COMIC DETAILS
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Comic Description:
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Bone 51 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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2769460009
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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
Synopsis
Fone Bone, Thorn, Smiley, and Phoney finally break out of their dungeon cells while Gran’ma Ben does her best to keep the rat creatures and Pawans from the city walls. The forces of evil do suddenly retreat but for a sinister reason: Briar has conjured ghost circles that now surround the city.
The Slab
Highest grade for Signature Series! Raw book was purchased from paperheart and signed by Jeff at the 2023 Heroes Con. Big thanks to Rich Henn for facilitating! This is definitely the best copy I’ve ever had in my possession. Officially graded by CGC on September 21, 2023.
Inside The Comic
Twenty-three pages of story, one page of letters, and zero pages of ads. The inside front cover has a drawing of Fone Bone holding a mallet with Thorn sitting nervously behind him from page 14 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 Steve Hamaker. For Cartoon Books: Vijaya Iyer as Publisher and Kathleen Glosan as Production Manager. The back cover features a panel from page 13 showing a pensive Thorn staring at Fone Bone. The issue number also appears along with the date and cover price.
Bone-a-Fides
The Bone-a-Fides have returned! The first fan, who was traveling from Dayton to Ohio University, saw a curious road sign that said Old Man’s Cave state park…but didn’t stop. On her way back, she didn’t see the sign at all and asked Jeff if this place was indeed real or perhaps a figment of her imagination. He, of course, answered in the affirmative and said that it was about 45 minutes south of Columbus. It’s been one of his favorite places since childhood and said most of the saga takes place there.
Another reader asked if Jeff had a guesstimate about when Volume 9 would be released. He said the fall of 2003 but that this was truly just a guesstimate. He revealed that every issue was taking longer than the last. Not only because of the battle scenes but also the stories themselves kept “changing and growing on me”. He explained that he doesn’t know how many pages each issue would hold until they were finally finished (which was wreaking havoc on his schedule).
The next fan discussed his complete Bone journey from the pages of Disney Digest (aka Disney Adventures magazine), to single Bone issues scattered on a bookstore shelf, and, finally, to The Complete Bone Adventures Vol 3 (issues #13-18). He was clearly a TPB reader and thanked Jeff for continuing to print the “big volume books”.
On the subject of the collected editions, the last letter asked if the named titles would all have a numbered caption like Treasure Hunters did: The Complete Bone Adventures VIII. Jeff said yes and explained how the first TPBs just had the numbered captions and no titles (e.g. The Complete Bone Adventures Vol I rather than Out From Boneville). He further described how he and Vijaya were discussing not only a three volume edition but a single volume with over 1300 pages. He asked what everyone thought about such a project and to please let them know. I’ll take a wild guess: the feedback was positive!
In the final publisher’s note, Jeff said that a lot of people had been asking where the letters have been. He explained that he had fallen so far behind on the last few issues that he had no time to put a proper Bone-a-Fides together (five issues came out in 2002 as opposed to the 6 in 2001). He also said that he had no idea how much people actually liked the letters. He assured everyone that the last four issues would have them.
Unfortunately, considering that 2003 would only have three issues and 2004 only two, he could not fulfill this promise. Keep in mind that #52-55 had massive amounts of story pages and I’m sure he just didn’t have the time. Both #52 & #55 would be without a Bone-a-Fides section.
Ad
The inside back cover has an ad for the MoCCA Art Festival 2003 which would occur on June 22. Jeff would be there along with Amanda Conner, Klaus Janson, Art Spiegelman, and Mike Mignola in the Big Apple.
Estimated Copies Sold thru Diamond: 14480
Back Cover Collectible
Justice League 16 We Can Be Heroes Edition Sketch Cover
Fellow Bone enthusiast mschmidt offered to facilitate a slew of Bone books for me at a Jeff Smith signing in Chicago. It occurred at the legendary Chicago Comics in late 2013 and several of those books are in this very set (19, 20, 22, 23, 24, 30, 53, & 55). Sketch books started to become extremely popular around this time and I bought a few a couple months earlier for an opportunity just like this. Obviously, I didn’t have the greatest of ideas but it was simple: Phoney Bone holding some cash. He’s one of my two favorite characters and I think it turned out great for a quick con sketch. Thanks again to mschmidt for doing the grunt work and Jeff for the extra time! It sorta looks like the cover to #51 doesn’t it? ;-)
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