COMIC DETAILS
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Comic Description:
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Bone 38
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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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0236225006
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Owner:
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DocGo
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SET DETAILS
Owner's Description
Label Notes
Jeff Smith story and art, Jeff Smith/Charles Vess cover art
Synopsis
The attack on Old Man's Cave begins while the Bones trudge through the Old Temple with Gran’ma Ben and Thorn.
This issue has three different covers with the following attributes: (1) pencilled & inked by Jeff Smith with painted colors by Charles Vess, (2) pencilled by Jeff Smith with designs & paints from Alex Ross, (3) pencilled & inked by Frank Miller with colors by Elizabeth Lewis & Jeff Smith.
The Slab
Highest graded Signature Series! My raw book signed by Jeff & Charles Vess at the 2014 Heroes Con (thanks to dscott for facilitating). Graded by CGC on August 11, 2014.
Inside The Comic
Eight pages of recap (panels taken from #33-37), twenty-nine pages of new story, two pages of letters, seven pages of pinups and two pages of ads. The inside front cover has no drawings and a blank black background. The brief prologue is on the top left and the credits are as follows: Covers by: Frank Miller…color by Elizabeth Lewis and Jeff Smith; Alex Ross…designed by Alex Ross and pencilled by Jeff Smith; Jeff Smith…color by Charles Vess. For the first time, a table of contents was included: I. Previously in Bone…pg. 1; II. Endgame…pg. 9; III. Letters…pg. 38; Pin-up Gallery…pg. 40. Paul Pope (www.paulpope.com), James Kochalka (www.topshelfcomix.com), Linda Medley (www.boneville.com), Terry Moore (www.strangersinparadise.com), Marty Bauman (www.craterkid.com), Jay Stephens (www.jaystephens.com), Craig Thompson (www.topshelfcomix.com). Written and Drawn by Jeff Smith, Previously in Bone…Designed by Steve Hamaker. For Cartoon Books: Vijaya Iyer as President, Kathleen Glosan as Production Manager, Steve Hamaker as Product Designer, and Kevin Spain for Shipping and Archiving. The back cover has headshots of Thorn from each of the #38 covers.
Bone-a-Fides
Lopa Mukherjee is no longer working on the book so I’ll give Jeff credit for the bolded replies in this issue’s Bone-a-Fides. The first letter was from Jay Hosler who is both a Biology professor and a graphic novel author (Clan Apis and The Sandwalk Adventures). He echoed praise for the Bone saga so far and loved that Cartoon Books was publishing Castle Waiting as well.
Apparently, Jeff got tons of letters about a continuity error in #37 for Kingdok’s unfettered speech (while not having a tongue). Jeff freely admitted the mistake and, in subsequent printings of Old Man’s Cave, has changed the directions of Kingdok’s word balloons to other rat creatures in the panels. Other notable mentions in the letters included Rose (which someone saw in the 1998 Trilogy Tour II but had yet to be published), the preview in Cerebus #161 (which introduced another letter-writer to Bone back in 1992), and more love for Linda Medley’s Castle Waiting.
Pin-Up Gallery
The pin-ups are definitely interesting. Most of the artists integrated the Bone cousins into their own works (the Bones with the gals from Strangers in Paradise is pretty funny) but Paul Pope recreated a famous scene from Bone #16 where a pack of rat creatures are hunting Fone Bone, Thorn, and Gran’ma Ben. It actually has five panels (peculiar for a pin-up) with the last one showing the three heroes hiding behind a tree while a lighting strike reveals the rat creatures closing in. Definitely has a darker edge than Jeff’s work. Linda Medley’s has Thorn and Fone Bone on a cow in a fenced-in pasture with a castle in the distant horizon. It’s very well done in my opinion.
Ads
The first ad is split down the middle with the left side showing Castle Waiting #2 and the right side with Rose #1. The last ad is for the www.fantagraphics.com site which had sold Bone memorabilia in the past. The inside back cover is for the Bone action figures showing The Hooded One and Kingdok standing before a multitude of rat creatures (ripped from the pages of #4 or #24). Headshots for Gran’ma Ben and Phoney are on the right margin.
Estimated Copies Sold thru Diamond: 25600, each cover printed equally so divide this number by three.
Back Cover Collectible
Bone #38 CGC 9.8 SS x2
Here are the rest of the covers for #38 signed by nearly all their cover artists (I have no idea how to find Elizabeth Lewis). It took a LONG time to finish all three: five different signings, four different facilitators, and 9 excruciating years ;-) It was a team effort and I applaud dscott, the unknown Baltimore facilitator(s), and the CGC in-house signing crew for their professionalism and care. The Ross and Miller editions were signed by Jeff at the 2011 Baltimore Comic-Con (with his artist sig). Ross & Miller signed their covers at two separate in-house signings at CGC headquarters in Sarasota.
The Miller book was actually lost in the mail for a while after I sent it to CGC for Miller’s autograph (pro tip: never use the UPS Store to send a USPS package). Those were a rough couple months but, thankfully, everything turned out well in the end.
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