large tree in a heavy forest. But in some scenes Jeff Smith has chosen to draw him at least 2 times as big. He is seen considerably larger, toppling mountain boulders and starting massive rock slides. I dunno, it has always stuck out as a problem to me. This is a fun read and has a lot of cool ideas, but comes off weaker than any of the other Bone books. Letter Grade: (B)
Profile Image for Ellis.
1,216 reviews167 followers
December 16, 2014
Aww, this is the best Bone. Those baby animals totally kill me, and the poem that Bone wrote about the hay cart in his heart that he's built for Thorn has set the new gold standard for romance as far as I'm concerned.

Edited to add: Oops, it was a horse cart.

"In the stalls of my heart, dear,
I've built a horse-cart, dear,
And my dear you can ride it
all day . . .

I've built it from love
from the clouds up above
even the rains cannot wash it
away!

But my love you can't hear
so the cart will not steer
and I'm left with a heart full of hay."
Profile Image for Josh.
323 reviews22 followers
June 7, 2019
Funniest section of the omnibus yet. Those possum boys are always up to no good!

Profile Image for Karissa.
4,308 reviews214 followers
January 7, 2011
This is the 5th book in the nine book Bone series by Jeff Smith. This is a good installment in the series and introduces some new characters to the series.

This book deals with Fone Bone and Smiley Bone and the rat monster baby that they saved. They encounter a new (large and in charge) character, a giant cougar, named Roque Ja. Of course the Bones take to calling him Rock Jaw which pisses him off. There is much running from bad guys and trying to determine who is one who's side and just how you define good and evil.

To be honest this wasn't my favorite installment in this series. You don't get to see Thorn or Gma at all in this book and I missed them. Also I am unsure what the point of all of the orphaned animals joining the group was since they all left at the end of the story. I am assuming this will all tie together somehow...eventually. But the story didn't seem to make much progress.

There also were a lot of things I really did like though. Rock Jaw is an awesome new character and his discussion of good and evil is a..uh..good one. This is a discussion we had with my son not too long ago when we were trying to explain (to a four year old) how good and evil kind of depends on perspective. I liked that we also learn more about the history behind the valley.

There was a lot of stuff that happened in this installment that was a bit piecemeal. Having not read the rest of the series yet I can only assume it will be significant in future installments. Like in previous installments there are some very funny parts in here and the illustration is spot on like always.

Overall I really enjoyed this Bone installment, but I liked it a little bit less than the previous few. I missed Thorn and didn't understand how some of the small things that happened will relate to the rest of the story. I did really enjoy Rock Jaw though and hope we see him in future installments. I am excited to read the next book, Old Man's Cave, to see how the story progresses.
5 reviews
April 4, 2008
I have read some of the bone books in the past but my favorite one has been the fifth bone book. It is called Roque Jaw Master of the Easter Border. This book follows Fone Bone and Smiley Bone as they try to return Bartleby (the baby rat creature they found) to the mountains with the other rat creatures. Along the way they meet Roque Jaw who is a huge mountain lion that captures the three of them. This is because he believes that their cousin Phoney Bone has the power to unite the valley. He threatens to kill them if they do not help him. They manage to get away from Roque Jaw when he attacks two rat creatures. They enter a cave and escape through a secret passage that brings them to the rat kingdom. Roque Jaw then follows them to see if they are going to bring them to Phoney Bone but when he realizes that they are not going to take him there, he attacks them and takes control of them.

One reason that I have fun reading these books are the illustrations. Jeff Smith does an excellent job with the pictures in this book. I like how creative he was with each character and he makes sure that every page looks different. I liked this book and I recommend it to anyone who has read and enjoyed the other bone books and to anyone who is looking for something fun and different to read. (250 words)

Profile Image for Dalton Giolas.
2 reviews
May 13, 2013
I thought it was a good book with lots of action and suspense.I think that it was funny when smiley bone and his bone brothers pronounced Rouqe Jaw's name as Rock Jaw.over all it was a good book,and I liked it a lot.
Profile Image for Ronald.
1,454 reviews16 followers
May 22, 2019
Bone Volume Five was really good. I enjoyed the one solid story line. The lack of major interruptions to the story was nice as I don't like some of those secondary character or they are doing nothing to advance any plot of character development.

