Bone

"Not to be confused with the TV series Bones, the animation studio BONES, or the musical group Bone Thugs-n-Harmony"

A lengthy independent comic book series by Jeff Smith that took 13 years to complete, mixing the sensibilities of a joke of the day comic strip like Pogo with the sweeping story of an epic fantasy ala Lord of the Rings. Jeff self-published the series in its original run, collecting the issues in groups of six or so in nine total volumes, until Image Comics picked it up. A second printing came under Scholastic, Inc., for which Jeff's friend Steve Hamaker colored each and every page. The series eventually won several Eisner Awards and Harvey Awards, and propelled Jeff Smith into immense independent comic book acclaim.

It tells the story of three cousins, who happen to look like humanoid, bone-shaped Cartoon Creatures. They are exiled from their town called Boneville and become lost in a Magical Land called the Valley, where they meet an energetic old lady (Gram'ma Ben) and her beautiful grand-daughter (Thorn). Together, they're caught up in intrigue, magic, and adventure.

There are also two prequels, Rose which tells the story of a young Grandma Ben, and Stupid Stupid Rat-Tails, a Tall Tale of how Big Johnson Bone, the founder of Boneville, once visited the valley, fought off the rat creatures and caused them to begin their tradition of cutting off their tails. The Scholastic run packaged Stupid Stupid Rat-Tails with new Big Johnson Bone stories as Tall Tales. Tom Sniegoski, who wrote the original Rat-Tails and the new Tall Tales stories, is also writing a new novel trilogy called Quest For The Spark that features a Ragtag Bunch of Misfits coming together to fight a new threat.

A film adaptation is confirmed. Animal Logic, the studio behind Happy Feet and The Matrix, will animate. It has been in Development Hell for several years. In the 90's, Nickelodeon, having just released the hit film Rugrats, had an alarmingly misguided vision of what they wanted it to be, and Jeff was the one who bailed out of the deal. The rights are currently held by Warner Brothers. J. P. Hogan (My Best Friend's Wedding, Confessions of a Shopaholic, the live-action Peter Pan) is directing, and it's going to be adapted for the screen by Patrick Sean Smith (ABC Family's Greek).

Jeff was initially fighting for traditional 2D animation, since he used to run his own animation studio called Character Builders that contributed to films like Space Jam, and was the studio that was originally slated to animate the film. According to the interview above, Jeff is fine with the change because the outcome of the movie is not in his control, even though he will have executive-producing credit. He STILL remembers his original preference, though. [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oeNqQxzB4-U ... and fans continue to prove this.]

The first two story arcs (out of nine) were also adapted into an Adventure Game series by Telltale Games, though there's been no word for several years on whether they'll continue the adaptation.

