Boneyard v2 cover by Richard Moore (detail)

“Boneyard” by Richard Moore: The Complete Guide

The following article is about a book that is not a European comic. It was, however, published by NBM, a company that published some of the first European comics I read 15 years ago, around the same time they published “Boneyard”. It was a fun booth to peruse in San Diego in the early 2000s for that reason.

We’ll be back to talking about BD tomorrow, I’m sure…

Table of Contents

Setting It All Up

Book By Book

Cast of Characters

Further Links and Notes

Back to the Boneyard

Boneyard logo

Richard Moore’s “Boneyard” is a series that lasted a couple dozen issues in the early 2000s through NBM before going on an “indefinite hiatus.”

I enjoyed it a lot in its early days, but trailed off.  It surprised me to find it on comiXology recently.  It lasted all the way to a seventh trade paperback, and then one issue after that.  I only have the first five trades.

That’s all the excuse I needed to do a grand re-read — and catch-up! Each trade is only four issues long, the stories flow quickly from one to another, and it’s a generally agreeable read.  Characters are fun to follow, even the ones who are petty world-conquering demons or crazy cool werewolves, or sexually-obsessed creatures from a lagoon of an unknown color. They’re all strong personality types who live together and get into funny situations.

“Boneyard” is a monster sit-com/romance.  Think “Moonlighting” or “Friends,” but Bruce Willis might be a golem and Courtney Cox is a vampire.  Something like that.

What’s It All About?

Two things happen throughout this book.  First, there’s always a sense of humor.  Even when the drama reaches a peak, there’s a strong sense of humor behind it.  There’s plenty of gags at the expense of the monsters, plus some regular situational and personality-driven yucks. It’s not ground-breaking, but it is a lot of good fun.

Michael Paris and Abbey, flirtatious and ever
Michael Paris and Abbey, flirtatious and ever

The other thing that dominates the book is the Will They/Won’t They relationship between Michael Paris, the human in the story, and Abbey, the cute petite vampire.  It’s an awkward romance-at-first-sight, and only gets more awkward as things go along. It doesn’t get annoying, but Moore does milk it for all its worth.

Part of the humor of the situation is how far they go without pulling the trigger, so to speak. They’re a cute couple of kids, and if this book were running today, they’d be stars of Tumblr.

How Adult Is It?

In my relatively recent review at ComicBook.com, I mentioned that the first volume seemed pretty tame for the 17+ Mature Reader rating that comiXology labels it with.  After reading the rest of the trades, though, I can see where the rating comes from.

I’ve written and rewritten this section of this article a half dozen times, trying to be honest about the book’s material without scaring people away or making it sound like a sleazefest. It’s not. “Boneyard” has a lot of heart to it. It’s all about the relationships of the characters, playing with the tropes of their genres, and having fun along the way.

Yes, it does include a lot of innuendo and double entendres and teasing about sex — relationships, breast sizes, activity levels, etc.

Richard Moore is an erotica artist who happens to draw a no-frontal-nudity humor/horror book here.  He plays with the sexuality a lot.  There’s nothing mean or violating in here, save for one particular origin story that is definitely not played for laughs in any way. It’s all in good two-dimensional fun otherwise.  It’s double entendres and playful banter and juvenile humor. “Boneyard” is a romance book that doesn’t avoid some school yard or back-of-the-bar humor.

But there’s still a strong heart to the book, mostly in the relationship between Abbey and Michael that the whole book is built around.  The supporting characters are mostly cartoon characters. They’re strong characters, easily defined.  That doesn’t make them bad.  It might not win them any literary awards, but it is certainly fun.

There’s no frontal nudity or erotic situations in the book, yet the whole thing is dripping with sex.  Nessie’s big breasts and lascivious libido are referenced an awful lot.  The Swimsuit Issue — yes, it’s part of the story, but still… — features very little being left to the imagination. Moore doesn’t pass up a chance to stick someone’s butt or large chest in your face.

There’s not much in the way of bad language, but the constant presence of that material justifies that rating. It’s juvenile and brash, at times, but I don’t think it’s offensive or disgusting.

It’s not coarse, just blunt and playful.  It won’t play well to all audiences, but Moore defines the characters perfectly to carry these attitudes, so it works.

