COMIC DETAILS
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Comic Description:
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Bone 31 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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4028853006
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Owner:
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DocGo
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SET DETAILS
Owner's Description
Label Notes
Jeff Smith story, cover, and art
*Part 1 of Riblet story by Stan Sakai and Tom Sniegoski*
Synopsis
Fone Bone & Smiley join forces with the stupid, stupid rat creatures to escape the clutches of Kingdok. Strange stuff happens on their way down the mountain but Kingdok and the locusts disappear leaving only Roque Ja in pursuit.
The Slab
Highest graded Signature Series book! My raw book signed by Jeff with a sketch of Fone Bone at the 2014 Heroes Con (thanks to dscott for facilitating). Was initially graded as a 9.6 which I never understood. Had it pressed and regraded in 2022 and rightfully came back as a 9.8! Official grade date was January 5, 2023.
Inside The Comic
Twenty four pages of story, two pages of letters, five pages of Riblet, and an ad for Trilogy Tour II. The inside front cover has a drawing of a possum kid holding Fone Bone’s medallion from page 20 with the black & white “coloring” reversed. The brief prologue is on the top left and the credits are as follows: Written and Drawn by Jeff Smith, Cover Color by Elizabeth Lewis, Production Design by Karen Root. For Cartoon Books: Vijaya Iyer as President, Lopa Mukherjee for Marketing and Public Relations, and Kathleen Glosan as Assistant. The back cover has a panel from page 15 showing the locusts going after Fone Bone to Smiley’s dismay.
Bone-a-Fides
Another worldly mix in the Bone-a-Fides with letters from Finland, Sweden, and Australia. However, unlike the last issue, none of them came with complaints or tales of potential violence, A fan from Ithaca, NY said he feared that Bartleby would become a clichéd character destined for a “heroic death”. Jeff jokingly asked the fan if he thought Bartleby was one of the doomed red-shirts from Star Trek: The Original Series ;-)
Most of the comments seemed to favor the change in direction from The Dragonslayer storyline. One fan asked Jeff if all of these animals spoke the English language, why couldn’t the cows? Jeff replied: “Everyone knows domesticated animals can’t talk!” The Australian R.J. McCarthy is back and says he enjoyed the new storyline but requested a flashback or quick drawing of Thorn in the letter pages for his fellow “Thorn addicts” (who miss her presence in the pages of Bone). He also came up with a new contest since the Name the Cub contest had ended: Write a love poem to Thorn for Fone Bone. He included his own with a little editorial work from Mr. Smith (it’s still pretty bad). Jeff’s final word previewed Bone #32 as the conclusion of the Bartleby/Rock Jaw storyline “when Ensign Bartleby joins the away team and prepares to beam down to the planet”.
Ads
The last page is an ad for the 1998 Trilogy Tour II which would once again feature Jeff Smith, Charles Vess, and Linda Medley as well as Stan Sakai, Jill Thompson, and Mark Crilley. The group also published a comic called the 1998 Trilogy II Tour Book with 48 pages of original artwork (sold at comic stores for $4.95). The art for the ad is a jam piece by each of the creators and can be found on Comic Art Fans in the gallery of Comicart Boston. It is truly a sight to behold!
The inside back cover has an ad for the hardcover of Rock Jaw, Master of the Eastern Border which will ship in May 1998.
Riblet
The Riblet story is five pages and it’s pretty cute. It fits with the overall theme of the Rock Jaw story and includes the two mangy rat creatures kidnapping Riblet to end part one.
Estimated Copies Sold thru Diamond: 24900
Back Cover Collectible
Trilogy Tour 1997 Tour Book and the 1998 Trilogy Tour II GN
The Trilogy Tour II graphic novel was sold in comic stores everywhere to promote the tour’s second edition in 1998. It was published in prestige format and features 48 full-color pages of both comics and short biographies of the artists. Charles Vess’ section had seven completed-pages from Rose #1 which wouldn’t be fully published for another couple years. Jeff wrote a one-page introduction and a two-page original story of Phoney & Smiley philosophizing while washing dishes in the Barrel Haven tavern. It has a bit of a political edge but it’s harmless ;-)
There’s a book for the original Trilogy Tour as well that was published as a normal comic book magazine in 1997. It has short examples of Linda’s, Jeff’s, and Charles’ work along with pics of the massive trilogy tree being built (similar to the ad in Bone #28).
The copy of Trilogy Tour II is one of a thousand that were signed by all six artists from the tour (with a pink COA). They were sold for $10 during the tour and by Cosmic Therapy (NJ) for the remaining copies. Neither of these books are close to high grade but they’re the only copies I own at the moment.
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