Bone
"Smiley: "Hey, nothing we've done so far has been un-stupid, and we're stil alive, aren't we?"
 * Action Girl :
 * A God Am I: The Hooded One, to some extent. Then again, the Hooded One's master is
 * Androcles' Lion:
 * Anyone Can Die
 * Always a Bigger Fish: A few times -- Kingdok versus Rock Jaw,.
 * Authority Equals Asskicking
 * Backstory
 * Badass Boast: Phoney claiming to be able to kill dragons. Although he can't.
 * Badass Grandpa: Lucius is at least as old as Gran'ma Ben, although he strays more into Retired Badass territory.
 * Badass in Distress: Thorn, several times.
 * Bad Dreams
 * Barrier-Busting Blow: Grandma Ben does this to some Rat Creatures!
 * Beat Panel: Both humorous and non-humorous ones. And they work.
 * Beauty Is Never Tarnished: Subverted with shocking violence.
 * Because Destiny Says So
 * Beneath the Earth: The Dragon's homes.
 * Berserk Button: Notably averted. When Thorn sees a soldier hitting a little girl, she just tosses him on his ass. Even later, when  she looks extremely angry for a moment, but lets it pass.
 * But there is a straight example for Thorn, when Fone Bone brings baby Bartelby into her bedroom and she screams and threatens to kill Bartelby.
 * Played straight with Fone Bone, who is often pissed off at Phoney's money-making scams and the trouble that they cause.
 * Better as Friends:
 * Big Bad: The Hooded One, aka
 * Bigger Bad: The Lord of the Locusts.
 * Big Damn Heroes: The Great Red Dragon on numerous occasions, and Lucius at . was this in the climax of Old Man's Cave
 * Not to mention
 * Big Eater: Smiley Bone doesn't pack it away in impossible quantities, but plays the trope straight enough that people will comment that something is extremely strange if he's not the first at the table at mealtimes. This makes it doubly notable when he, in the Ghost Circles arc, refuses to eat his share of the food and insists that Bartleby takes it instead.
 * Big Ol' Unibrow: Phoney Bone.
 * Bittersweet Ending:
 * Blood on These Hands: Phoney, after his first battle, throws away his sword in shock when he realizes that the blade is covered in blood.
 * Book Ends:
 * Bound and Gagged: Phoney Bone gets this twice (comedically the first time; definitely not comedically the second time)
 * Brick Joke:
 * The Farmer whose cart the Bones stole.
 * The campaign balloon.
 * The solid snowfall in the first chapter.
 * Burn the Witch: Tarsil plays this straight with Thorn.
 * Cain and Abel:  With names like that it's plain to see who's the evil one...
 * Cannot Spit It Out: Fone Bone with Thorn
 * Cartoon Creature: The Bone cousins. Lampshaded regularly.
 * Catapult Nightmare: Happens to Thorn quite a bit.
 * Cats Are Mean: Rock Jaw... sort of. He certainly starts out as a Card-Carrying Villain. However in the end, and for someone who goes on and on about how everyone must choose a side, it isn't really clear whose side he's on.
 * Most likely he's on his OWN side.
 * Cerebus Syndrome: While there are hints to the serious nature of the story in the first couple books, compare books 3-6 through 1-2, especially number two where it becomes one funny moment after another.
 * Changeling Fantasy
 * Character Development: Smiley slowly becomes smarter and more caring, and even learns to stand up to Phoney once in a while.
 * Phoney himself begins to become more mature and less of a Jerkass only out to make money for himself, after he sees what his whole "Dragonslayer" con ends up doing.
 * Chekhov's Gun:
 * Bet you thought Smiley having fun with static electricity was just some pointless comic relief, didn't you?
 * Chekhov's Gunman:
 * Also, the bit where Lucius first attempts to take Phoney Bone and Smiley Bone to Barrelhaven and Smiley asks him if he's ever been married.
 * Cloudcuckoolander: Smiley, until things got more serious. Also the Rat Creatures, especially the purple one.
 * Comic Trio: Though the Bone cousins are modeled into the "schemer, stupid and powerless" archetypes, they only fill the roles precisely in Phoney's schemes. In the main quest, Fone Bone actively influences Thorn and Gran'ma's decisions with strong counter-arguments, Smiley Bone gradually develops individual rational thinking and Phoney just follows along and grumps.
 * Conservation of Ninjutsu: Inverted - the Rat Creatures are pretty harmless in small numbers. The more of them there are, the more bloodthirsty they become.
 * Cosmic Keystone:
 * Crazy Prepared: Apparently Smiley Bone has been carrying a labeled engraving kit in his vest the whole time.
 * Crossover: Not in the comic itself, but the characters have made guest appearances in other comics, such as Gen 13, Shi, the Normalman/MegatonMan special, Patty Cake, The Savage Dragon and others.
 * The Dark Side
 * Dark World: The Ghost Circles
 * Death Seeker:  eventually.
 * Demonic Possession: The Lord of the Locusts' only means of entering the living world. His possession of led to the creation of the Valley itself.
 * Demoted to Extra: Lucius and Kingdok after Old Man's Cave. Then they come back
 * The Determinator: Smiley during Volume 5 (the Rock Jaw arc) and during the Rat Creature Confrontation in Volume 3.
 * The Dragon: Kingdok to the Hooded One, the Hooded One to.
 * Dumbass Has a Point: When the Bones and the Stupid, Stupid Rat Creatures are fleeing from Kingdok near the old temple.
 * Dumbass Has a Point: When the Bones and the Stupid, Stupid Rat Creatures are fleeing from Kingdok near the old temple.