Breaking Down the Volumes

With that all said, let’s look at the seven volumes of the series so far, plus the one shot that came afterwards.

But, first, a little background:

A Quick Publishing History

Originally, NBM printed the compilation book in an oversized format.  NBM also published some European albums at the time.  They knew the larger page size, and they used it for this book to help show off Moore’s art.  It works great.  The pages are a solid heavy stock.  The black inks are deeply black. The book, itself, is a little tight in the binding, with some art inside pushed behind the bend of the pages.  It’s a trade-off I’m willing to take for the larger paper size, though.

Unfortunately, it didn’t last.  They went to a standard comic size trade paperbacks after the first volume.

One more thing: The clear plastic laminate on the cover is peeling away from the back cover on my copy.  That’s a mess.  It’s also the only book that has ever happened to me with.

lamination peeling off the cover of Boneyard v1

Three pages of character design sketches round out the book, including this tantalizing note: “At one point, Abbey was to have her own series, set in various points in history.”  That’s next to a drawing of her wearing pirate garb.  If Moore wanted to return to comics tomorrow, he should go straight to that book.

The ironic part of the sketchbook is the note that Edgar’s black feathers should be indicated as simply as possible.

This is an example of what Edgar looks like in the final book:

Edgar the bird from Richard Moore's Boneyard is highly detailed

He ends up being the most detailed, inkiest character in the book.  What’s the old line about war plans only working until first engagement with the enemy?

Colorizing Boneyard

At some point, they started issuing the trades in color. I think they were testing the market at a time when many considered black and white the death of a comic in the market. (This might have been around the same time “Bone” started its color conversions, too.)

It must not have worked out, because the color volumes stopped at four. I’m guessing that sales didn’t justify it.

Boneyard cast in color

I only own the first book in color. To be honest, I don’t think the color works on it too much. It doesn’t make anything “pop” to the reader. It’s too simple and a little too literal in its color choices.  With a different style, it might have worked. But I’m fine with Moore’s black and white art, too. It doesn’t need the coloring.

Interestingly, the colors are copyright to NBM, while Richard Moore takes the copyright for the series. I’m guessing that means NBM paid for the coloring, thinking that it would boost sales. If he wanted to reprint the book in color in the future without NBM, Moore would need to recolor it. Or, the new publisher would have to license the old colors from NBM, which would be counterproductive, I’d think. Better to start over.

Volume 1

Boneyard v1 by Richard Moore covers

Front and back cover of the print black and white edition on the left. Digital color cover on the right.

Michael Paris inherits a cemetery from his grandfather.  Upon his arrival, he gets caught up between the townsfolk who want to evict the current cemetery residents, and those residents, who are monsters with nowhere else to go.  They seem like pretty nice folks, overall, though.

Who has whipped the town up into such a fury?  What secret is the Mayor hiding that drives this attack?

And who is that cute vampire who appears to like Michael?

It’s a great introduction to the world of Boneyard.  It sets everything up quickly.  It gives us immediate drama with a strong ticking time bomb.  Every character gets a chance to have a moment, but Michael Paris and Abbey are the clear stars.

If the book didn’t sell enough to justify another issue, this standalone book would be a nice complete package.

Volume 2

Boneyard v2 by Richard Moore covers

A meeting with the tax man proves disastrous for Paris.  He’s in over his head in debt to Uncle Sam., in addition to being broke.

Michael Paris owes the tax man a lot of money.

Michael visits Abbey’s home, Nessie makes her move on Michael, Glump has professional jealousy of a fellow demon from hell, Glump also has the solution to the money problem (to be played out in the next book), and the cemetery folks put on a show for the town:

It’s a monster boxing match to raise money to fix up parts of the town their antics helped destroy previously. Oh, and Roxanne Allen steps up to offer to buy the cemetery to save Michael the financial burdens it’s put him under.  She’ll use her feminine wiles and more to get what she wants.  She will come to the fore in the next volume.

And we really get going on the running gag that is Michael’s car’s frequent destruction.

That’s one of the things I like about this series.  There’s always a main plot thread or two, but with such a large cast, Moore can explore different characters and give them time in the spotlight for short gags and moments.  Any character in the book could be your favorite, so it’s good that Moore works so hard to give each some time to do something.

