Smith has a talent for making very real, very relatable characters. I don't care how long ago this setting is, I can still relate. They are thrown into a setting the Smith knows and has built. It is hard for me to put it into words exactly, but it is masterful storytelling. Especially for the comic/graphic novel way of telling a story. The art is awesome. It is never too much or overpowering. Where in some comics they want to blow you away with some huge scene that looks cool (and it can be at times), nothing here is like that. I love everything about the art and the panels and how it all flows.

The magic aspects didn't seem to do anything other than allow the different characters to speak to each other, and the villains never felt like they were a threat or that they should be perceived as anything other than a nuisance. And the monkey like creature felt like "What if Futurama's Nibbler was in this story for no apparent reason?" Jeff Smith is one of the best dialog writers in independent comics. Over twenty years after its publication, Bone, Vol. 1: Out from Boneville is still one of my top recommendations to people looking for an all-ages graphic novel. I thought RASL, Vol. 1: The Drift was an inventive multiverse sci-fi story for people looking to get away from Marvel & DC comics. Jeff Smith is the man. I don't know what else I can say. I loved Bone: The Complete Edition and I am already very much enjoying this.It’s probably not even the point Smith was trying to make, if he’s trying to make one at all. But the best storytelling does this sort of thing as a matter of course.

But in this book it felt very surfacey. It's not groups of different evolutionary phases interacting, it's one person from each (apart from the three siblings from one phase), so it seems less urgent and dynamic. It comes across as, one guy is afraid of fire, and another is comfortable with it. In 1992, Jeff’s wife Vijaya Iyer joined the company as partner to handle publishing and distribution, licensing, and foreign language publications. In the Spring of 2005, Harry Potter’s U.S. publisher Scholastic entered the graphic novel market by launching a new imprint, Graphix with a full color version of BONE: Out from Boneville, bringing the underground comic to a new audience and a new generation.I highly recommend reading both Tuki: Fight for Fire and Tuki: Fight for Family. These are two very entertaining graphic novels that feature great stories and amazing artwork. Make sure you read to the end of each book. There is so much great information and bonus material on what Tuki is based on, storyboards with artist edition notes, Jeff Smith stories, and more. The lead character represents the most advanced humans of that time, and his greatest innovation and advantage over the older ones is the most celebrated of man’s early accomplishments, the discovery of fire. In Greek myth, where it’s most famous, man stole it from the gods. Here it’s taboo for one branch and a tool for another. The way they interact over this is fascinating. Often, especially today, ideologies often seem insurmountable obstacles. Here they’re at best temporary inconveniences. I was surprised when I found a new Jeff Smith book at the library without having seen any buzz about it on Goodreads or anywhere I browse, really. Maybe it slipped under the radar because it is the revision and expansion of a webcomic that started nearly a decade ago and has been on hiatus for a while. Maybe no one cares because it is more similar to the middling RASL than his super popular Bone series. The premise, that the various phases of early human evolution existing at the same time (something I hadn't thought about until I read Smith's introduction) had complicated relationships, is excellent. I would imagine Smith was completely skilled at this. It's not entirely unlike the Bone universe where you have humans, dragons, and the Bones crossing into each others realms and learning how to interact with each other.