Rat Creature "I can't really argue with that, but I feel like I should.""

""Ever since I was a little, I could hear the Lord of the Locusts whispering inside my head. Do you know what that's like? It's like being the smartest person in the whole world. Mmmmm...""
 * Eldritch Abomination:
 * The Everyman: Fone Bone.
 * Everything's Better with Cows: "The Great Cow Race" is this trope distilled.
 * Everything's Better with Princesses
 * Evil Feels Good

"Smiley: You know Bartleby, I never had a pal like you before.
 * Evil Gloating: The Hooded One to Rose during the ninth book. See above.
 * Evil Overlord: The Hooded One.
 * Eyes Always Shut: Gran'ma Ben and Lucius Down.
 * The Faceless: The Hooded One up till The Reveal.
 * Fantasy World Map: Unusually, the map itself has some significance within the story.
 * First Law of Tragicomedies: Many of the serious story elements were set up from the very beginning, though thankfully the series never loses its humor.
 * It gets significantly less funny after a while. The (very) end brings it back to form.
 * The Fool: Smiley Bone.
 * Frame Break: The part in one book where Grandma Ben punches through a wall to reach the rat creatures on the other side (the wall being represented by the comic gutter).
 * Freudian Excuse: Phoney became cunning and greedy as the result of being orphaned as a child, growing up in absolute poverty, and having to raise his two cousins (also orphans) during this time.
 * This is justified because 1. Phoney isn't a villain, and 2. it also gave Phoney his good traits, such as his resourcefulness and Papa Wolf tendencies toward Smiley and Fone.
 * Friendship Moment: Smiley bringing leftover dinner to Bartleby in Treasure Hunters.

Bartleby: Me either!"

"Fone Bone: How many dragons did we wake up?
 * Genre Busting
 * The Ghost: Boneville. Jeff said that he prefers never to depict it, as it's not the focus of the story, and better to leave it up to the reader's imagination.
 * Half-Dressed Cartoon... Something-Or-Other: The Bone cousins, repeatedly lampshaded.
 * Heel Realization: Phoney Bone gets a massive helping when a con of his backfires disastrously and results in Thorn's ally, the Dragon, being bound and gagged by the villagers, who are preparing to burn him. When Thorn discovers what Phoney has led them to do and been too cowardly to stop, she immediately and with absolute certainty declares that he is, obviously, an agent of the enemy.
 * Heroic Sacrifice:  technically does this without knowing it.
 * Hero with Bad Publicity: Veni-Yen Cari.
 * He's Back: in Volume Seven.
 * Hidden Depths: Phoney.
 * Holding Hands: Happens quite a lot in the series, but probably most famously when Thorn and Fone Bone meet for the first time, leaving the hot springs.
 * How Many All of Them: After the Crown of Horns incident.

Great Red Dragon: All of them."

