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1883_14 | The series was split into three-story arcs, each having two names, one being the original arc name, the other being the name used in the one volume edition, respectively as follows. The first arc lasted from issues #1–19 (volumes #1–3, June 1991 – August 1995) being named Vernal Equinox, or The Valley. It was the longest running arc (in terms of time) running for four years and one month. The main story in issue #13.5, "Up on the Roof", was reprinted as chapter six in The Great Cow Race collected edition, therefore making it part of Vernal Equinox. The second arc was named Solstice, or Phoney Strikes Back. The arc lasted from issues #20–37 (volumes #4–6, October 1995 – August 1999). It is tied as the longest running arc in issues with the third arc (lasting 19 issues). The third arc, Harvest or Friends & Enemies, lasted from issues #38–55 (volumes #7–9, August 2000 – June 2004). |
1883_15 | Color editions
From February 2005 to January 2009, Scholastic Inc. (through its new Graphix imprint) began reissuing in both hardcover and paperback the individual volumes in full color by Steve Hamaker. In 2006, HarperCollins began publishing the full color editions for the UK market.
In the color editions, the following changes were made: |
1883_16 | These editions correct some spelling errors, such as "kewpie-doll" for "cupie-doll" and "kowtow" for "cowtow".
Some lines of dialogue were completely rewritten for these versions, and some story pages were added and others removed. One example of new material in Eyes of the Storm is Thorn and Fone in the garden talking about Ghost Circles. Four pages were excluded from the conversation between Thorn, Gran'ma and Fone in The Dragonslayer. In Rock Jaw, the two rat creatures talk about Ghost Circles as well, which did not happen in the original issues and black-and-white paperbacks.
Much of the dialogue on the remaining pages was edited as well, replaced with shorter lines.
In the same book, the frames from the last pages were completely rearranged, and some of the original ones were removed.
Similar (and smaller) additions were made as well to Old Man's Cave, Ghost Circles and Treasure Hunters. |
1883_17 | The series was also reprinted in color under HarperCollins Children's Books, the fourth individual reprinting for the first three volumes and the third individual reprinting for the last six volumes. The first three volumes have been published in 2005, 2007, and 2009, respectively, though it is unclear whether the last six volumes will be reprinted.
One-volume edition
The special 1,332-page, one-volume edition () was released originally for $40 (USD) through Jeff Smith's Cartoon Books imprint in a paperback volume. This special print of the entire adventure was to celebrate the end of the series and the commencement of every collection in the series being reprinted in color through Scholastic Press. First released in 2004 and promoted as only a limited print run being available, this edition has had several reprintings to keep it available. |
1883_18 | In addition to the one-volume paperback, a signed limited edition hardcover edition of the one-volume book was issued. The deluxe hardcover featured gold embossed lettering on the cover, gilded edges, and a cloth ribbon bookmark. The end pages are printed with a map of The Valley and it comes with a full-color signed and numbered bookplate. This limited edition pressing of the book originally sold for around $125 (USD) and was initially limited to 2,000 copies. The series has been reprinted 13 times, also featuring a signed limited edition of the 13th pressing version sold during November 2009. |
1883_19 | The collection won the 2005 Eisner Award for Best Graphic Album-Reprint, and was listed at No. 3 in Time magazine's "Best Comix of 2004". Reviewer Andrew Arnold said of the collection, which was published at the conclusion of the monthly series: "As sweeping as the Lord of the Rings cycle, but much funnier...Smith imbues even simple dialogue panels with animation. Now that it's finished Bone should join the ranks of Lord of the Rings and Harry Potter in the young adult pantheon". |
1883_20 | Full-color, one-volume edition
In November 2011, for its 20th anniversary, a full-color, one-volume edition was released. It has a special section in the back with a cover gallery of the original comics, an illustrated timeline of Bone's 20-year history, and an essay by author Jeff Smith. A special edition was also released that included the book, a signed print by Jeff Smith, a Phoney Bone gold coin, three pewter bone figures of Fone Bone, Phoney Bone and Smiley Bone, a copy of The Cartoonist documentary DVD, a miniature facsimile of the original Bone comic No. 1 and a big red box with a picture of Fone on it to hold it all.
Spin-offs and special one-shots |
1883_21 | Spin-offs
Both prequels and sequels to the main storyline:
Thorn: Tales from the Lantern: During college, Jeff Smith produced a series of comic strips that serve as a beta-version of the Bone series, though with the Bone cousins Fone and Phoney as supporting cast members and Thorn as the main character. The strips correspond with the first 28 issues of the Bone series, and was collected as a trade paperback after Smith graduated in 1989. It sold merely a thousand copies, and is currently out of print. It can still be found for sale online, however.
Rose (with Charles Vess)
Stupid, Stupid Rat Tails: The Adventures of Big Johnson Bone, Frontier Hero (with Tom Sniegoski and Stan Sakai) |
1883_22 | Bone: Tall Tales: The story shows Smiley and Bartleby after the events in the main series. It features them telling tall tales to three Hone brothers (Ringo, Bingo and Todd). It is a repackaging of Stupid, Stupid Rat Tales, including a Disney Adventures short and new material. It was released on August 1, 2010. This spin-off mainly focuses on Big Johnson Bone's (ancestor to the Bone cousins) adventures, some time before the cousins' adventures in the Valley, though there is one short with Fone and Phoney follow a 'treasure map', which is later revealed as a joke by Thorn, who wanted the two to do the laundry. One story with Big Johnson Bone depicts his discovery of the Valley with his monkey, Pip. In Bone Vol. 7, Ghost Circles, Bartleby mentions that before Rat Creatures had "long, beautiful, hairless tails", which have to be cut off when the Rat Creature reaches one year of age, out of fear that they will dragged away by their tails by a monster named Jekk. In Tall Tales, the Jekk is |
1883_23 | revealed to be Big Johnson Bone, who swung them around by their tails when they attacked him, and due to this (and the fact the Queen and her son had their tails removed by Big Johnson) they decided to cut their tails so they could never be used against them again. In this, the Royal Rat Creatures grow to be quite large, possibly explaining Kingdok, the Rat Creature ruler, to be of such great size comparatively to the other Rat Creatures. The Red Dragon also appears in the story. |
1883_24 | Bone Handbook is a 128-page handbook that chronicles the series and is accompanied by sketches, interviews, etc. The book was released in February 2010.
Bone: Legacy, a trilogy of illustrated prose novels, written by Tom Sniegoski, following the adventures of new Bones in their quest in the Valley. The first volume, Quest for the Spark, was released on February 1, 2011. A few of the characters from the original series are in the story, such as the Two Stupid Rat Creatures and Roderick the Raccoon, from the fifth trade paperback collection, Rock Jaw, Master of the Eastern Border. Thorn Harvestar and Gran'ma Ben are also in the trilogy. And in the book, the Bone cousins are mentioned in passing, though have no major part in the volume. Part II: Quest for the Spark was released on February 1, 2012. The story continues from Part 1 against the Nacht, a dark creature that puts nearly everyone in the Valley to sleep. Part III was released on February 1, 2013. |
1883_25 | Special one-shots
Bone: Holiday Special ("Hero" Premiere Edition, 1993, Warrior Publications, 14 pages)
This was a Hero Premiere Edition bundled with Hero Illustrated magazine. It includes a short story where the Bone cousins celebrate Winter Solstice, and also a Jeff Smith interview and sketches. It is featured in the Crown of Horns collection and the final issue of the series.
