Bone and Lone Wolf

Many years ago, when I was around 18 or so, Mark Edmunson (one of my high school friends) introduced me to the wonderful comic book of Bone. Over the following years, I slowly collected the graphic novels one by one until I owned all nine.

After I got married, I introduced Bone to my wife, who also loved the story. And then we began moving. And moving. And moving. And moving.

All of my Bone books (heck, almost all of my books, for that matter) stayed in boxes for 5-6 years. As we were unpacking a couple of weeks ago, we found the whole set, and I have been slowly working my way through them again. I have even introduced them to my nephew and nieces, with the predictable result of adoration.

As I reflect, I am very grateful for the introduction so many years ago, which has brought great joy to so many people.

Bone rocks.

I'm just sayin'.

And while I'm on the subject? So does Lone Wolf. For those who don't know Lone Wolf, they are adventure gamebooks written long ago that still have a huge following. 

I recall stumbling on Book 4, The Chasm of Doom, at a 5th grade book fair, and I was mesmerized. You got to make a character, and the special abilities were awesome! But I was confused - a few passages asked if I held some object or another, so I read and reread the gamebook over and over again, trying to find those objects. It wasn't until later that I realized that you found those objects in previous books! This was catnip for me! The same character with objects and abilities carried from book to book? Unheard of and amazing!

I still own books 1-15, though every one of them, including the books I do not own, can be found and played online at Project Aon. The creator, Joe Dever, gave permission for all of his books to be put for free in HTML format in order to keep the love alive. Yay!

I still go back and reread the whole series from Book 1 to Book 20, plus other series in the same world using different characters, online every few years because they are still so much fun. The whole thing can be done online, including the random number generation and character sheets. 

If you are bored and need a few days' worth of diversion, go check out Project Aon and (re)acquaint yourself with Lone Wolf, the Kai Lord. It'll be worth it. :)


Current mood: nostalgic