Glump, despite his world-conquering aspirations, has moments of sincere regret and sadness. He needs the occasional compliment to keep going.   Abbey opens herself up to Michael more than she probably has anyone else in quite a long time. And Ralphie gets just a little too confident for his own good.

Everyone gets a moment, and that keeps the whole cast interesting.

Volume 3

Boneyard by Richard Moore v3 color and black and white covers
Original print cover on the left, color edition cover on the right. The credits are more readable in the black and white edition.

Glump has a diabolical plan to raise the funds needed to save the cemetery from its half million dollar tax bill.  A swimsuit issue!  It’s the second issue in this volume.  The first issue is all of the characters on the beach making the special.  That gives Moore plenty of opportunities to milk the humor out of the monsters on the beach alongside the different points of views of the characters.  Nessie can’t wait to wear next to nothing.  Abbey is comfortable with anything, but her personality is a little more demure and conservative. Of course, the two will clash.

Also, Abbey uses SPF 1000 sunblock to get through the shoot as a vampire.

Abbey and Nessie have awful bathing suit choices from Glump
This is what happens when you let the demon pick out swimsuit options….

Richard Moore goes all the way on this one. Not only does the story include the making of the special and why it’s so important, but it also includes the special in its entirety.  It’s a full 22 pages, with lots of humor in the captions.  He can have his cake and eat it too, this way.

They’re not around so much anymore, but “Swimsuit Issues” were big in the 80s and 90s.  “Amazing Heroes” did them.  Marvel Comics did them.  Wildstorm did one in the earliest days of Image Comics. I think there was even a “Ninja High School” Swimsuit Special.  By the early 2000s, it’s a cute throwback joke that plays to Moore’s sensibilities as an artist.

When the swimsuit issue plot device doesn’t work out as originally planned, Michael has to go back to Roxanne and re-consider her offer to buy him out.  But Abbey doesn’t trust Roxanne.  Is that for a good reason?  Or pure jealousy?

Michael and Abbey skinny dipping in the ocean
After the shoot, Michael and Abbey enjoy a relaxing skinny dip..

Or is the series, at this point, already lapsing into a pattern of “the new character will be revealed to be a bad person who will transform and fight everyone in the end” already?  Yeah, there’s a bit of that, to be sure. This time, there’s a link to Abbey’s past and a credible threat to her health. The final battle in the book is grueling and makes us of all the magical powers you’d expect from it.

It’s a strong volume in the series

Flashback: I originally reviewed this book in 2005.  In those days, issues published quarterly.

Volume 4

Boneyard by Richard Moore v4 color and black and white covers
Original black and white print edition cover on the left, color edition on the right.

This one is a little off-kilter. Once again collecting four issues, there are three different stories going on.

In the first, Glump attempts to create his own Frankenstein’s Monster, with hilarious and unsettling results.  This is a series of gags where Glump has to reign in his creation.  Moore plays it completely for laughs, even when he teases mass destruction.  This is Moore doing almost Wile E. Coyote style blackout gags, and each attempt to save his creation winds up in more bitter Glump defeat.

Paying taxes is hard. Ask Michael Paris.

Meanwhile, Abbey is in recovery from her battle with Roxanne Allen in the last book.  Michael is staying by her side.  And as she recoups, something out of left field happens: Michael’s cemetery finances might be fixed.  But at what cost?

And, then, in the back half, the zombies attack!   As fits a zombie story, we’re given no reason. They just start to rise from the grave at a time when the other citizens of the cemetery are off doing other things in town. Thankfully, Abbey is back to her fighting shape already. She’s going to need to be for this pack of zombie fighters.

Abbey goes against a city of zombies.

Important to the overall mythology of the series, we get the origin story of Nessie. You may not have realized that you wanted it, but you do.  For a character played so strictly for laughs in the book, her “origin” is the most dramatic/tragic moment of the series. If you thought she was unlikable, wait until you read.  You’ll understand her a lot better.

The origin makes her more three dimensional, which is possibly a bad turn of phrase for a character who relies on her boobs so much…

So let’s just say it rounds her out.

Nope, nevermind, let’s move on…

The back of the book includes a few pin-ups of Abbey throughout the years, including one last one where she looks a tad bit like Harley Quinn.