Bone No. 13 ½ (Jan 1995, Wizard, 28 pages)
This was a free comic book mail-in offer through Wizard magazine. As was also common with Wizard magazine comic offers, there was a special gold foil cover variant where the Bone title on the cover is embossed in gold foil. It came in a rigid mylar sleeve and a certificate of authenticity. There is a short story that fits in between No. 13 and 14 of the regular series, and is included in Bone Vol. 2: The Great Cow Race. This special also includes a Jeff Smith interview and sketches. |
1883_26 | Bone Sourcebook (1995, Image Comics, 16 pages with wrap-around cover)
This was a free promotional book given out at 1995 San Diego Comic-con and it also polybagged with Wizard magazine. This sourcebook was published to celebrate the move of the Bone series from self-publishing to Image Comics, where it stayed for only 7 issues before Jeff Smith took it back to self-publishing.
It includes an introduction by Jeff Smith & biography, character profiles, color poster by Jim Lee, story timeline, upcoming storyline, and shipping schedule. |
1883_27 | Bone No. 1 Tenth Anniversary Edition (2001, Cartoon Books)
To celebrate its 10-year anniversary, a special color edition of Bone No. 1 was released with a free collectible Fone Bone PVC figure and a full color Phoney Bone Gazillion dollar bill. This special edition included a new cover, a new afterword by Jeff Smith, and an illustrated eight-page commentary by comics historian R. C. Harvey, and the original artwork was digitally remastered in full color.
Bone CODA (2016, Cartoon Books)
To celebrate its 25-year anniversary, Cartoon Books released BONE: CODA, a 120-page graphic novel that includes a 32-page short story featuring the Bone cousins returning to their home town of Boneville after the events of the last issue of BONE series.
Characters |
1883_28 | Main characters |
1883_29 | Fone Bone: The hero of the series, Fone Bone is the most courageous of the Bones but also the youngest. He and his cousin Smiley Bone help their other cousin Phoney Bone escape from Boneville after he upset the villagers, and get stuck in the Valley. He is passionate about his favorite book, Moby-Dick, and is the most level-headed and the smartest of the three Bone cousins. He has an unrequited crush on Thorn Harvestar. Fone Bone is very wary of his cousin Phoney's schemes, and always suspects him of something. The suspicion usually turns out right, and Fone is often angered by Phoney not seeming to care about the Valley (or the people in it), as Phoney constantly tries to leave to return to Boneville. After the Hooded One realizes Phoney Bone is not the person she needs to complete her ritual to revive Mim, the queen of the dragons, and realizes that Thorn is too powerful for her to control, she then seeks Fone, for in Ghost Circles, Vol. 7 of the series, it is revealed that Fone has |
1883_30 | the Locust inside him too, which likely came from either his encounter in Rock Jaw, Master of the Eastern Border, when he is knocked off a cliff, or in Old Man's Cave, when he rescues Thorn from the locusts by putting the Dragon Necklace on her. It is later taken out in Ghost Circles by Thorn, who takes it herself, because she was told to by her dead mother in a Ghost Circle. Fone remains unaware of this until Crown of Horns, when they try to destroy the locust by touching the sacred Crown of Horns. He saves the day by touching the Crown of Horns while holding Thorn's hand, who is incapacitated on the ground, stuck in Kingdok's jaws, whom she killed. There they are given a choice to live or die (there is a bright light, supposedly the afterlife/heaven); both choose 'live'. Thorn and Fone are both given pieces of the Crown of Horns as teeth which were knocked out in a fight with Tarsil's followers. The teeth apparently cause rapid healing of their injuries. |
1883_31 | His name is derived from Fonebone, the recurring surname that Don Martin gave to many of the characters that appeared in his Mad magazine strips. Wizard magazine ranked Fone Bone as the 28th-greatest comic book character of all time. IGN also ranked Fone Bone as the 60th-greatest comic book hero of all time, stating that "his good nature and his unrequited love for his ally Thorn make Fone the heart and soul of this fantastical book." |
1883_32 | Phoncible P. "Phoney" Bone: Manipulative and greedy, Phoney Bone is the eldest and least courageous of the Bones and he will do anything to get rich. Run out of Boneville by an angry mob of villagers after trying to run for mayor of Boneville, his greediness and selfishness make an enemy of anyone who crosses him in the Valley. Referred to by the Hooded One as "The One Who Bears The Star" (due to the star on the T-shirt he wears), Phoney is sought after by the Rat Creature army though he does not know why (later it is revealed that the Hooded One erroneously believed a giant balloon of Phoney used in his campaign for mayor of Boneville that fell in her lair to be an omen that Phoney could be used to fulfill her agenda). Though he is selfish, he is very protective of his cousins when he needs to be and shows he really cares about them. For example, when he is approached by The Hooded One who proceeds to threaten Fone Bone, Phoncible becomes angry and warns The Hooded One to stay away |
1883_33 | from Fone. A monologue he delivers late in the series reveals that his greed and selfishness are the result of his having been forced to raise Fone and Smiley after they were orphaned, forcing him to resort to dirty schemes to provide for them. At the end of the series he finally displays a courageous side, appearing to retreat from the final battle only to return with armed reinforcements; though they arrive too late he still claims to be a hero. |
1883_34 | Smiley Bone: The tallest of the Bones, the middle cousin and arguably the least intelligent, he plays a one-string instrument resembling a lute (but variously referred to throughout the series as a "banjo" or "guitar"). Smiley is often seen smoking a cigar, and often irritates characters with his simple-mindedness, even when seeking to help people, as when Lucius refers to Smiley's help as "torture". He takes kindly to a Rat Creature cub, whom he names Bartleby, and through his nurturing of Bartleby, depth is revealed in his character. When he and his cousins were children, Phoney made him steal pies off windowsills, because he was the tallest, and apparently they were poor to the point where they could not afford food. Phoney mentions that when he became rich, Smiley made him pay everyone back. Phoney Bone always employs Smiley in his scams, like in the great cow race (The Great Cow Race). Sometimes Smiley shows a penchant for intelligence, as when, in Bone Vol. 9 Crown of Horns, he |
1883_35 | devises a plan during the siege of Atheia. The plan is to feed the two stupid Rat Creatures (whom Smiley captured as they tried to infiltrate the city) quiche, then let them go "accidentally", so the Rat Creatures would tell their leaders that Atheia could withstand the siege, under the logic that if they could feed their prisoners quiche, they presumably have enough food to feed themselves making a siege hopeless. Smiley also has his serious, sad moments, as when, at the end of the story, he mourns Lucius, and expresses sadness at leaving the Valley. |
1883_36 | Valley characters
Thorn Harvestar
Seemingly a simple farm girl, it is soon revealed that she is heir to the throne of Atheia. She is also a "Veni-Yan-Cari" (the awakened one), one who can see into the "dreaming", a kind of parallel existence, or "spirit world". Thorn has excellent courage as well as fantastic powers, such as escaping through a landslide blindfolded, flying, and jumping a castle wall without injuring herself. In a sense she can do anything if she can "concentrate her dreaming". Fone Bone falls in love with her at their first meeting.
