Bone Comic Book Archive
Bone 14
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COMIC DETAILS
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Comic Description:
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Bone 14 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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1368199001
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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
Lucius begins his trip back to Barrelhaven with his debtors in tow (Phoney and Smiley) while Thorn and Fone Bone discuss their intertwining dreams after he decides to stay at the farm.
The Slab
Highest grade Signature Series book! My raw book signed by Jeff at the 2016 San Diego Comic-Con (facilitated by Doug Peters). Officially graded by CGC on August 29, 2016.
Inside The Comic
Twenty two pages of story and two pages of ads. The inside front cover has a drawing of Fone and Thorn running off to feed the chickens from page 4 with the brief prologue and credits: By Jeff Smith at the top and Cover Airbrush by David Reed on the bottom. The back cover has a panel from page 4 showing Fone waving goodbye to the Lucius-driven cart while Phoney replies “Bite me”.
Bone-a-Fides
There are no Bone-a-Fides in this issue.
Ads
The first ad is a hybrid: bottom of the page has a drawing by Stan Sakai of Usagi Yojimbo and Spot facing off against three Rat Creatures (with Fone Bone haphazardly hanging on to one of them). The top half has two paragraphs written by Jeff letting his readers know about the Usagi Yojimbo series published by Mirage Studios and an upcoming compilation book by Fantagraphics, for which he’ll be writing forward. The last page has an ad for Bone t-shirts and pins while the inside back cover has an ad for the Fone Bone statue by Randy Bowen.
Estimated Copies Sold: ????
Back Cover Collectible
Thorn: Tales from The Lantern from the Collection of Jeff Smith
Like the Tuki Kickstarter, the Thorn campaign had a ‘Holy Grail’ reward tier: 5 copies of the original Thorn: Tales from The Lantern! If you read my description of Bone #1, you’ll know that I attempted to get a From the Collection of Jeff Smith notation on the CGC label with the help of Tom Gaadt back in late 2022. In May 2023, Tom’s plan for the Thorn books was to send them all into CGC together to receive the proper labeling. Unfortunately, the CGC rep with whom he was discussing the issue didn’t know that they had stopped encapsulating Thorns in late 2021. I had only found out a couple months before after getting my first copy rejected (see my description in Bone #4). Tom didn’t believe me at first but eventually got word that they wouldn’t grade them in August 2023.
August 2023 was when Jeff had a heart attack so updates were few and far between (thankfully, he has fully recovered). About a week before the start of the campaign in early October 2023, Tom let me know about the tiers and what would be included. I was lucky enough to secure one of the Ultimate rewards and Tom showed me the Thorn: TFTL copies in May of 2024. To put their collective condition in a word: spectacular! I remember having a conversation on the boards about what condition they would be in and most said between 9.0 and 9.4. All the examples I saw were easy 9.8s (using the former CGC 9.8 that Heritage sold in 2020 as a comparison). The only differences between the 5 copies themselves were around the edges and the color strike on the Thorn title. Tom let me pick one out and it arrived about a week later.
When I first held it, I was in awe. It honestly looks like I had just pulled it from the printer. If I were to grade it, I would say it’s an easy 9.9. Why not 10? Well, there’s a production issue on the top of the spine. I’ve seen it on a few Thorn copies from the past and it was on at lease one of the other examples that Tom showed me. From just a still photo, it looks like wear but it’s smooth to the touch. Books with a production issue like this can certainly be 9.9s but definitely not 10s. Everything else is perfect, especially the deep blue color strike on Thorn and the pearly white pages. It truly is a sight to behold and I give Tom a big thanks for putting up with me ;-)
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