"Fone Bone: "Those Rat Creatures would have to be pretty stupid to follow me on to this frail little branch [overlooking a cliff]."
 * Humiliation Conga: Kingdok near the end. It culminates when.
 * I Killed Your Father:
 * Idiot Hair: Of a sort; Thorn has the two strands of hair which usually don't seem to settle with rest of her hair.
 * Its Pronounced Tropay: The giant cougar Rocque Ja somehow knows when people call him "Rock Jaw" and gets pissed every time.
 * You're supposed to use Trrrilling Rrrs.
 * Jerk with a Heart of Gold: Phoney. He seems like just a big Jerkass toward the start, but his better qualities are shown toward the end, mainly the genuine care he has for his cousins.
 * The reveal that he was more-or-less a surrogate father figure to them when they were young certainly helps.
 * Lucius seems a little like this, too. Not really a "jerk," but at least a grumpy guy with a short temper.
 * Karma Houdini: Rocque Ja half-kills Thorn and brings her and Phoney to the Hooded One, but is never punished in the end.
 * I wouldn't go as far as to say . He hardly had anything to gain . As Grandma sort of said, cats are complicated.
 * Like an Old Married Couple: Fans of the Two Stupid Rat Creatures describe them this way.
 * Lions and Tigers and Humans, Oh My!: In order of appearance: cartoon creatures, monsters, talking animals (normal-sized and gigantic), humans, normal animals, miscellaneous fantasy races. This gets a little strange once the mood shifts in the later issues/chapters. Just go with it.
 * Long Runner
 * Made of Iron: Gran'ma Ben.
 * Magical Land: The Valley.
 * Magic Skirt: Thorn, even when it's ripped to a tiny piece.
 * Mama Bear: Gran'ma Ben, Thorn.
 * Mauve Shirt: The "Stupid Stupid" Rat Creatures.
 * My Significance Sense Is Tingling: Gran'ma Ben and the Gitchy Feeling.
 * Never Mess With Gran'ma: Ben races cows for fun and gleefully fights Rat Creatures three times her size, outnumbered, and with only her bare hands... and wins!
 * New Powers as the Plot Demands: Thorn. She can
 * Nice Hat: Phoney wears a chef's hat while working in Lucius's kitchen, and Lucius even compliments him on it. Interestingly enough, the only other time he wears a hat in the series (with a huge feather in it), Lucius calls it a "stupid hat." The man definitely knows his tastes when it comes to hats.
 * Invoked by Smiley when he first finds out Thorn is a princess and wonders if she'd let him borrow her crown, because he thinks he'd look cool with a crown. Then averted several issues later when he does get to wear the crown -- except it's not made for someone with his head shape at all, and he ends up just looking silly.
 * No-Holds-Barred Beatdown: . It's not pretty. Not pretty at all.
 * Non Standard Character Design: The Bone cousins, compared to the rest of The Valley. Very conspicuous at close ups on Fone Bone's face.
 * No Name Given: The Rat Creatures. Only the royal Rat Creatures get names, the rest are nameless and generally just call each other "Comrade." In Quest For The Spark, this is confirmed to be a custom of the Rat Creatures: You only get a name if you're important enough to have one.
 * In the same book, the two Stupid, Stupid Rat Creatures -- after having spent the novel being referred to as "The Rat Creature" and "The Other Rat Creature" (and variations thereof) -- are finally given names by Abbey and Barclay Bone to avoid confusion (and probably because in prose it's less awkward that way). They name the yellow one and the purple one.
 * Noodle Incident: Whenever the Bones talk about Phoney's pre-Valley schemes.
 * Not So Different: ..
 * Obfuscating Stupidity: Gran'ma Ben is obviously MUCH more than what she seems, and it's somewhat apparent that Smiley is not a moron.
 * Old Master: Rose.
 * Old Shame: The reason why Thorn: Tales from the Lantern, a book consisting of the comic strip Jeff Smith that basically is a first draft of sorts, has never been republished. Fetches really high prices on eBay whenever it shows up. Some of the strips are on the online archive of the Ohio State University Cartoon Research Library.
 * Our Dragons Are Different: The Great Red Dragon's behaviour and role in the story are close to those of oriental dragons. He has also an unusual appearance; Jeff Smith has described him as having a brontosaurus-like body, hind-quarters of a lion, arms of a a human and the head of a Christmas donkey.