She starts off sweet and innocent, but later in The Dragonslayer, when the seriousness and reality of everything dawns on her, she takes on a more mature and tougher personality. |
1883_37 | Rose "Gran'ma" Ben (born Rose Harvestar)
Thorn's grandmother, a tough-as-nails farmer who races against cows on foot as a hobby, and always wins. An immensely strong person, it is revealed that she is the former Queen of Atheia who escaped to Barrelhaven with Lucius Down to protect and safeguard Thorn. |
1883_38 | Lucius Down |
1883_39 | A large, gruff, older man who was described as over seven feet tall and over 300 pounds. Lucius was so powerful he could scare even Euclid into submission. He runs the Barrelhaven Tavern, and was the foil for almost all of Phoney Bone's schemes. In the later books we find that Jonathan Oaks was like a son to him. He was previously Captain of the Queen's guard and it was hinted he had a history with Gran'ma Ben, only to reveal later that he had 'picked the wrong girl', instead falling in love with her sister, Briar, whose motive in the affair was to hurt Rose. He was later in love with Rose Harvestar. Before the Rat Creatures destroy his tavern, he relocates to Old Man's cave, where he becomes Captain of an ill-equipped infantry of Barrelhaven farmers. After the volcano erupts, he leads the farmers and Veni Yan south, arriving in time for the battle on Sinner's Rock. When the Hooded One prepares to kill Rose, Lucius grabs onto her just as she is destroyed; the resulting surge in power |
1883_40 | kills Lucius. His body is later taken north and buried behind the rebuilt Barrelhaven Tavern. |
1883_41 | The Great Red Dragon
The son of the great dragon Mim, The Great Red Dragon is often Fone Bone's last-minute savior. The Red Dragon appears when he is most needed. Gran'ma Ben does not trust him, regardless of how many times he has saved her or her friends from harm. The Great Red Dragon seems to be incredibly ancient. In a sequence that shows the land during the Dragons' reign, supposedly the beginning of time, the Great Red Dragon can be seen fighting Mim along with other dragons. As said in the prequel Stupid, Stupid Rat Tails, he is Mim's son and he was part of the group that trapped her in stone when the Valley was made. He took care of Thorn during the Great War while Rose searched for a place for them to hide. He is also seen at the end of Stupid, Stupid Rat Tails during the time of Boneville's founding by Big Johnson Bone. Fone Bone indicates that he has a baritone voice. |
1883_42 | The dragon itself does not appear to have a name, beyond "The Great Red Dragon". If he has one, it is unknown to anyone but himself.
Jonathan Oaks
A small, often outspoken villager who works for Lucius at the Barrelhaven, and views Lucius as a hero. He was saved from an ambush from the rat creatures in Old Man's Cave after being wounded severely. It was then thought/hinted largely that he did not survive the wounds in Ghost Circles, but in Treasure Hunters it is mentioned he possibly did survive. |
1883_43 | Wendell
One of Lucius' tough "bar-room boys" and the tinsmith of Barrelhaven. Outspoken in the early issues (he and Euclid have more than once threatened to trounce Phoney Bone), he becomes more introverted once the reality of the war presents itself. He often changes sides and his mind. He goes from hating the Bones and stick-eaters to following them, then hating the Bones again. He seems to be a powerful ally to have in his village and is often followed by the villagers when he changes sides. Despite his skinny appearance, he is implied to be just as strong as Euclid.
Euclid
Along with Jonathan and Wendell, one of the "bar-room boys". He is depicted as very large and muscular, and often wishes to resort to physical force to solve problems. He is consumed by a ghost circle after the volcano explosion, but returns after Thorn destroys the ghost circles. |
1883_44 | Rory
A third bar-room boy. Is almost always present near Wendell, Euclid, and Jonathan, but rarely speaks. None of his comments give much of a hint to his personality. It is implied that he is a total follower with little or no influence.
Ted
A helpful Acanalonia bivittata, or planthopper, who appears as a recurring supporting character. Often mistaken for a leaf, Ted is the first creature Fone Bone encounters when he enters the valley and the two become fast friends. He harbors a strange link to the Red Dragon and has an older brother who is several hundred times his size. He is able to perform magical enchantments and has the ability to detect Ghost Circles.
Miss Possum
A female opossum who is the mother to the three possum kids, she is likewise a caring, motherly figure to everyone in the valley. She often has something to give to Fone Bone when she sees him, such as sealing putty, which Fone mistakenly eats a little of. |
1883_45 | The Possum Kids
Three young opossums with a thirst for adventure. They have a knack for getting into trouble which then Fone Bone saves them from, but they are resourceful and cunning, and play a significant part in Rock Jaw. The possums look suspiciously like Pogo the possum from Walt Kelly's comic strip. |
1883_46 | Mountain creatures
The Hooded One (Briar Harvestar) |
1883_47 | Servant of the Lord of the Locusts, Kingdok's superior, and the main antagonist. It is implied that The Hooded One is a former Veni Yan warrior, as she wears a similar robe and hood. It is later revealed that the Hooded One is Briar Harvestar, the elder sister of Gran'ma Ben and the grand-aunt of Thorn. It is heavily implied that her antagonism is based on nothing more than jealousy of Rose, who was apparently her mom's favorite between the two and had the affection of Lucius. When the Rat Creatures invaded in the great war, she betrayed the Royal family by showing the Rat Creatures the secret escape passage Thorn had used to escape the palace. When the King, Thorn's father, learned of this betrayal, he cut her in half with an abandoned harvesting scythe, which the Hooded One now carries as a weapon that can now cut through steel and rock. Briar was possessed and resurrected by a swarm of locusts. She is killed when her master, the Lord of the Locusts, is destroyed. It is suggested by |
1883_48 | some of her actions throughout the storyline that being the servant of the Lord of the Locusts drove her insane. |
1883_49 | Kingdok |
1883_50 | A giant rat creature, ruler of the horde of rat creatures and lackey of the Lord of the Locusts. Although he is ego-maniacal and cruel, he is prone to superstition and easily manipulated by The Hooded One. He carries a golden spiked club around with him, until Thorn cuts off his right arm. Roque Ja at one point attacks Kingdok and rips out his tongue, which he keeps as a trophy. A possible continuity error is that while Roque Ja is bragging about owning the tongue, Kingdok cannot speak, but later speaks clearly to the Hooded One; after that, he attempts to say "kill you", and it comes out "gill yoo", just as one would speak without a tongue. This may be an effect of the Hooded One's power; while the Hooded One is alive he can speak, but after she is destroyed he cannot. Afterwards, Kingdok spends most of his time lumbering about underground to reach the Crown of Horns. At the end of the novel, he faces Thorn before she can touch the Crown of Horns. Having been stripped of his |
1883_51 | authority, dignity, and physical health over the course of the series, he demands that Thorn face him in a life or death battle. He reveals that he had been the one to kill her parents by eating them, and proceeds to bite Thorn's leg when she tries to get around him. He dies when Thorn stabs him shortly thereafter. |
1883_52 | Fone Bone's Two Rat Creatures
Two rat creature soldiers, one blue, one brown, who have a particular interest in devouring the Bone cousins, and Fone Bone in particular. The two are rather incompetent, once deserting the army after their disobedience costs Kingdok his arm and later allying with the Bones briefly before returning to their own side. They address each other as "comrade". Fone Bone is the one who dubs the two "Stupid, Stupid Rat Creatures", most commonly when they are hanging off the side of a cliff. Occasionally other characters also refer to them as such. Fone Bone is also usually credited with coining the term "Rat Creatures" itself; however, he actually got the name from the possum kids.
