COMIC DETAILS
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Comic Description:
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Bone 33
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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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0216070004
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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
*Riblet Part 3*
Synopsis
Thorn leads Phoney and some villagers past a rat creature raiding party who suddenly get news about Kingdok’s death. As the rats leave the valley to get more info, Thorn gets a message from Gran’ma to meet at Old Man’s cave with the rest of the villagers. However, Thorn and Phoney seem more worried about finding Fone Bone and Smiley.
The Slab
Highest grade Signature Series book! My raw copy signed by Jeff at the 2014 Emerald City Comic-Con. Thanks to dscott for facilitating! Officially graded by CGC on May 10, 2014.
Inside The Comic
Twenty two pages of story, two pages of letters, five pages of Riblet, two pages of a drawn interview with Jeff Smith, and one ad page. The inside front cover has a drawing of Wendell, Phoney, Thorn, and Tanner scrunched together while hiding from the rat creatures from page 2. 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. Riblet Story: Tom Sniegoski as Writer, Stan Sakai as Artist. For Cartoon Books: Vijaya Iyer as President, Lopa Mukherjee for Marketing and Public Relations, and Kathleen Glosan as Administrative Assistant. The back cover has a panel from page 2 where Thorn can hear the rat creatures conversing in their own language.
Bone-a-Fides
The Bone-a-Fides featured an introduction from Lopa Mukherjee who would be handling the replies so that Jeff can spend more time writing and drawing. She insists that Jeff still reads the letters and she checks with him whenever someone asks something about Bone that only he knows. The first letter asked about the origin of Roque Ja and whether or not he was based on a similar mythological character named Bok Roh from a book called For the Sake of All Living Things by John Del Vecchio. Jeff told Lopa that there was no specific inspiration for Roque Ja but his characteristics were similar to many different figures and icons from other legends and cultures.
Another reader mentioned an article in Toy Fare with sketches of future action figures from the Bone series. Conveniently, a picture of the actual figures made their debut on the inside back cover featuring Thorn with a Possum Kid, Fone Bone, Smiley Bone, and the Previews exclusive Phoney Bone as Captain Ahab. There was continued praise for Riblet as well as frustration in finding certain back issues. Lopa, of course, plugged the collected editions which were far more convenient for new readers at the time.
Interview with Konrad Eyferth
The drawn interview is very interesting. It’s from the second volume of Konrad Eyferth’s Comic-Interviews. Most of them are in German but this one was naturally in English. The interviewer is holding a glass of wine in the left column while Fone Bone and Phoney are on the right. When he asks “Jeff” a question, Fone Bone speaks and Phoney usually intrudes with a sly comment. Eventually, a rat creature pops his head out from under the desk and eats the interviewer & Fone Bone, leaving Phoney to say “What a couple of dorks.”
Ad
The lone ad is for Frank Miller and Lynn Varley’s 300: “No retreat. No surrender.”
Estimated Copies Sold thru Diamond: 22700
Back Cover Collectible
Inks: Cartoon and Comic Art Studies, Volume 2 - No. 1
This was a magazine produced by the great Lucy Shelton Caswell whose accomplishments in the name of cartoon history are too many to list (Will Eisner Hall of Famer is one). The articles are scholarly in nature and this issue is no exception. In fact, not a single word is written about Bone in the entire issue, save the cover. It’s an excellent gag and was signed by Jeff with a Fone Bone head sketch. It may have been autographed at the 1995 San Diego Comic-Con because the seller included a foldout ad for the convention with guests such as Neil Gaiman, Stan Sakai, and, of course, Jeff Smith.
Lucy is also the founding curator of the Billy Ireland Cartoon Library & Museum which currently keeps nearly all of the Bone original art safe and accessible to the general public. I’m gonna make it out there one of these days to get a firsthand look at the pages that have entertained me for decades.
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