 * Judging by the other dragons we see in the comic (mostly in dreams), there's no set rule for what a dragon should look like. Most of them seem vaguely reptilian or dinosaur-like, but that's pretty much all they have in common.
 * Ouroboros: Mim, the Dragon Queen.
 * Outdoor Bath Peeping: Both Fone's and our introduction to Thorn.
 * Papa Wolf: Not that Phoney ever has the opportunity to act on it, but messing with his cousins (or threatening to) is probably not the best idea.
 * Pet the Dog: Kingdok to the two stupid rat creatures
 * Plank Gag: Happens in The Great Cow Race. One page has Smiley holding a ladder from one end while the other is between Lucius and Phoney. In the back is Fone Bone is calling to Smiley, pointing to the left. In the next page, Smiley has completely turned around, while Lucius and Phoney are knocked over, clutching their heads in pain. Fone Bone has an "Oops!" look on his face.
 * Quirky Miniboss Squad: Those two Stupid, Stupid Rat Creatures.
 * Also Punch Clock Villains of a sort (except for the fact that they want to eat Fone Bone, they're not all that evil)
 * Raised by Grandparents: Thorn is raised by her grandma from the time she was five years old.
 * Rebellious Princess
 * The Renfield: The Hooded One, although the Locust's minion is actually useful.
 * Rescue Romance: Sort of.  and   already know each other by this point, but
 * Retired Badasses: Gran'ma Ben and Lucius Down.
 * The Reveal:
 * Rodents of Unusual Size: Giant Rat Creatures, especially Kingdok.
 * Samus Is a Girl:
 * Screw Destiny: Thorn says this a lot in the latter half of the story, especially when she despite her mentors telling her it can't be done. Whether or not this was her destiny to begin with is your mileage.
 * Sealed Evil in a Can: Lord of the Locusts.
 * Series Continuity Error: In one issue, Rocque Ja and it's explicitly stated that  Then, in a later issue,
 * Shoo Out the Clowns: During the more serious parts of the story, Smiley either disappears entirely or (temporarily) becomes much less stupid.
 * With one notable exception of a few panels in the Ghost Circles arc, in which Smiley delivers some comic relief as well as a Chekhov's Gun.
 * Shout-Out: The name "Miss Crab-Bone", to The Little Rascals' Miss Crabtree.
 * Sinister Scythe: The Hooded One's Weapon of Choice.
 * Soul Fragment:
 * Species Surname: If the surname has derived from the species name and not vise-versa.
 * Springtime for Hitler: Phoney's plan to abscond with all of Barrelhaven's wealth.
 * The Stars Are Going Out: Invoked when surrounds Atheia with ghost circles.
 * Supreme Council of Vagueness: The Deciples of Venu
 * Tertiary Sexual Characteristics: There are no female Bones in the main storyline, but the Big Johnson Bone stories show that, whereas male Bones are all bald, female Bones have hair and/or a bow on their head.
 * Averted with the Rat Creatures, whose males and females look exactly alike. One reader even wrote in to ask whether Rat Creatures had genders, and Jeff Smith jokingly answered that he'd never dared to check under their fur to find out. Stupid, Stupid Rat Tails, however, identifies a few Rat Creatures as female -- and the only one of them who stands out visually is Queen Maud, who simply looks bigger and fatter than the others.
 * Theme Naming: Thorn, Rose, Briar.
 * Also, 'Bartleby' is the name of the eponymous creepy office worker in Herman Melville's Bartleby, the Scrivener. Herman Melville also wrote Moby-Dick, the book that Fone Bone is obsessed with. This makes Smiley Bone's comment that "he looks like a Bartleby!" ridiculous to those in the know: he really, really doesn't.
 * The Name the Baby Rat Creature contest was won by Shaenon K. Garrity
 * Thanatos Gambit: One possible explanation for.
 * Those Two Bad Guys: The pair of Stupid Stupid Rat Creatures!
 * Tiny Guy, Huge Girl: Thorn isn't tall, but she's a giant compared to Fone Bone.
 * Took a Level In Badass: Done rather dramatically with Thorn. She goes from being a friendly, naive farmgirl to one of the most grim and powerful characters in the entire series. She becomes a happy person again at the end of the story...considering she's now queen of the entire Valley!
 * Too Dumb to Live
 * Too Dumb to Live