Volume 5

Boneyard by Richard Moore v5 cover with Abbey and the campground slasher shadow

The book begins with an apology.  The cliffhanger of the previous volume wasn’t meant to be a cliffhanger.  The next issue finishes the zombie story.  They include it, instead, in the beginning of this book.  Awkward, but since I’m binge-reading here, it doesn’t affect me now.  (It’s possible the digital or later color versions of the trades straightened this out, but I’m not sure. I only have the original black and white trades here.)

Zombies overrun the city and the gang gets caught in the middle of it all.  They need to figure out where this is all coming from and then stop it. Abbey is always at her best when facing tough opposition and there’s no exception here to that.  This is a  brawl of an issue, but still done with lots of the trademark Boneyard humor.

After that, it’s a storyline custom-made for horror movie fans from the 80s.  Abbey is recruited to catch a serial killer at a nearby summer camp.  She does all the things that traditionally bring such a person out, like taking a shower,  singing around a campfire,  and skinny dipping.  It all ends with another brutal/terrific Abbey fight scene

Skinny dippers realize that they're bait for the killer at the camp

Meanwhile, back at the cemetery, a new villain by the name of Jack — he has a giant pumpkin head — is acting like The Scarecrow and scaring all the monster residents into submission.  This includes Abbey reliving her awful circus days, Brutus confronting his questionable marriage, and Hildy forgetting her spells at a crucial time.  It also turns out that Ralph is hiding a secret of his own…

Jack gets Hildy

This is Moore directly addressing tropes of a horror niche, and creating some funny havoc out of it.  The ending on this one is a particularly strong choice on Moore’s part, I thought, showing Abbey as being both creative, funny, and empathetic. It also gives Michael a chance to shine, and not just being a victim of circumstances.

A boneyard football game, with Abbey as the quarterback

In the middle of all this, there’s also a game of football with the monsters and Paris that’s a fun series of gags.

Looking back, we can see how the series solved over the books.  Michael is an honorary “monster” at this point.  It is far less about him being a fish out of water and learning to cope with the others. There are still surprises and cultural differences, but the series has developed its own mythology and set of villains.  You’ve met everyone, and now they can interact in dramatic ways with hilarious flourishes.

Volume 6

Boneyard by Richard Moore v6 cover

You know what we don’t have enough of in our lives anymore?  You know what’s missing as an annual plot line on our television series?  The annual formal ball in an industry.  I remember it best from the annual Oil Baron’s Ball on “Dallas” in the 80s, but selling tickets to the Policeman’s Ball seem to pop up in a lot of shows of the era, too.

In this volume of the series, Moore sends Abbey and Paris to a Monsters Ball, of a sort.  All monsters show up for the annual ball and must act on their best behavior.  That doesn’t last long once Abbey and Paris see their arch-nemesis, Lilith, attending with Jack, the pumpkin-headed guy from the last book.

Abbey is drunk at the big dance.

Things go wrong, threatening Abbey’s meeting with the Big Boss Guy, and jeopardizing her presence on earth, as well as that of everyone else in the cemetery.  There’s a whole great sequence where Paris and friends are trying to save Abbey from the trouble Lillith caused.  It’s classic sit-com/animated series stuff, and it works well.  This is probably the book that most made me think that “Boneyard” would make a great animated series.  It would have to be on Adult Swim, but that’s OK.

You also get Glump trying to build a killer robot and concocting some virtual reality/”Spock’s Brain” apparatus. Oh, and let’s not forget the hilarious trip to the men’s room at the Monster’s Ball.  It accommodates male monsters of all heights.

For you pop culture fans, this book includes an introduction from a young up-and-comer named Patton Oswalt. It’s short, but sums up the series pretty well.

I wish these books included more sketchbook stuff.  They barely fit four issues into one book as it is, but I like Moore’s pencil stuff, too.  I read in an interview once that he does a lot of his work on the art boards.  Maybe there’s nothing left to put in there.

Volume 7

Boneyard by Richard Moore v7 cover

It’s the seventh and final collection of the NBM series, so you know what that means!  Yes, you need a wedding!  Is it Paris and Abbey?  Of course not! It’s an arranged marriage of faeries that Paris has to stop to save a childhood friend that makes Abbey jealous.