In Rat Creature tradition only royalty are allowed to have names, but in the spin-off novels "Quest for the Spark" two young Bones gave them the names "Stinky" and "Smelly". |
1883_53 | As it stands, the proper name of their species appears to be Hairy Men. Named after some incidents where one, or both, clearly emphasize their title, they in turn call Fone Bone "Small Mammal". In a running gag throughout the series, the brown rat creature often suggests cooking Fone Bone in a quiche. The other rat creature then flies into a rage, insisting that 'dainty pastry foods' are 'unfit for monsters', and that they should eat him in a stew—though he did once in a fit of anger declare an intention of eating Fone Bone raw, and on another occasion, when they were starving, told his comrade that he would not mind some of his home-made quiche. Later, Fone Bone himself delivered to the two some 'piping hot quiche' when he found them shivering in a bush after the Hooded One's defeat. They also have a major role in Quest for the Spark. |
1883_54 | Bartleby |
1883_55 | A purplish baby rat creature found by Fone Bone and adopted as a pet by Smiley Bone (who also gave him his name). After the Bones' first encounter with Roque Ja, Bartleby returns to the fold of the Rat Creatures, though is out of place there and returns to the Bones later after growing a little. He became a good friend to Smiley and when they left for Boneville, he went with them. Bartleby was named by Shaenon K. Garrity, for the title character in the short story "Bartleby, the Scrivener" by Herman Melville. Unlike the other Rat Creatures, Bartleby has round ears. He explains that the Rat Creatures are supposed to get their ears cropped and that he ran away before they could do that to him. Bartleby also explains that the first time he ran away from the Rat Creatures was after he got his tail chopped off. He states that all Rat Creatures are born with beautiful, long, hairless tails, but all the Rat Creature cubs have their tails chopped off around the time they turn one year old. |
1883_56 | This is due to their belief that a sort of boogie man named 'The Jekk' will drag them away in their sleep by their tails. In the prequel book Stupid, Stupid, Rat-Tails, we learn that the Bone cousins' forefather 'Big Johnson Bone' is the fabled boogie man they fear, having come to the Valley hundreds of years earlier and fighting the Rat Creatures by swinging them around by their tails. In a sequence depicting the land during the Dragons' rule, Rat Creatures with long tails can be seen in the distance. |
1883_57 | Roque Ja (Rock Jaw)
A huge mountain lion and an adversary to Kingdok who views himself as neutral in the conflict between the humans and the Lord of the Locusts despite lopsided affiliations. He is the guardian of the Eastern Border. His personal views are that there is no such thing as "good" and "evil", only that power matters above all and that friendship and love are meaningless. He despises both Dragons and Rat Creatures but works for the Hooded One in exchange for land and spoils of war. His name is mispronounced as 'Rock Jaw' by the Bone cousins. His size also varies in the books sometimes being smaller than Kingdok to being large enough to fill a huge gap in the mountain side. |
1883_58 | Roderick and the Orphans
Roderick is a young raccoon whose parents were killed and eaten by the two stupid rat creatures. He is the leader of a large group of orphaned animal children living in the mountains. Roderick is the only one named, and the complete group consists of a beaver, a boar, a second raccoon, two birds, a rabbit, a porcupine, a turtle, two snakes, a squirrel, and a chipmunk. Roderick the Raccoon is a main character in the Quest for the Spark, though he is now older and friends with Tom Elm, another main character in the trilogy.
King Agak
The new Rat Creature king in Bone: Legacy, who replaces Kingdok following the latter's death. Like Kingdok, he hates the two Stupid Rat Creatures. After the duo steal a dead squirrel from him, he becomes obsessed with revenge. Agak and his army are starving, and are convinced that they can cure their hunger by eating the Bones. |
1883_59 | Others
The Lord of the Locusts
The unseen dark lord who serves as the source of all conflict in the series. He is an evil, formless "nightmare" trapped inside a mountain, and appears in the form of a locust swarm to his henchmen and followers. He is powerless on his own, and relies on possessing others in order to accomplish his goals. He is even capable of reviving the dead, seen primarily with Briar. He is killed when Fone Bone and Thorn, bearing a piece of the Locust themselves in their souls, touched the Crown of Horns. |
1883_60 | Mim
The benevolent queen of the dragons, considered to be the creator of the valley. She kept the world in balance by putting her tail into her mouth so that her body forms a circle, and perpetually spinning, until she was possessed by the Lord of the Locusts, turning her irrational and violent. The other dragons were forced to turn her to stone to seal the Lord of the Locusts. Her awakening was said to be the end of the world, but when the Lord of the Locusts was destroyed, an aged Mim returned to her function followed by all of the other Dragons besides the Great Red Dragon. |
1883_61 | The Veni Yan ("stick-eaters")
A mysterious clan of hooded warriors, who respect dragons as the supreme rulers of the land. Distrusted by the townsfolk (who came up with the derogatory term "stick-eater") but trusted by Lucius, though often they do not trust him in return. They are loyal to the royal family even after Grandma Ben and Thorn went into exile and immediately recognizes Rose's authority upon her return to the capital. For much of the series, they serve as a channel of communication between the capital, Lucius, Grandma Ben, and Thorn.
Headmaster
The leader of the Venu and most powerful soldier. He is distinguished with a fur vest with bronze tokens. In the series, two appear. The first is the current one who has a feeling that the world is ending. The second one is retired in the city of Atheia and is the headmaster that appears in "Rose". |
1883_62 | Tarsil
The ruthless leader of the Vedu. He is missing an arm and has a large scar down the length of his face, injuries he claims to have obtained while fighting dragons. He wears a large earring on one ear, and his beard in two separate parts each wrapped in a piece of cloth. He does not respect the monarchy of Aethia claiming that the throne is dead, even when Rose and Thorn return. He is killed by Briar in front of his own people, effectively ending his rule. |
1883_63 | The Vedu
A separatist group of Veni Yan who are led by Tarsil. Although they wear similar hoods to the Veni Yan they are distinguishable by the eye on their hoods. The Vedu do not worship, or even respect, dragons, claiming that they have all gone into hiding or are uncaring enough to ignore their people. They have kept order in Aethia for much of the time that Rose and Thorn were in exile, and claim that things are better that way. However, some people disagree and continue to set out dragon shrines, which are forcibly removed by the Vedu.
Reception |
1883_64 | Critical praise
Bone had only six issues published when it was selected for "Palmer's Picks" by Tom Palmer, Jr., who commented that "Smith's artwork is deceptively simple. He doesn't use much flash, yet he is a master of conveying gesture and body language for both humorous and dramatic effect". He also noted that "the series has only recently begun, yet it has been met with enormous amounts of critical praise from people ranging from Will Eisner to Peter David".
Michael Arner from PopMatters.com was initially not impressed with the black and white artwork, and at first disappointed at the ending, hoping for a more conclusive dénouement. However, he ultimately praised the depth of the characterizations and Smith's ability to mix humor and adventure as perfect. |
1883_65 | Bob's Comics Review described the work as "Tolkienesque" in its compulsive progression from a simple comic tale to a sprawling epic. Although critical of the earlier issues, the writer came to enjoy the range of writing "from slapstick (the cow race is a classic), to the scary yet hilarious rat creatures, to intimations of high fantasy". Smith's sense of timing was praised as well as the creator's use of the silent panel and "repeated scene with variations of movement or perspective".
In 2004, TIME critic Andrew Arnold called Bone "the best all-ages graphic novel yet published".