[beat]

Fone Bone: STUPID, STUPID RAT CREATURES!"


 * Trademark Favorite Food:
 * The purple Stupid Stupid Rat Creature. "You know we could have made quiche."
 * "Would you SHUT UP about quiche!"
 * Also Smiley and "the stuffed bread thingies" that Gran'ma makes for him. He likes it when they're extra stale.
 * To a lesster extent, the blank sandwiches that Smiley and Bartleby made in Volume 8
 * Ultimate Evil:
 * The Unfavorite :
 * The Usual Adversaries: Rat Creatures
 * Villainous BSOD:
 * Villainous Demotivator
 * Voluntary Shapeshifting: The Hooded One.
 * We Can Rule Together
 * What Could Have Been: In-Universe example. After the
 * Might be more than an in-universe example, depending on how big a fan of  you are.
 * Also, the development of the film in the 90's (see above). If it weren't for Nickelodeon's piss-poor decisions, we would probably have one epic animated saga that rivals Don Bluth's films!
 * What Is Evil?: Rock Jaw has his own viewpoint on good and evil, finding both terms to be equally laughable.
 * Will They or Won't They?: Fone Bone and Thorn.
 * The Worf Effect: Admittedly, had it coming.
 * The Worm That Walks:
 * X Meets Y: Jeff Smith calls it Bugs Bunny meets Lord of the Rings. Fans are more varied, but generally keep the format of [Cartoon] meets [High Fantasy] (usually a synonym for LOTR); ie: Pogo meets Tolkien, DuckTales in Middle-Earth, etc.
 * You Are in Command Now: The Hooded One to the Pawan General after.
 * You Have Failed Me: Played straight and then subverted with
 * You Have Outlived Your Usefulness:

Rose and Stupid Stupid Rat Tails/Tall Tales
"Big Johnson Bone: Somebody got a better plan? Let's hear it, then -- and if it involves twenty pounds of bacon fat and a hot-air balloon, I can tell ya right now, it ain't gonna work."
 * Adaptation Expansion: "The Powers That Be" from Tall Tales provides an extended version of one of the Thorn comics Jeff Smith made in college.
 * Animals Lack Attributes: Averted with Roque Ja the mountain lion, who when seen from behind has a very prominent scrotum.
 * Big Eater: "Big Johnson Bone Vs. The Cobbler Gobbler" (from Tall Tales)
 * Breather Episode: The light-hearted prequel, Stupid Stupid Rat Tails, came out between the Hooded One's identity being revealed and the Ghost Circles arc.
 * Children Are Innocent: In Stupid Stupid Rat Tails, after
 * Determinator: Big Johnson Bone is this trope.
 * Everything's Better with Monkeys: Stupid Stupid Rat Tails has a talking monkey sidekick for Big Johnson Bone.
 * Fat Girl: Queen Maud in Stupid Stupid Rat Tails. 'Nuff said. It's kind of scary to see her next to her tiiiny little handmaidens.
 * Freudian Excuse: Rose implies that Briar suffered (real or imagined) neglect as a child.
 * Getting Crap Past the Radar: The founder of Boneville and the Bone's ancestor, Big Johnson Bone. Ha!
 * Grievous Harm with a Body: Big Johnson Bone's main strategy for dealing with Rat Creatures; take 'em by the tail and swing!
 * Mama Bear: Queen Maud towards the end of Stupid Stupid Rat Tails.
 * Monster Is a Mommy: Queen Maud in Stupid Stupid Rat Tails. She does not take the fact that Big Johnson was causing her giant "baby" Tyson's "sickness" very well.
 * Nice Hat: Smiley's scoutmaster hat in Tall Tales. Big Johnson Bone also has a nice coonskin cap.
 * Nice Job Breaking It, Hero: In the prequel, not only does Rose unleash Balsaad,.
 * Ah, but think of the Fridge Brilliance.
 * Noodle Implements: In Stupid Stupid Rat Tails:


 * Off-Model: Rose sometimes looks a little odd, because it was written but not drawn by Jeff Smith. It was drawn by his friend and fantasy illustrator Charles Vess. In this case, the off-models were most likely intentional, since it is Vess's own style.
 * Excepting, perhaps, the Great Red Dragon, whose chin gradually grows longer every time he appears in-panel.
 * Scout Out: The framing story for Tall Tales is that Smiley is telling campfire stories to Bone Scouts.
 * Shoot the Dog: In Rose.
 * Small Name, Big Ego: Big Johnson is pretty much a reconstruction of this. He has an unrealistically high opinion of himself, but he's able to make up for it with the impressive abilities that he actually does have.
 * Treasure Map: Phoney Bone finds one in the first story of Tall Tales. He and Fone Bone subsequently decide to hunt for the treasure instead of do laundry,.
 * Unfortunate Names: Boneville's founder, "Big" Johnson Bone.
 * Unreliable Narrator: Big Johnson

