COMIC DETAILS
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Comic Description:
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Bone 34
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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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0216070005
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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 4*
Synopsis
Thorn saves the lost Fone Bone, Smiley, and Ted from a pack of rat creatures but still refuses to go to Old Man’s Cave (because “there’s nobody there we can trust”). However, Phoney and the Barrelhaven boys finally make it there to find both Gran’ma Ben and Lucius patrolling the border. The Hooded One and the Lord of Locusts decide to concentrate their efforts on finding “the one who bears the star”.
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! Graded by CGC on May 10, 2014.
Inside The Comic
Twenty two pages of story, three pages of letters, five pages of Riblet, and two pages of ads. The inside front cover has a drawing of Jonathan, Wendell, Euclid, and Phoney from page 9 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. Riblet Story: Writer Tom Sniegoski, Artist Stan Sakai. For Cartoon Books: Vijaya Iyer as President, Lopa Mukherjee for Marketing and Public Relations, Kathleen Glosan as Administrative Assistant and Josh Bowers for Shipping and Archiving. The back cover has a panel from page 17 showing the big reunion between Fone Bone, Thorn, and Smiley.
Bone-a-Fides
Lopa opened the Bone-a-Fides with various bits of Bone news. She thanked the attendees of Trilogy Tour II and praised their enthusiasm despite the long lines. She reported that Jeff won another Eisner at SDCC ‘98 along with Linda Medley fresh off the Tour. The big news, of course, was the Bone movie deal with Nickelodeon Pictures that Jeff would both write and direct (as reported by Variety and The Hollywood Reporter). She also said that Charles Vess’ wife was in a car accident and gave an address for people to send their donation for the enormous medical costs. I’m happy to report that she ended up okay and still happily lives with Charles in Virginia (as of 4/2026).
The format of the Bone-a-Fides changed a bit: each letter was now separated by a row of three Teds and each had a reply from Lopa (which was a welcome change). The first letter worried about the Hollywood treatment towards the Bone saga but Lopa assured him that Jeff’s animation history at Character Builders would ensure the movie’s quality. Another letter noticed that Ted was on the cover of #33 but never appeared in the issue. Apparently, Jeff drew the cover before the pages and thought it would be better for Ted to be busy with the search for Fone Bone & Smiley rather than reuniting with Thorn & the gang.
A fairly major clarification of Thorn’s age came to light when someone guessed that she was between 17 and 19 due to a line from Wendell in #33: “…there hasn’t been a kingdom for almost 15 years”. Lopa confirmed the age range and said that Thorn’s journey is more about becoming an adult than a woman. Another letter asked how Jeff chooses the image for the back cover. He lays out the entire book and finds his favorite panel with Fone Bone (if he’s included) which usually sums up the contents of the issue.
A very interesting letter from a librarian wished that Jeff would finish the story soon so she could put the collected editions on her shelves. She said that the “gap between publications is too long for me to wait to hang a bunch of 9-year-olds out to dry”. The series wouldn’t end for another five and a half years but I hope that she bought the first five volumes anyway. Libraries have shared the full collection of books for a couple decades now (thanks to the Scholastic editions) and this letter is another preview of what’s to come.
Ads
The first ad is for the five Bone hardcovers saying that they’ve been translated into 13 languages so far with a quick rundown of its various awards over the years (Eisners, Harveys, and internationals as well). The second ad is for the Bone Holiday Card set which is occasionally seen on eBay nowadays. The inside back cover has an ad for a Fone Bone action figure with Ted which was an exclusive commissioned by Toyfare. It came with a backpack, cloak, copy of Moby Dick, and a map of the valley (just had to cut out the coupon and send it in with a check or money order for $10).
Estimated Copies Sold thru Diamond: 21429
Back Cover Collectible
1998 Holiday Card from Cartoon Books
Issue 34 came out around the 1998 holiday season so I thought this would be a good place to show the official Cartoon Books Holiday Card from that year. These were mailed out to comic shops and subscribers from 1993 to 1999 and were always signed by the entire Cartoon Books crew. This one has autographs from Jeff, Vijaya Iyer (president & wife), Kathleen Glosan (administrative assistant), Josh Bowers (shipping & archiving), and Lopa Mukherjee (marketing & public relations). Jeff, Vijaya, and Kathleen are still going strong but the others have moved on to bigger and better things, I’m sure.
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