"Boneyard" was a charming and delightful series back in the early aughts.

In it, writer/artist Richard Moore tells the story of Michael Paris, the man who inherits a cemetery from his grandfather. He doesn't realize what that cemetery houses, though, and how much angst it would cause him.

The cemetery plays home to a variety of monsters. The townsfolk were expecting Paris to swoop in and help them shut it down to keep their town safe. They prepare a party and a copious number of bribes to ensure the job would get done.

When Paris spends some time with the monsters, he realizes that they're not all so bad, and finds himself caught between the angry mob of villagers and the cemetery filled with ghouls and vampires and skeletons and talking birds, etc.

There's also Abby, the cute vampire who is pleasant, charming, and an immediate love interest for Paris. She's the one on all the covers.

The series is played for laughs, with the "monsters" being the stars of the show. There's a real dramatic narrative underneath it all, but you're going to stay for the gags and learn to love the characters. They're instantly likable, which isn't always an easy thing to pull off.

Moore's art has a bit of that independent 90s feel to it. His inking feels a bit like Jeff Smith's, though not as polished. His characters are distinct and well designed. His storytelling is clear.

He has the occasional off panel, though. Some perspective shots -- arms reaching out to the reader, for example -- can fall flat, but those images are infrequent enough to not detract from the story. His style includes heads that are slightly too large for their bodies, but that occasionally goes too far, too.

In the example above, the local beauty queen is trying to give Paris the key to the city. If you look carefully, you can see where her arms are reaching out in front of those balloons strapped to her chest. It's a perspective shot that went wrong and made her look like a T. Rex.

A Note About Maturity

Moore did more adult comics around the same time, the kind of work that you'd only find the back room of your local comic shop, or on the top shelf wrapped in brown paper.

This series is obviously toned down, though he does play with sexuality throughout the series. There's nothing graphic in here, but the humor is PG-13 at times. It is not, however, the kind of book that ever belonged in the separate adult "Previews" catalog, by any means.

There is no frontal nudity, though, and it's not completely one-sided. Michael Paris keeps losing his pants, too. Sometimes, it takes some demons to pull at them, but still...

Comixology lists the series as being "17+ Only". That's a safe rating. I think you're probably even safe at 15. In this day and age, 13 is probably fine, but your co-parenting mileage may vary.

It's also possible I'm forgetting events in later volumes that would crank that up.

What the Future Held

The book lasted seven collected editions (four issues each) before Moore took a break. He returned for one large issue a couple years later at Antarctic Press, but that's been it for both the series and Moore's career in comics, sadly.

The first book was originally printed in an oversized format. Being published by NBM Press, it matched up nicely with their European albums at the time. Moore's art was the initial draw of the series, so it would make sense to feature it at the larger size.

The problem is, the pages were glued together tightly and it doesn't feel comfortable in your hand when you read it. On my copy, the plastic laminate on the back cover started to peel off, too.

It's great to have the art bigger, but the physical product is disappointing.

It didn't last.

After that, the series shrunk into standard comic sized format. That dropped the price from $12.95 to $9.95 per collection, gave comic shop owners a more conveniently-sized product to put on the racks, and hopefully increase sales.

They tried to give the series a boost by coloring it. They reprinted the first four books in color, and dropped the black and whites. I guess that didn't help enough, because books five through seven returned to black and white.

I have to be honest: The coloring doesn't work on the series for me at all. I give them credit for keeping the colors fairly flat, but the whole scheme feels random. It's too literal and adds nothing to the overall look of the series.

The colors work well to separate elements on the page, but on their own they just don't work for me. Moore's art was, I believe, always meant to be black and white. To convert it to color this directly and this literally is a disappointment.

Read It Today

The good news behind all of this is that the complete series is available digitally. Comixology has all seven trades plus the Antarctic issue. You can also buy print editions of all the volumes through the NBM website.

"Boneyard" is just good fun, with interesting characters. It's not terribly deep, and, yes, Moore does have certain predilections towards the shapes and activities of his characters that might turn some off. But the Abby/Paris relationship is pretty sweet, and the stories pull you in pretty quickly.

"Boneyard" was never terribly popular to begin with. The Direct Market can be harsh sometimes. It's a shame that it's been mostly forgotten today, and even worse that Moore isn't doing comics anymore. Thankfully, the material is still available to buy and read.

Hot Take: Bendis Heads to DC

So, Brian Bendis is now a DC guy.

I'm sure some people will be looking for the scandal in all of this. I saw some of those tweets this morning just as quickly as I could think of them. Some are really grasping for straws to forward their own agendas. It's almost sad.

I have no insider knowledge of the situation, but from the outside it seems pretty simple. As much as Bendis may love the Marvel Universe and the characters he's created in it, he's been working there for more than 15 years now. Sometimes, you want to try something new. I'm sure DC has been checking in with him on a regular basis, and made an offer he couldn't refuse anymore.

We know from interviews over the years that he'd like to write more superheroes, and now he'll get a chance. Of course, he'll be stuck with whatever shape the DC Universe is in once he gets over there, but he's been dealing with that with Marvel for years. He'll figure it out. (Or DC will work with him to do whatever he wants, just like the Scott Snyder/Greg Capullo Batman series seemed mostly unaffected by all the universe changes around it.)

The big unanswered question, to my mind, is where his creator-owned series will go. Marvel's Icon line pretty much existed just for Bendis' books at this point. I guess they can wrap that experiment up. Will Bendis send those books over to Image, or will DC open something up to him? DC isn't usually so big on creator-ownership, just create participation, which Bendis doesn't need.

And, of course, does this mean the CW will try to reboot "Powers" next?

Just think, when Mark Millar woke up this morning, he thought he had today's news cycle all locked up. The world moves fast...

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