Quest for the Spark

 * Adventurers Club: Boneville's mentioned to have one, with Abbey and Barclay's parents and Percival as members. With the exception of those three, the club members are about the only ones who don't believe the Bone cousins' stories about the Valley.
 * Ascended Extra: Roderick the Raccoon, a minor character in the comic, is one of the main stars of Quest for the Spark.
 * The two Stupid, Stupid Rat Creatures might also qualify -- they had sizable roles in Bone, but were still secondary characters. Here, they're among the main characters (making them the only two characters so far to have large roles in both Bone and Quest for the Spark) and are even given their own names for the first time, when Abbey and Barclay name them
 * Big Bad: The Nacht, a dragon who went rogue.
 * The Chains of Commanding: Tom struggles with being the appointed leader of the group; especially when Randolf makes it no secret that he doubts Tom's ability to do so.
 * The Chosen One: The protagonists of the story are all chosen by the Dreaming to act as its agents against The Nacht.
 * Crusading Widower: Randolf Clearmeadow, an old Veni Yan Warrior who is one of the people The Dreaming chose.
 * Coming of Age Story: It's shaping up to be this for Tom Elm.
 * Companion Cube: A dead squirrel to Stinky the Rat Creature, which he has dubbed "Fredrick".
 * Cool Airship: The Queen of the Sky, Percival's mode of transport. It looks like a sailingship, but with balloons instead of sails, and its engine runs on potatoes.
 * Cool Old Guy: Percival F. Bone, functioning like a Team Grampa.
 * Demoted to Extra: Gran'ma Ben, Thorn, and the Great Red Dragon make cameos. Fone, Smiley, Phoney and Bartleby are mentioned, but don't actually appear.
 * Everything's Worse with Bears: In the second book, though they become allies soon enough.
 * Everything's Worse with Bees: Especially when they're giant bees. Extra-especially when you're working with bears who want to steal their honey.
 * Gotta Catch Em All: Pieces of the Spark
 * Nature Spirit: Lorimar of the First Folk, who originally came from the Dreaming and has tied herself to the forest of the Waking World, possessing plants and organic plant life in order to communicate with the characters.
 * Paper-Thin Disguise: The group uses bee outfits to infiltrate a hive in book 2. They're well aware of how ridiculous the costumes are, but go ahead with them since they work on their bear allies. (It also helps that the bees are drugged with smoke.)
 * Parental Abandonment: Abbey and Barclay's parents disappeared while searching for the Valley. Also, Roderick's parents were eaten by Rat Creatures.
 * People Puppets: The Nacht's minions control victims this way.
 * The Professor: Percival F. Bone. He looks the part too, with Einstein-like wild gray hair (the only male Bone so far to have actual hair), glasses, and a lab coat.
 * Ragtag Bunch of Misfits: A simple farmer kid, his raccoon sidekick, a Nature Spirit, an adventurer Bone and his niece and nephew, a disgraced ex-warrior priest, and two Stupid Stupid Rat Creatures.
 * Retired Badass: Randolf Clearmeadow, before he becomes a Crusading Widower.
 * Sibling Rivalry: Mild case with the Bone twins, Abbey and Barclay, who spend most of their time bickering, but do genuinely love each other.
 * Sibling Seniority Squabble: Abbey Bone is two minutes and twenty-three seconds older than her twin brother, and takes every possible opportunity reminding him of that fact, even going so far as referring to him as "my little brother Barclay."
 * Suspiciously Similar Substitute: King Agak, the new Rat Creature king, has more than a few traits in common with his predecessor Kingdok (though he's notably less monstrous -- especially in appearance).