You see, the faerie bride turns out to be Michael’s imaginary childhood friend.  She wasn’t imaginary, turns out.  Now her father the kind has arranged a marriage she doesn’t want, runs to — Michael, of all people.  But faeries and humans don’t get along so well, so this is a war starter.

The battle begins between the cast of Boneyard and a bunch of fierce warriors. It’s a good one, too, with lots of Abbey kicking lots of peoples’s butts, and everyone else getting a funny moment along the way.  It takes up what must have been an entire issue.

Abbey threatens to kill all the faeries if they hurt Michael Paris

Michael takes up a sword, despite having no clue how to wield it.  “I don’t suppose you’d wanna wait here while I go take some lessons?  Shouldn’t take more’n a few years at the most.”

The action then moves to the faerie’s world for the second half of the book.

Thinks get crazy in a hurry over there, starting a large scale war that Moore could only solve, in the end, with the most detailed double page spread in the series’ history.  Although, come to think of it, this might just be the only double page spread ever in the series.

It’s also a great book for seeing the whole cast working together on one adventure.  There’s not a or B- or C-plot in the book. Everyone is together on this one, and that even includes Glump.

There’s also a funny sequence where Moore gives us different interpretations of the cast. It’s Elseworlds Boneyards if they were robots, aliens, cave people, or superheroes.

The ending is appropriate and satisfying, even if it makes you scream that there’s no more.

Boneyard The End Question Mark?

But, wait, there is more!

The Antarctic Press Special: “The Biggening”

Boneyard The Biggening from Antarctic Press cover by Richard Moore

Moore came out of “Boneyard” retirement for a one-off special issue.  Think of it as an annual.

It’s a simple story: Abbey and Michael are now dating.  Michael is horribly insecure.  It’s tough to date a woman with a 2000 year history with some of the strongest, most powerful, and best looking people ever.  That’s been referenced in previous volumes, but here Michael acts on it.

He seeks out advice and help from other monsters in the cemetery, before settling on some magic potion help from Glump, who was the only one who’d help him.   Things go bad later during date night in the restaurant, there’s a big mess, and cleaning it up will be challenging.

It’s a single issue story centered on Michael’s insecurity leading to a bad decision leading to rampant mayhem on date night.  All can be solved through the power of love, though. Sort of. You’ll see.

Glump questions Michael's noodle size and ability
Hey, I never claimed this was high humor…

There are some differences in this issue.  For starters, Moore uses a lot of gray washes throughout the book to provide some hints of shadows. I don’t like how pale the whole thing looks, though.  It looks faded.  Even the solid black areas are overexposed, to the point where you can see the brushstrokes.  I like the idea of using gray tones or washes in a comic, but too much of the effect in this book seems too faint.

Swearing is no longer allowed. There’s an omnipresent bird in the story to fly across the page anytime there needs to be a visual distraction from the naughty words.

It’s one-off story that doesn’t really change anything, but it is good to see the characters in action once again.

Lettering and Logos

We also get new lettering, at last getting rid of the Whizbang-esque font the series relied on up until this point. Moore is still hand-drawing the balloons, though, which provides a good consistency.

To go along with that, the logo on the cover has changed.  I’m not a huge fan of the original logo, but this one doesn’t seem like too big of an improvement, either.  It feels more “fantasy” and the way the letters don’t sit flat on a straight line gives it a nice whimsical/comedic look.  It makes more sense in the context of the series, but I just don’t like the letter forms yet.

Who Is In the Boneyard?

Here’s a quick rundown of the main characters in the series, starting with the big two:

Michael Paris, the human of Boneyard's cast

Michael Paris (he prefers “Paris,” but I’ve already called him “Michael” so many times that I’m not quitting now) is the point of view character for this book.  He’s the human in the middle of a sea of monsters.  He’s unlucky in love, in cars, and in money.  But he’s a good guy who wants to do the right thing.

When he inherits his grandfather’s cemetery and is forced to choose between the “monsters” who live there and the torch-and-pitchfork crowd who want to pave the whole place over, he doesn’t make the obvious/easy solution.