In 2011, IGN ranked Bone 60th in the Top 100 comic book heroes. |
1883_66 | Literary controversy
In 2010, a Minnesota parent sought to have Bone banned from all elementary school libraries in the Rosemount-Apple Valley-Eagan School District, citing references in the work to smoking, drinking, and gambling. After a hearing, a school district committee voted 10 to 1 to keep the books on the shelves. Other challenges and controversies that cite racism and political viewpoint as main problems have led to Bone's placement on the 2013 ALA Banned Books List. Smith remarked himself that "Bone was not originally created with children in mind, so I never worried about the fact that children might read them". This being said, the comics are regarded by critics as applicable to any age group. |
1883_67 | The fact that Bone comics are graphic novels also retains criticism. While Smith defends the graphic novel as an art form, and explains how the graphics have the potential to add new elements to a storyline, many critics and readers do not consider them a serious form of literature. |
1883_68 | Awards
1993 Russ Manning Award for Most Promising Newcomer
1993 Eisner Award for Best Humor Publication
1994 Eisner Award for Best Serialized Story: "The Great Cow Race"; Bone #7–11
1994 Eisner Award for Best Continuing Series
1994 Eisner Award for Best Writer/Artist: Jeff Smith
1994 Eisner Award for Best Humor Publication
1995 Eisner Award for Best Humor Publication
1995 Eisner Award for Best Writer/Artist: Humor: Jeff Smith
1995 Eisner Award for Best Continuing Series
1998 Eisner Award for Best Writer/Artist: Humor: Jeff Smith
2005 Eisner Award for Best Graphic Album: Reprint: Bone One Volume Edition
1994 Harvey Award for Best Cartoonist (Writer/Artist): Jeff Smith
1994 Harvey Award Special Award for Humor: Jeff Smith
1994 Harvey Award for Best Graphic Album of Previously Published Work: The Complete Bone Adventures; reissued in color as Bone: Out from Boneville (Scholastic Corporation)
1995 Harvey Award for Best Cartoonist (Writer/Artist): Jeff Smith |
1883_69 | 1996 Harvey Award for Best Cartoonist (Writer/Artist): Jeff Smith
1997 Harvey Award for Best Cartoonist (Writer/Artist): Jeff Smith
1999 Harvey Award for Best Cartoonist (Writer/Artist): Jeff Smith, for his body of work in 1998, including Bone
2000 Harvey Award for Best Cartoonist (Writer/Artist): Jeff Smith
2003 Harvey Award for Best Cartoonist (Writer/Artist): Jeff Smith
2005 Harvey Award for Best Cartoonist (Writer/Artist): Jeff Smith
2005 Harvey Award for Best Graphic Album of Previously Published Work: Bone: One Volume Edition |
1883_70 | Nominations
1993 Eisner Award for Best Writer/Artist: Jeff Smith
1995 Eisner Award for Best Single Issue: Bone #16: "Eyes of the Storm"
1995 Eisner Award for Best Comics-Related Item: Bone figurine, sculpted by Jeff Smith and Randy Bowen
1996 Eisner Award for Best Title for Younger Readers
1998 Eisner Award for Best Continuing Series
1998 Eisner Award for Best Comics-Related Product: Bone Red Dragon cold-cast statue, sculpted by Randy Bowen, based on designs by Jeff Smith
1998 Eisner Award for Best Comics Publication for a Younger Audience
1999 Eisner Award for Best Comics-Related Product/Item: Phoney Bone inflatable
2003 Eisner Award for Best Graphic Album Reprint: Bone vol. 8: Treasure Hunters
2004 Eisner Award for Best Writer/Artist: Humor: Jeff Smith
2005 Eisner Award for Best Comics Publication for a Younger Audience
2006 Eisner Award for Best Coloring: Steve Hamaker, Bone: The Great Cow Race |
1883_71 | 2008 Eisner Award for Best Coloring: Steve Hamaker, Bone (vols. 5 and 6) and Shazam: Monster Society of Evil |
1883_72 | Other media
Cancelled films
In the late 1990s, an attempt was made by Nickelodeon Movies to produce a film adaptation of Bone. Jeff Smith said in a 2003 interview that Nickelodeon wanted the Bone cousins to be voiced by child actors, and wanted the film's soundtrack to include pop songs by the likes of NSYNC. Smith's response was that one would never insert pop songs in the middle of The Lord of the Rings or The Empire Strikes Back, and therefore pop songs should not be placed in Bone either. |
1883_73 | In March 2008, Warner Bros. Pictures bought the film rights to the series. Smith's website confirmed on March 13 that he had made a deal with Warner Bros. to adapt the Bone saga into a film series. Further information was given in July 2011, citing that "two scripts have already been written and rejected—a third is currently in the works and will most likely yield three separate, computer-animated, 3-D films". In January 2012, Patrick Sean Smith, the creator of TV series Greek, was hired to write an adaptation, and that P. J. Hogan was attached to direct the feature, to be produced by Lin Pictures and Animal Logic. In November 2016, Mark Osborne had been hired to direct the animated adaptation for Warner Animation Group. Osborne, along with Adam Kline, were set to write the film, which would have been the first in a planned trilogy. As of 2019, the project has been cancelled in favor of a Netflix series. |
1883_74 | Action figures
In 1996, the toy manufacturer Resaurus released Series One of a Bone action figure line, featuring: Fone Bone with Rat Cub, Thorn, Smiley Bone, and Rat Creature. Five years later, a second line was released with Gran'ma Ben, Phoney Bone, The Hooded One, and a deluxe boxed set of Kingdok. Two exclusive figures were released through the toy and comic magazine Previews: Hooded One (glow in the dark), and Phoney Bone as Ahab. Most recently, in 2007, "Dark Horse Comics Presents" released a statue of Fone Bone, which is limited to 750 pieces and to be sold through Wizard magazine. |
1883_75 | Video games
In 2005, video game studio Telltale Games developed an episodic adventure game series based on the comic. While five episodes were planned, only two were ultimately released. The first episode, Bone: Out from Boneville, was released on September 15, 2005, and the second, The Great Cow Race, on April 12, 2006. Both were available in downloaded or boxed form on Telltale's website for Windows-based PCs. The games were also available via Steam, but were delisted following Telltale's closure.
Novels
Bone: Legacy is a sequel trilogy of novels following the adventures of new Bones in their quest in the Valley. The first installment, Part I: Quest for the Spark, was released on February 1, 2011. The second installment, Part II: Quest for the Spark, was released on February 1, 2012. The third and final installment to the trilogy, Part III: Quest for the Spark, was released on February 1, 2013. |
1883_76 | Animated series
In October 2019, Netflix secured the rights to the comics, and are intending to produce an animated kids' series based on it.
See also
Indie comics
References
External links
Boneville.com – official Bone site
Bone at Don Markstein's Toonopedia. Archived from the original on February 22, 2018.
1991 comics debuts
2004 comics endings
Adventure comics
Fantasy graphic novels
Fantasy comics
Humor comics
Comic book limited series
Eisner Award winners for Best Continuing Series
Eisner Award winners for Best Humor Publication
Image Comics titles
Comics adapted into video games
Comics adapted into novels |
1884_0 | The geology of Romania is structurally complex, with evidence of past crustal movements and the incorporation of different blocks or platforms to the edge of Europe, driving recent mountain building of the Carpathian Mountains. Romania is a country located at the crossroads of Central, Eastern, and Southeastern Europe. It borders the Black Sea to the southeast, Bulgaria to the south, Ukraine to the north, Hungary to the west, Serbia to the southwest, and Moldova to the east. |
1884_1 | Structural geology
Geologists subdivide Romania into several structural groupings:
Scythian Platform: A platform spanning from eastern Romania to Crimea. Complex folding of Precambrian and Paleozoic basement rocks, slate, Ordovician sandstone, Silurian shale, and Devonian marl and sandstone. Platform cover rocks include Devonian limestone, Triassic basic detrital rocks and carbonates, Jurassic marl and sand as well as Neogene shallow water sediments typical of the Carpathian Foreland.