Good Stuff!
21 reviews2 followers
June 2, 2015
this book is good because it reminds me of big nate
Profile Image for Kristina Coop-a-Loop.
1,299 reviews558 followers
February 25, 2022
Bone 5: Rock Jaw, Master of the Eastern Border by Jeff Smith is great. It’s very difficult to not tear through this series in a week—which is why I didn’t buy them all at once. I spread out the reading time (and expense) over a month or so. This volume focuses exclusively on the adventures of Smiley Bone, Fone Bone, Bartleby (the rat creature cub) and new animal friends they make while escaping one dangerous situation just to end up in another.

I love the gag running through the entire series (so far) about Fone Bone’s love of Moby Dick. Early on, Smiley, Fone and Bartleby run into the quiche/stew squabbling rat creatures and to escape them, Smiley has Fone read the first few paragraphs of Moby Dick. Actually, he doesn’t get too far beyond “call me Ishmael” before the two creatures get stupefied expressions on their faces and fall over with a KA-LUNK and BONK. Poor Fone Bone.

Yet another fun volume filled with humor, near misses, and unusual alliances. Roque Ja (“roll the rs!”) is an interesting character. He and the animals have an interesting (and surprisingly philosophical) conversation that makes his position on the battle between the villagers and the rat creatures (led by the Hooded One) only more unclear. Who will he help, if anyone? I look forward to volume 6 to find out!
Profile Image for Hilary "Fox".
2,154 reviews68 followers
January 13, 2019
Bone is far better than I ever expected it to be.

This volume in particular upped the ante after the already wonderful Dragonslayer volume already reached a new high for the series itself. While Dragonslayer firmly connected consequences to the choices that we make as people, and firmly reminded us all of our responsibility to both others and to our place in life and never to act in too hasty a manner - this volume focused upon morality itself. Unlike a fair bit of the stories I grew up reading, and still read in children and YA literature a bit too often (especially in fantasy), Bone situates itself within a grey area.

There's an interesting question raised in this volume about whether or not your birth determines your allegiance, and if sides have to be chosen so plainly. Are the rat creatures all evil, and forced to be so by virtue of being rat creatures? Are the dragons as good as they seem, or is there reason to doubt them? Did they contribute to the current unrest in the valley? And why, why Phoney Bone?

This volume brought back our opossum friends, and introduced more creatures. It was a great continuation of the story, and had me at the edge of my seat on multiple occasions. This comic has wormed its way into my heart, and will be one I recommend enthusiastically and abundantly in the future. I understand the hype now, and am gladly part of it.

I genuinely have no clue what will come next.
Profile Image for Stephen Case.
Author 1 book20 followers
February 17, 2014
It's very hard to not like BONE. When people want to know a good place to start as far as graphic novels go, this is always near the top of my list. Especially if the person who is asking has kids or is a kid. Because besides being heart-warming, adorable, compelling, humorous, and well-drawn, BONE is also pretty wholesome. Imagine Mickey Mouse, Goofy, and Donald (or rather, Uncle Scrooge) stumbling upon an enchanted valley where they get mixed up with dragons, rat-creatures, a princess, prophecy, etc., etc. And to add to that level of surreality, throw in some lovable Bambi-esque woodland creatures. Our heroes fighting alongside, for example, some orphaned turtles, raccoons, talking bugs, and possum kids. Yet the drawing and the story-telling make this Disney-meets-Lord of the Rings schtick work. And work as more than schtick. This isn't a fantasy epic like Lord of the Rings drawn through the medium of a cartoon. It's cartoon characters-- with all the slapstick and mayhem that entails-- actually entering into a fantasy epic as characters (and eventually characters of some depth) in their own right.

I've read BONE up through Volume 8, though it was a while ago. Our kids have gotten into them now, so I've had the chance to re-read them again up to Volume 5, and I'll take completion of this volume as a chance to review the entire series so far. The Bone cousins-- Fone Bone, Phoney Bone, and Smiley Bone (the loosely Mickey, Uncle Scrooge, and Goofy analogues)-- got chased out of Boneville after one of Phoney's schemes to get rich backfired, and they find themselves in a strange valley and thrust into the center of a conflict that involves everything from a lost kingdom to cow races to an invasion of an army of rat creatures. Epic really is a fitting description of what Smith does with these volumes. It takes a few volumes of the story to even get a complete picture of the conflict the Bones have found themselves in.