He’s not terribly decisive, which leads to awkward situations with just about every woman in his life.  And he tends to get caught at home in his underwear a lot for some reason. His car is perpetually in the shop, but reappears at the most opportune moments.

He’s a good guy and easy to root for.  Caught up in the middle of a crazy situation with seemingly no easy way out, he adapts to it as best as he can. He’s a good point of view character for the reader, too, helping to provide a “normal” perspective to the far out world of the characters who live together in the cemetery.

Boneyard's Abbey, the cute vampire

Abbey is a vampire who’s lived for a couple thousand years. She and Michael have a thing, and through sit-com-like moves, they can never quite get together.  She’s super strong, but she doesn’t like to show her mean vampire side for fear of losing control or scaring others. She has a good sense of humor and a Rembrandt portrait painting of herself above her bed.  It’s one of the only reminders of an earlier time in her life.  Living forever has its downsides, you know…

She’s the most outwardly-normal of the cast of monsters in the cemetery, and so is the perfect romantic fit for Michael.  She’s had plenty of wild experiences and lived a lot of lives already, but she’s generally calm and friendly. If you prove to be dangerous, though, she can still kick your butt.

Nessie the Boneyard creature from the lagoon, I guess

Nessie is the sea creature with an incredibly high sex drive and really big boobs.  She wants to touch everything she sees, and that includes Michael.  She’s the female version of John Laroquette’s “Night Court” character, Dan Fielding.

She’s a great kickstarter for a lot of the bawdy humor of the series, completely over the top.  As we learn later in the series, though, she has some deep dark issues to work through, and possibly the roughest origin series of any of the characters.

Brutus eats his lobster rare.

Brutus is Nessie’s husband. He’s the gigantic strong man with bolts in his neck.  The Frankenstein’s monster character. He’s not too bright and is quick to anger. You don’t want to mess with him.

We don’t get too know him too well, aside from the Jack issue where we see his deepest fears.  Aside from that page or two, he’s a bug dumb galoot who can beat up on things pretty good.  Every team comic needs “the strong one,” right?

Glump attempts brain surgery

Glump is the demon on earth who wants to rule the world.  He’s the evil maniacal genius of the book, often getting everybody into big trouble doing one of his experiments.  Too bad he’s so inept, or he would have enslaved humanity by now.  He’s also a big “Star Trek” fan.

Glump might just be my favorite monster in the book.  The mania of Glump is a treat. He’s the friendly guy who’s really evil and often has trouble balancing the two.  He’s constantly testing new ways to be destructive, but can also be a big help when needed.  The swimsuit issue was all his idea, including the backfiring nefarious part of it.  You almost want to root for him because he’s so hapless, but then you want to slap him for nearly hurting his friends.

Also, he’s a huge Star Trek fan, including an extensive collection of life-size cardboard standees of Trek characters he likes to play with.

Glump is a lot of fun.

Hildy the Boneyard witch

Hildy is a witch. She brews things and makes pots.  She has a thick Scottish accent.  Like Sia, her mop of hair conceals her eyes.

Sid the Skeleton from Boneyard

Sid is the talking skeleton who will tell you all about the one bone he misses the most.  (If you’re mind is the gutter, you know which one I’m talking about…)  He’s a streetwise hustler, with his shifty eyes and sarcastic wit.

His skeleton is almost free-floating, which means he beat Frozen‘s Olaf to the punch by years with the ability to fly apart into pieces and then put himself back together.

Expect the least in humanity, and you’ll never be disappointed in Sid.

Boneyard's Mr. Vincent is an undertaker of few words

Mr. Vincent is the undertaker. He doesn’t say much, but he does love his job. When business is bad, he carries a corpse around with him for practice.  Moore uses him sparingly and often (fittingly) silently in the background for a quick gag.

Edgar is the smart raven of Boneyard

Edgar is the raven. (Of course.)  He’s dry and sarcastic. Maybe it’s his glasses talking, but I imagine that he’s the smart one, and in my mind has a slight British accent. There’s no indication of that in his dialogue, but it just works for me that way, somehow.

Ralph is the Boneyard werewolf

Ralph is the cool leather jacket and sunglasses-wear werewolf. He’s also good with cars, and plays a mean game of poker. He’s the cool guy from high school with all the muscles and machismo. Ralph is everybody’s best friend, and the best chance Michael might have for a guy friend in the cemetery.