Moesian Platform: Southern part of the Carpathian Foreland, separated from the Scythian Platform by the North Dobogrea Orogen. Basement rocks are metamorphic and date to the Precambrian. It has four cycles of cover rocks, including detrital material from the Paleozoic, Triassic carbonate and shale, Jurassic-Cretaceous carbonates and Eocene calcareous and detrital rocks. |
1884_2 | North Dobogrea Orogen: Separated from the Moesian Platform by the Peceneaga-Camena Fault. Includes several nappe features. The orogen extends offshore into the Black Sea continental plateau |
1884_3 | Carpathian Orogen
The Carpathian Orogen folded belt lies 40 percent within Romania. It includes the Main Tethyan Suture (the deformed remains of the Tethys Ocean crust) between the Foreapulian Block and the continental margin of Europe. The inner zone of the orogen was deformed during the Cretaceous, while the outer zones deformed during the Neogene. The inner zone is overlain by the Transylvanian and Pannonian basin Neogen molasse depressions and an additional molasse from the same period overlies the outer zone. Subduction produced two calc-alkaline magmatic arcs. The Eastern Carpathians consist of two main paleogeographic and structural units. From east to west, they are the inner crystalline zone and the outer Flysch zone. |
1884_4 | Geologic History
The Pan-African orogeny in the late Proterozoic impacted rocks in the Carpathian Forelands. In the Paleozoic, mobile areas formed south and west of the East European Platform, producing the Scythian Platform and the metamorphic rocks of the Carpathians.
Mesozoic (251-66 million years ago)
Rifting began in the early Mesozoic, in the North Dobogrea-South Crimea Aulacogen, likely related to the strike-slip movement of the Tornquist-Teysseire Lineament. Ocean rifting through the Triassic separated Europe from the Preapulian Block. As the spreading of the Tethys Ocean continued, the Moesian Platform was rotated to the northwest and North Dobogrea experienced compression. The crust began to shorten and compress in the area of the Carpathian Mountains, as the Transylvanian nappe formations were obducted onto the edge of the continent. Simultaneously, the North Dobogrea orogenic belt became part of the stable craton of the Carpathian foreland. |
1884_5 | Cenozoic (66 million years ago-present)
In the early Paleogene, as the Tethys Ocean closed the Moldavian and Pienidian domain experienced flysch sedimentation and became deformed during the Miocene. Subduction of Tethys Ocean crust led to calc-alkalkine volcanism in the Senonian through the Paleocene and again in the Apuseni Mountains in the Neogene.
The opening of the Black Sea, forced the increasingly deformed Moesian Platform to the west and molasse basins developed around the rising Carpathians in the Neogene.
Natural resource geology
Some of the oldest resources in Romania are Archean-age Kyrvoirog-type iron ores in Dobogrea or others from the Paleozoic, situate in the Carpathians. Precambrian rocks also contain polymettalic copper, zinc and lead ores, gold from metamorphic rocks. Gold-silver deposited hydrothermally in the Neogene, while porphyry copper formed through the Paleocene in calc-alkaline arc of the South Carpathians and Apuseni Mountains. |
1884_6 | Romania has oil and gas in Moesian and Scythian platform cover, coal in Carboniferous, Jurassic, Miocene and Pliocene basins, Miocene salt deposits in the Transylvanian Depression and Carpathians, Lower Jurassic kaolin in the Apuseni Mountains, Jurassic marble, Neogen alabaster and Oligocene-age amber.
History of geological research
Geological research focused on Romania began in the early 19th century and expanded in the second half of the century led by Austrian and Hungarian geologists. L. Mrazec and I. Popescu-Voitesti wrote the first description of Carpathian structural geology in 1905. The Geological Institute of Romania was founded in 1906. In an effort to expand mining and petroleum extraction, a full mapping of the country was completed by 1958.
References |
1885_0 | The Mil Mi-24 (; NATO reporting name: Hind) is a large helicopter gunship, attack helicopter and low-capacity troop transport with room for eight passengers. It is produced by Mil Moscow Helicopter Plant and has been operated since 1972 by the Soviet Air Force and its successors, along with 48 other nations.
In NATO circles, the export versions, Mi-25 and Mi-35, are denoted with a letter suffix as "Hind D" and "Hind E". Soviet pilots called the Mi-24 the "flying tank" (), a term used historically with the famous World War II Soviet Il-2 Shturmovik armored ground attack aircraft. More common unofficial nicknames were "Galina" (or "Galya"), "Crocodile" (), due to the helicopter's camouflage scheme, and "Drinking Glass" (), because of the flat glass plates that surround earlier Mi-24 variants' cockpits. |
1885_1 | Development
During the early 1960s, it became apparent to Soviet designer Mikhail Mil that the trend towards ever-increasing battlefield mobility would result in the creation of flying infantry fighting vehicles, which could be used to perform both fire support and infantry transport missions. The first expression of this concept was a mock-up unveiled in 1966 in the experimental shop of the Ministry of Aircraft's factory number 329, where Mil was head designer. The mock-up designated V-24 was based on another project, the V-22 utility helicopter, which never flew. The V-24 had a central infantry compartment that could hold eight troops sitting back to back, and a set of small wings positioned to the top rear of the passenger cabin, capable of holding up to six missiles or rockets and a twin-barreled GSh-23L cannon fixed to the landing skid. |
1885_2 | Mil proposed the design to the heads of the Soviet armed forces. While he had the support of a number of strategists, he was opposed by several more senior members of the armed forces, who believed that conventional weapons were a better use of resources. Despite the opposition, Mil managed to persuade the defence minister's first deputy, Marshal Andrey A. Grechko, to convene an expert panel to look into the matter. While the panel's opinions were mixed, supporters of the project eventually held sway and a request for design proposals for a battlefield support helicopter was issued. The development and use of gunships and attack helicopters by the US Army during the Vietnam War convinced the Soviets of the advantages of armed helicopter ground support, and fostered support for the development of the Mi-24. |
1885_3 | Mil engineers prepared two basic designs: a 7-ton single-engine design and a 10.5-ton twin-engine design, both based on the 1,700 hp Izotov TV3-177A turboshaft. Later, three complete mock-ups were produced, along with five cockpit mock-ups to allow the pilot and weapon station operator positions to be fine-tuned.
The Kamov design bureau suggested an army version of their Ka-25 ASW helicopter as a low-cost option. This was considered but later dropped in favor of the new Mil twin-engine design. A number of changes were made at the insistence of the military, including the replacement of the 23 mm cannon with a rapid-fire heavy machine gun mounted in a chin turret, and the use of the 9K114 Shturm (AT-6 Spiral) anti-tank missile. |
1885_4 | A directive was issued on 6 May 1968 to proceed with the development of the twin-engine design. Work proceeded under Mil until his death in 1970. Detailed design work began in August 1968 under the codename Yellow 24. A full-scale mock-up of the design was reviewed and approved in February 1969. Flight tests with a prototype began on 15 September 1969 with a tethered hover, and four days later the first free flight was conducted. A second prototype was built, followed by a test batch of ten helicopters. |
1885_5 | Acceptance testing for the design began in June 1970, continuing for 18 months. Changes made in the design addressed structural strength, fatigue problems and vibration levels. Also, a 12-degree anhedral was introduced to the wings to address the aircraft's tendency to Dutch roll at speeds in excess of 200 km/h (124 mph), and the Falanga missile pylons were moved from the fuselage to the wingtips. The tail rotor was moved from the right to the left side of the tail, and the rotation direction reversed. The tail rotor now rotated up on the side towards the front of the aircraft, into the downwash of the rotor, which increased the efficiency of the tail rotor. A number of other design changes were made until the production version Mi-24A (izdeliye 245) entered production in 1970, obtaining its initial operating capability in 1971 and was officially accepted into the state arsenal in 1972. |
1885_6 | In 1972, following completion of the Mi-24, development began on a unique attack helicopter with transport capability. The new design had a reduced transport capability (three troops instead of eight) and was called the Mi-28, and that of the Ka-50 attack helicopter, which is smaller and more maneuverable and does not have the large cabin for carrying troops. In October 2007, the Russian Air Force announced it would replace its Mi-24 fleet with Mi-28Ns and Ka-52s by 2015. However, after the successful operation of the type in Syria it was decided to keep it in service and upgrade it with new electronics, sights, arms and night vision goggles.