It's whimsical without being flippant. Smith's artwork runs the gamut from suitably cartoonish (the minimalist Bone cousins are in some respects 'toons boiled down to their essential properties) to subtle (as in some of Fone's dream sequences or the sweeping panoramas of the valley we're sometimes treated to). Originally black and white, the volumes have been colored, and because that's the first way I read them I can't bring myself to go back to the black and white version. The colors are vivid and bring an additional depth and drama to the artwork.

Smith's work is somehow, absurdly, a nod to both cartoons along the lines of Ducktales at its best and sword-and-sorcery epics. And perhaps even more absurdly, it works incredibly well. Every character-- including Phoney-- is likable. The story continues to build in complexity and raise the stakes but in a well-paced manner without throwing out a huge web of characters or inscrutable backstory. By volume 5 we learn that the girl Fone has fallen for is the lost heir of a kingdom, that a Sauron-like power has return to threaten peace in the valley, and that Phoney's money-making schemes coupled with the townsfolk's gullibility spell trouble. And that Smiley has adopted a rat-creature cub. Where it will go from here is anyone's guess, but one thing is certain: Smith proves that there's nothing at all two-dimensional about cartoons.
Profile Image for MerryMeerkat.
440 reviews27 followers
January 15, 2015
Bone Volume 5 5 Stars, buy it
 
Self Purchase, Comixology, Re-read review
 
It really is amazing how consistently good this comic is. Art continues to be fabulous and the writing is amazing as well.  Everyone should be reading this series of graphic novels. They are amazing even on the second time around.
 
Plot/Storyline: I forgot Moby Dick plays a role in this although I've never actually read it. I'd forgotten about Bartleby and how cute he is. In issue two, the opossum children are following Fone Bone and Smileybone. Of course trouble calls and they meet an orphan Racoon. Then more trouble happens and they meet Rockjaw who chases them and they end up trapped high on a ledge. And when things calm down in the final issue, Bartleby ends up going back with rat creature.
 
14 reviews7 followers
Read
March 11, 2015
The bone cousins are on their way to return the rat creature cub when all goes wrong Rock jaw the mountian lion and king dok are all in a race to get to the bone cousins but if the master dragon reaches them first will all be doomed. In the fifth installment of the bone series the bone cousins take the journey to the eastern border but the gravest dangers await them i predict that they will reach the rat creature territory and relese the cub but smiley woulnt be able to let go my prediction was correct and this book was amazing i highly reccomend the series.
Profile Image for Lancelot Schaubert.
Author 38 books394 followers
November 18, 2019
With each passing volume, Bone grows more and more brilliant. We learn about new players and another layer of depth and backstory in this volume, showing again that Smith is acutely aware that all story is really the slow unveiling of backstory and how that transforms the characters through changes of mind in heart.

In this one, we confront the lie of nihilism — that power is all that matters — with the clean and clear virtue ethics of childhood. Friendship and trust and love win the day here, but precisely because they’re more substantial than power.

Great work. Looking forward to 5.
37 reviews2 followers
October 7, 2015
This book was about when earlier in the last book they found a rat creature cub and they don't want to let it go.On the way they run into Rock jaw A.K.A the leader of the jungle and the cub saves them so they decide to keep him. I loved this book because it intense but still funny at one point. I recommend this book to people who like action and comedy.
Profile Image for Santiago L. Moreno.
331 reviews38 followers
November 23, 2017
Siguen sumándose misterios (ese templo tan evocador), hay más aventura que en los anteriores volúmenes y grandes dosis de humor. La historia continúa ganando en profundidad (el discurso de Rock Jaw va directo al corazón del segundo nivel de lectura, el más adulto), pero el protagonismo de este número corre a cargo de sus maravillosos personajes. Una jornada épica.
Displaying 1 - 30 of 627 reviews

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