COMIC DETAILS
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Comic Description:
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Stupid, Stupid Rat Tails 2 Signature
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Grade:
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9.8
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Page Quality:
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WHITE
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Certification #:
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2236225005
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Owner:
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DocGo
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SET DETAILS
Owner's Description
Label Notes
Tom Sniegoski story, Jeff Smith cover and art
Synopsis
The adventures of Big Johnson Bone continue as he finally meets the Queen of the Rat Creatures. The Bone-a-Fides section references Bone #37 (much like issue #1).
The Slab
Currently the highest graded Signature Series copy! My raw copy signed by Jeff and writer Tom Sniegoski at the 2014 Boston Comic Con. Big thanks to dscott for facilitating! Graded by CGC on October 6, 2014.
Inside The Comic
Twenty two pages of story, two pages of letters, three pages of ads, and a five page short story by Linda Medley. The inside front cover has a drawing of Big Johnson Bone, Mr. Pip, Stillman and several small mammals from page 5 with the black & white “coloring” reversed. The same prologue from issue #1 is on the top left and the credits are as follows: Written by Tom Sniegoski, Drawn by Jeff Smith, Cover Color by Elizabeth Lewis with Acknowledgements: “Sweet Temptations” Written and Drawn by Linda Medley. For Cartoon Books: Vijaya Iyer as President, Jeff Smith as Series Editor, Lopa Mukherjee for Marketing and Public Relations, Kathleen Glosan as Administrative Assistant and Kevin Spain for Shipping and Archiving. The back cover has the same Boneville.com ad as issue #1.
Bone-a-Fides
Lopa opened the Bone-a-Fides with an invitation to a cruise that will occur in April 2000 to benefit CBLDF. Jeff would be in attendance along with Frank Miller, Neil Gaiman, Neal Adams, Brian Pulido, Will Eisner, Jules Feiffer, Dan Clowes, Matt Wagner, Kurt Busiek, Evan Dorkin, and the brothers Hernandez (more on this later).
The first “letter” was actually a review that appeared on Dave’s Comics Rant (https://www.eyrie.org/~dvandom/Rants/index.html). He generally enjoyed the story with much admiration for Big Johnson Bone. He disliked Stillman and the return of the “orphaned animals whose parents were taken by the rat creatures” but was amused by the scatter-brained mice.
None of the actual letters were about the first issue but instead #37…yet again. Completely understandable given the significance of the issue. After praising #37 and the “shock” of the campaign balloon, one fan compared Bone to LOTR as many have done in previous Bone-a-Fides. He specifically mentioned Gandalf and his parallels to the Great Red Dragon (masters of the last minute save and not completely reliable). He also had casting ideas which included Gilbert Gottfried as Phoney, Jaleel White as Fone Bone, and Jennifer Love Hewitt as Thorn. Lopa said that casting decisions wouldn’t be made until production gets into full swing but she appreciated the suggestions.
She closed with “On Jeff’s Night Stand” which included Shadows of Forgotten Ancestors by Carl Sagan & Ann Druyen, Heavy Liquid by Paul Pope (Vertigo), and A Perfect Planet by James Kochalka.
Ads
The short story by Linda Medley, Sweet Temptations, stars characters from her Castle Waiting series which was briefly published by Cartoon Books. I’ve only ever read the Bone cousins’ appearance at the end of Castle Waiting #1 and none of those primary characters are in this story. The first ad for Bone Stuff features the 2000 Bone Calendar, the Thorn statue, the Bone Act II Slipcase Edition, and the Bone Holiday Greeting Card Set. The second is for the six individual chapters of Bone in TPB format. The final ad is for the aforementioned “Making Waves” Cruise that occurred from April 9th-16th in 2000. It left from the LA port and traveled south to three ports in Mexico. The cruise ship itself was called The Elation which is still in service today. Cabins started at $1,099. The Pre-Launch party was at WonderCon on April 7th. The inside back cover has a preview for Rat Tails #3 with a black & white image of the cover.
Estimated Copies Sold thru Diamond: 16,500
Back Cover Collectible
Bone Series 2 All-Chromium Cards, Parallel Holochrome Set
Much like Series 1, this is primarily a storytelling set with individual colorized panels from issue 11 through 17 (90 cards total). The picture shows a complete holochrome parallel set. I’ve seen multiple accounts of how many of these were distributed per pack or box so I’m not sure which is true (I’ve never opened a pack myself). I can’t find any advertisements from that time that even mention a parallel set, let alone at what rate each card appeared. The packs only had 7 cards a piece so I’d be surprised if they came one per pack. They’re easy enough to identify as any light that shines on the front-side will reflect a rainbow rather than the color of the light itself.
The second image shows my faves which were mostly full or half splash panels from the book. The Red Dragon wave may be my favorite page from the whole series and it was colored beautifully by David Reed for the set.
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