Design
Overview |
1885_7 | The core of the aircraft was derived from the Mil Mi-8 (NATO reporting name "Hip") with two top-mounted turboshaft engines driving a mid-mounted 17.3 m five-blade main rotor and a three-blade tail rotor. The engine configuration gave the aircraft its distinctive double air intake. Original versions have an angular greenhouse-style cockpit; Model D and later have a characteristic tandem cockpit with a "double bubble" canopy. Other airframe components came from the Mi-14 "Haze". Two mid-mounted stub wings provide weapon hardpoints, each offering three stations, in addition to providing lift. The loadout mix is mission dependent; Mi-24s can be tasked with close air support, anti-tank operations, or aerial combat.
The Mi-24's titanium rotor blades are resistant to 12.7 mm rounds. The cockpit is protected by ballistic-resistant windscreens and a titanium-armored tub. The cockpit and crew compartment are overpressurized to protect the crew in NBC conditions.
Flight characteristics |
1885_8 | Considerable attention was given to making the Mi-24 fast. The airframe was streamlined, and fitted with retractable tricycle undercarriage landing gear to reduce drag. At high speed, the wings provide considerable lift (up to a quarter of total lift). The main rotor was tilted 2.5° to the right from the fuselage to compensate for translating tendency at a hover. The landing gear was also tilted to the left so that the rotor would still be level when the aircraft was on the ground, making the rest of the airframe tilt to the left. The tail was also asymmetrical to give a side force at speed, thus unloading the tail rotor. |
1885_9 | A modified Mi-24B, named A-10, was used in several speed and time-to-climb world record attempts. The helicopter had been modified to reduce weight as much as possible—one measure was the removal of the stub wings. The previous official speed record was set on 13 August 1975 over a closed 1000 km course of 332.65 km/h (206.7 mph); many of the female-specific records were set by the all-female crew of Galina Rastorguyeva and Lyudmila Polyanskaya. On 21 September 1978, the A-10 set the absolute speed record for helicopters with 368.4 km/h (228.9 mph) over a 15/25 km course. The record stood until 1986, when it was broken by the current official record holder, a modified British Westland Lynx.
Comparison to Western helicopters |
1885_10 | As a combination of armoured gunship and troop transport, the Mi-24 has no direct NATO counterpart. While the UH-1 ("Huey") helicopters were used in the Vietnam War either to ferry troops, or as gunships, they were not able to do both at the same time. Converting a UH-1 into a gunship meant stripping the entire passenger area to accommodate extra fuel and ammunition, and removing its troop transport capability. The Mi-24 was designed to do both, and this was greatly exploited by airborne units of the Soviet Army during the 1980–89 Soviet–Afghan War. The closest Western equivalent was the Sikorsky S-67 Blackhawk, which used many of the same design principles and was also built as a high-speed, high-agility attack helicopter with limited troop transport capability using many components from the existing Sikorsky S-61. The S-67, however, was never adopted for service. Other Western equivalents are the Romanian Army's IAR 330, which is a licence-built armed version of the Aérospatiale SA |
1885_11 | 330 Puma, and the MH-60 Direct Action Penetrator, a special purpose armed variant of the Sikorsky UH-60 Black Hawk. The Hind has been called the world's only "assault helicopter" due to its combination of firepower and troop-carrying capability. |
1885_12 | Operational history
Ogaden War (1977–1978)
The first combat use of the Mi-24 was with the Ethiopian forces during the Ogaden War against Somalia. The helicopters formed part of a massive airlift of military equipment from the Soviet Union, after the Soviets switched sides towards the end of 1977. The helicopters were instrumental in the combined air and ground assault that allowed the Ethiopians to retake the Ogaden by the beginning of 1978.
Chadian–Libyan conflict (1978–1987)
The Libyan air force used Mi-24A and Mi-25 units during their numerous interventions in Chad's civil war. The Mi-24s were first used in October 1980 in the battle of N'Djamena, where they helped the People's Armed Forces seize the capital. |
1885_13 | In March 1987, the Armed Forces of the North, which were backed by the US and France, captured a Libyan air force base at Ouadi-Doum in Northern Chad. Among the aircraft captured during this raid were three Mi-25s. These were supplied to France, which in turn sent one to the United Kingdom and one to the USA.
Soviet war in Afghanistan (1979–1989)
The aircraft was operated extensively during the Soviet–Afghan War, mainly for bombing Mujahideen fighters. When the U.S. supplied heat-seeking Stinger missiles to the Mujahideen, the Soviet Mi-8 and Mi-24 helicopters proved to be favorite targets of the rebels. |
1885_14 | It is difficult to find the total number of Mi-24s used in Afghanistan. At the end of 1990, the whole Soviet Army had 1,420 Mi-24s. During the Afghan war, sources estimated the helicopter strength to be as much as 600 machines, with up to 250 being Mi-24s. Whereas a (formerly secret) 1987 CIA report says that the number of Mi-24s in theatre increased from 85 in 1980 to 120 in 1985.
First deployment and combat
In April 1979, Mi-24s were supplied to the Afghan government to deal with Mujahideen guerrillas. The Afghan pilots were well-trained and made effective use of their machines, but the Mujahideen were not easy targets. The first Mi-24 to be lost in action was shot down by guerrillas on 18 July 1979. |
1885_15 | Despite facing strong resistance from Afghan rebels, the Mi-24 proved to be very destructive. The rebels called the Mi-24 "Shaitan-Arba" (Satan's Chariot)". In one case, an Mi-24 pilot who was out of ammunition managed to rescue a company of infantry by maneuvering aggressively towards Mujahideen guerrillas and scaring them off. The Mi-24 was popular with ground troops, since it could stay on the battlefield and provide fire as needed, while "fast mover" strike jets could only stay for a short time before heading back to base to refuel. |
1885_16 | The Mi-24's favoured munition was the S-8 rocket, the S-5 having proven too light to be effective. The gun pod was also popular. Extra rounds of rocket ammunition were often carried internally so that the crew could land and self-reload in the field. The Mi-24 could carry ten iron bombs for attacks on camps or strongpoints, while harder targets could be dealt with a load of four or two iron bombs. Some Mi-24 crews became experts at dropping bombs precisely on targets. Fuel-air explosive bombs were also used in a few instances, though crews initially underestimated the sheer blast force of such weapons and were caught by the shock waves. The 9K114 Shturm was used infrequently, largely due to a lack of targets early in the war that required the precision and range the missile offered and a need to keep to stocks of anti tank missiles in Europe. After the Mujahideen got access to more advanced anti aircraft weapons later in the war the Shturm was used more often by Mi-24 units. |
1885_17 | Combat experience quickly demonstrated the disadvantages of having an Mi-24 carrying troops. Gunship crews found the soldiers a concern and a distraction while being shot at, and preferred to fly lightly loaded anyway, especially given their operations from high ground altitudes in Afghanistan. Mi-24 troop compartment armour was often removed to reduce weight. Troops would be carried in Mi-8 helicopters while the Mi-24s provided fire support.