Moore hints to some controversy in his background, but didn’t have the time or space to get to it in the original series.

Stone gargoyles are not good for the beach.
Stone gargoyles are not good for the beach.

Leon and Boris are the gargoyles at the front gate. They’re quite talkative. You know how in the middle of a Quentin Tarantino movie, two characters will randomly have a debate over a pop culture opinion? That’s what these two would excel at, if they had more screen time.

You’d almost expect them to be Waldorf and Statler, but they’re not.  They’re great comic relief for a page or two of dialogue every now and then, speaking to the slightly skewed perspective monsters living in a cemetery might have.

Whatever Happened to Richard Moore?

On the About page of his blog, he wrote about transitioning to children’s books.  I don’t see any on Amazon, though it’s always possible he’s using a pen name to distance his children’s books from his more adult work.

His blog posts from 2016 show some Abbey commissioned art pieces and talks about finding a studio space. He posts his commission price list and it’s a really good one. If you like Boneyard and want to commission something from him, you can get some amazing work for less than $100…

He has a Facebook page he doesn’t post to very often, but has recently started to.

“Billfur” is a webcomic he attempted to get off the ground for a Webtoons contest.  Five strips appear on that page, so I’m guessing he didn’t get enough votes.

He occasionally teases more Boneyard, but there’s nothing to report there yet.  He appears to have announced something at a recent Free Comic Book Day event, but that news hasn’t leaked out on-line.

Yet.

Abbey and Glump read a caption box
“Something is brewing”

See his Facebook page or blog for more of his recent teases…

Further Reading and Links

Newsarama published an article when the series ended.

CBR wrote it up when Moore returned to Boneyard at Antarctic Press.

The TV Tropes website has a Boneyard page.  In it, you’ll discover that the series is guilty of the old “Bleached Underpants” trope.

My ComicBook.com review of the first trade paperback jumpstarted this article.

Original art pages by Richard Moore! He’s selling most for just over $100 a page.  Not a bad deal these days.  (We can see in these scans that Moore hand-drew the balloons and then pasted down the lettering.)

Buy the series at Comixology or NBM. (ADD LINKS)

Moore’s other comics work can be purchased from the Antarctic Press website, including “Macabre,” “Fire & Brimstone”, “Chip,” and others. (Sadly, they are not available digitally or I’d be reviewing them next… No instant satisfaction for us!)

I met Moore at San Diego Comic-Con in 2001, and had the chance to get an Abbey sketch from him in my snow-themed sketchbook. Moore drew it in a beautiful light pencil which the scanner doesn’t do justice, but here it is…

Boneyard Abbey sketch by Richard Moore from San Diego Comic-Con 2001

In Conclusion

“Boneyard” is the little series that could. It’s a cult favorite, to be sure, but it has a lot going for it. It’s too bad it never sold in numbers large enough to justify it continuing, but seven trades is still a pretty good run for an independent comic.

Hopefully, the time is right to bring it back now. If a return to Boneyard can attract new readers and make them curious enough to buy up the older stories, then Moore could have a second chance with an old favorite.

There’s a strong cast of characters in “Boneyard,” most of which we’ve only seen the surface levels of. There are more secrets to be revealed, and more stories with plenty of gags to be enjoyed.

I don’t know what Moore is planning, but I’ll be watching his website/Facebook page intently for the news.


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2 Comments

  1. I always wanted to check this out back in the day but never got a chance to. It would be nice if Dark Horse or Image or somebody picked up the rights and re-released it in some sort of omnibus format.

    1. I can’t wait to see what Moore is up to. Reprints would be nice, though they’d need to attract new readers, so I’m not sure we’d see an Omnibus first. Need to keep the price low. Since the book is black and white, though, maybe you could squeeze the first two trades into one book for $15. I think that would be a nice package. (I’d like to see the lettering redone in a different font, and a bit of a rescanning and remastering, but this is all a dream, I’m sure.)

      Or, it’s also possible that he soft reboots and starts fresh without worrying about continuity, but without contradicting it. If a new series takes off, then you’re safe to reprint the old stuff.

      Fingers crossed for something