COMIC DETAILS
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Comic Description:
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Bone 13 1/2 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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4280099002
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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. Wizard mail-away exclusive.
Synopsis
This comic was a mail-away exclusive from the popular 90s comic magazine, Wizard, where anyone who sent in the coupon would receive a copy. The cover itself is made of a glossier material than the regular CB & Image issues as are the pages. Story-wise, Smiley attempts to help Lucius fix Gran’Ma’s roof with disastrous results (9 pages long).
The Slab
Highest grade! Bought this on eBay. I don’t know who the facilitator was but it was signed at the 2014 Heroes Con and joins a few others from that con already in my set. Was graded on August 2, 2023 and I’m guessing it was pressed since the grader notes still say Multiple Finger Bends on both covers. These no longer exist.
Inside The Comic
The inside front cover has a color illustration of Fone Bone with a sandwich plate and a glass of water, a table of contents, and a funny letter from Jeff explaining when the story takes place. For the first time, we see a longer list of credits with not just Jeff Smith (Writer, Creator, Illustrator, Founder, and Co-Publisher) and David Reed (Cover Color Airbrush) but also Vijaya Ayer as President and Co-Publisher, Karen Root as Assistant Publisher, and Andries Mulder with Distribution. There’s a list for all of the various contributors at Wizard as well.
Ads
There are six atypical ads included: THB miniseries by Paul Pope, Beanworld by Larry Marder, SRBissette’s Tyrant, Wizard’s InQuest magazine, Collector’s Sportslook, and a Wizard subscription page. The inside back cover has a slew of t-shirts and pins for Bone including the signed Collector Pin Set that were limited to 2500 and priced at $19.99.
Additional Material
Obviously, the Bone-a-Fides are absent but a nice getting-to-know-you interview with Jeff was included where he revealed that his favorite food is a Coney Island hot dog followed closely by pizza. The best part of the book is called Artist’s sketchbook where he shows how he created page 2 of the story. Step One was “Pencils and Lettering” so he knew how much space the dialogue would take. Step Two was “Tighten Pencils, Ink Shingles” where he explained that the acting of the characters begins to take shape. Step Three was “Paste-Up “Hole” Drawings” where he mentioned that he made copies of the inked roof for other panels but doesn’t do the same for characters. He explains “Lucius has to appear alive. He must be drawn and inked by hand every time, so that he will not appear frozen.” Step Four was “Ink Smiley, blend in Roof Drawing” which is largely self-explanatory. The last page titled “Start to Finish” showed a couple panels from Bone #2 and how they looked in the sketch and pencil phases. Definitely a very interesting examination at Jeff’s production process.
Certificate of Authenticity
The book also came with a Certificate of Authenticity. Some of the previous 1/2 books from Wizard were worthy of making counterfeit copies perhaps (such as The Maxx 1/2) but this one probably wasn’t.
Estimated Copies Sent Away: ????
Back Cover Collectible
Bone: Out from Boneville, 1st Edition & 1st Scholastic Edition
Here are two very different collected editions of the first chapter, Out From Boneville. The one on top is the 1st printed hardcover & dust jacket published by Cartoon Books all the way back in 1995. It obviously features the original black & white pages and collects issues #1-6. There’s nothing extra in this particular book besides drawings of Thorn’s map on the inside covers. The book itself is in pretty good condition and I would label it either NM or NM-.
The one on the bottom is a colored version printed by Scholastic in 2005. It has a nice foiled title on the cover with fully colored pages by Steve Hamaker. This particular copy was sold as Comix Experience’s Graphic Novel of the Month Club - Masterpiece Series in June 2021. They included a signed bookplate with a new illustration of Fone Bone reading a novel by candlelight. Jeff also did an interview with the San Franciscan store on YouTube that still exists today. The book itself is probably a NM+ because of a loose edge on the spine.
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