It proved useful to carry a technician in the Mi-24's crew compartment to handle a light machine gun in a window port. This gave the Mi-24 some ability to "watch its back" while leaving a target area. In some cases, a light machine gun was fitted on both sides to allow the technician to move from one side to the other without having to take the machine gun with him. |
1885_18 | This weapon configuration still left the gunship blind to the direct rear, and Mil experimented with fitting a machine gun in the back of the fuselage, accessible to the gunner through a narrow crawl-way. The experiment was highly unsuccessful, as the space was cramped, full of engine exhaust fumes, and otherwise unbearable. During a demonstration, an overweight Soviet Air Force general got stuck in the crawl-way. Operational Mi-24s were retrofitted with rear-view mirrors to help the pilot spot threats and take evasive action. |
1885_19 | Besides protecting helicopter troop assaults and supporting ground actions, the Mi-24 also protected convoys, using rockets with flechette warheads to drive off ambushes; performed strikes on predesignated targets; and engaged in "hunter-killer" sweeps. Hunter-killer Mi-24s operated at a minimum in pairs, but were more often in groups of four or eight, to provide mutual fire support. The Mujahideen learned to move mostly at night to avoid the gunships, and in response the Soviets trained their Mi-24 crews in night-fighting, dropping parachute flares to illuminate potential targets for attack. The Mujahideen quickly caught on and scattered as quickly as possible when Soviet target designation flares were lit nearby.
Attrition in Afghanistan |
1885_20 | The war in Afghanistan brought with it losses by attrition. The environment itself, dusty and often hot, was rough on the machines; dusty conditions led to the development of the PZU air intake filters. The rebels' primary air-defense weapons early in the war were heavy machine guns and anti-aircraft cannons, though anything smaller than a 23 millimetre shell generally did not do much damage to an Mi-24. The cockpit glass panels were resistant to 12.7 mm (.50 in caliber) rounds. |
1885_21 | The rebels also quickly began to use Soviet-made and US shoulder-launched, man-portable air defense MANPADS missiles such as the Strela and Redeye which had either been captured from the Soviets or their Afghan allies or were supplied from Western sources. Many of them came from stocks that the Israelis had captured during wars with Soviet backed states in the Middle East. Owing to a combination of the limited capabilities of these early types of missiles, poor training and poor material condition of the missiles, they were not particularly effective. Instead, the RPG-7, originally developed as an antitank weapon, was the first effective countermeasure to the Hind. The RPG-7, not designed for air defense, had inherent shortcomings in this role. When fired at the angles needed to hit aerial targets, the backblast could easily wound the shooter, and the inevitable cloud of smoke and dust made it easy for gunners to spot the shooter's position. |
1885_22 | From 1986, the CIA began supplying the Afghan rebels with newer Stinger shoulder-launched, heat-seeking SAMs. These were a marked improvement over earlier weapons. Unlike the Redeye and SA-7, which only locked on onto infrared emissions, the Stinger could lock onto both infrared and ultraviolet emissions. This enabled the operator to engage an aircraft from all angles rather than just the tail and made it significantly more resistant to countermeasures like flares. In addition the Mil helicopters, particularly the Mi-24, suffered from a design flaw in the configuration of their engines that made them highly vulnerable to the Stinger. The Mi-24, along with the related Mi-8 and Mi-17 helicopters, had its engines placed in an inline configuration in an attempt to streamline the helicopter to increase speed and minimize the aircraft's overall frontal profile to incoming fire in a head on attack. However this had the opposite effect of leaking all the exhaust gasses from the Mi-24's |
1885_23 | engines directly out the side of the aircraft and away from the helicopter's rotor wash, creating two massive sources of heat and ultraviolet radiation for the Stinger to lock onto. The inline placement of the engines was seen as so problematic in this regard that Mil designers abandoned the configuration on the planned successor to the Mi-24, the Mil Mi-28, in favor of an engine placement more akin to Western attack helicopters which vents the exhaust gasses into the helicopter's main rotor wash to dissipate heat. |
1885_24 | Initially, the attack doctrine of the Mi-24 was to approach its target from high altitude and dive downwards. After the introduction of the Stinger, doctrine changed to "nap of the earth" flying, where they approached very low to the ground and engaged more laterally, popping up to only about in order to aim rockets or cannons. Countermeasure flares and missile warning systems would be installed in all Soviet Mil Mi-2, Mi-8, and Mi-24 helicopters, giving pilots a chance to evade missiles fired at them. Heat dissipation devices were also fitted to exhausts to decrease the Mi-24's heat signature. Tactical and doctrinal changes were introduced to make it harder for the enemy to deploy these weapons effectively. These reduced the Stinger threat, but did not eliminate it. |
1885_25 | Mi-24s were also used to shield jet transports flying in and out of Kabul from Stingers. The gunships carried flares to blind the heat-seeking missiles. The crews called themselves "Mandatory Matrosovs", after a Soviet hero of World War II who threw himself across a German machine gun to let his comrades break through.
According to Russian sources, 74 helicopters were lost, including 27 shot down by Stinger and two by Redeye. In many cases, the helicopters with their armor and durable construction could withstand significant damage and able to return to base. |
1885_26 | Mi-24 crews and end of Soviet involvement
Mi-24 crews carried AK-74 assault rifles and other hand-held weapons to give them a better chance of survival if forced down. Early in the war, Marat Tischenko, head of the Mil design bureau visited Afghanistan to see what the troops thought of his helicopters, and gunship crews put on several displays for him. They even demonstrated maneuvers, such as barrel rolls, which design engineers considered impossible. An astounded Tischenko commented, "I thought I knew what my helicopters could do, now I'm not so sure!"
The last Soviet Mi-24 shot down was during the night of 2 February 1989, with both crewmen killed. It was also the last Soviet helicopter lost during nearly 10 years of warfare.
Mi-24s in Afghanistan after Soviet withdrawal
Mi-24s passed on to Soviet-backed Afghan forces during the war remained in dwindling service in the grinding civil war that continued after the Soviet withdrawal. |
1885_27 | Afghan Air Force Mi-24s in the hands of the ascendant Taliban gradually became inoperable, but a few flown by the Northern Alliance, which had Russian assistance and access to spares, remained operational up to the US invasion of Afghanistan in late 2001. In 2008, the Afghan Air Force took delivery of six refurbished Mi-35 helicopters, purchased from the Czech Republic. The Afghan pilots were trained by India and began live firing exercises in May 2009 in order to escort Mi-17 transport helicopters on operations in restive parts of the country. |
1885_28 | Iran–Iraq War (1980–1988)
The Mi-25 saw considerable use by the Iraqi Army during the long war against Iran. Its heavy armament caused severe losses to Iranian ground forces during the war. However, the Mi-25 lacked an effective anti-tank capability, as it was only armed with obsolete 9M17 Skorpion missiles. This led the Iraqis to develop new gunship tactics, with help from East German advisors. The Mi-25s would form "hunter-killer" teams with French-built Aérospatiale Gazelles, with the Mi-25s leading the attack and using their massive firepower to suppress Iranian air defenses, and the Gazelles using their HOT missiles to engage armoured fighting vehicles. These tactics proved effective in halting Iranian offensives, such as Operation Ramadan in July 1982. |
1885_29 | This war also saw the only confirmed air-to-air helicopter battles in history with the Iraqi Mi-25s flying against Iranian AH-1J SeaCobras (supplied by the United States before the Iranian Revolution) on several separate occasions. In November 1980, not long after Iraq's initial invasion of Iran, two Iranian SeaCobras engaged two Mi-25s with TOW wire-guided antitank missiles. One Mi-25 went down immediately, the other was badly damaged and crashed before reaching base. The Iranians repeated this accomplishment on 24 April 1981, destroying two Mi-25s without incurring losses to themselves. One Mi-25 was also downed by an IRIAF F-14A. |
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