COMIC DETAILS
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Comic Description:
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Bone 25
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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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0216070001
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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
*Name the Cub Contest starts in the letters section where readers send in name ideas for the rat creature cub. Winner gets the OA to a future Bone print*
Synopsis
As Fone Bone & Smiley care for the rat creature cub, Thorn leaves Barrelhaven for Grandma's farm and Phoney starts collecting taxes from the villagers. Lucius, of course, abstains.
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, two pages of letters, and eight pages of ads. The inside front cover has a drawing of Fone Bone smuggling an armful of food to the barn from page 6. The brief prologue is on the top left and the credits are the same as last issue: Written and Drawn by Jeff Smith, Cover Color by Drew for Extreme Color. For Cartoon Books: Vijaya Iyer as President, Karen Root as Assistant Publisher, and Andries Mulder as Archivist. For Image Comics: Larry Marder as Executive Director and 5 additional names for staff positions. The back cover has a panel from page 7 showing Fone delivering food to the stowaways, Smiley and Bartleby.
Ads
There are six different pages of ads for Bone stuff including a preview for Bone #26 with the cover art and “The Turning” scrolled across the top (on sale in September 1996). The second is a double paged ad with the title Bone: The First Trilogy. It has images for the covers of Out From Boneville, The Great Cow Race, and Eyes of the Storm, a couple choice panels from each, and a hand resting on the hilt of a sword with the medallion draped around it. The third is for the Bone-themed playing cards & magnets and the fourth is for the upcoming Fone Bone and Thorn poster (from the Image #2 cover). The non-Bone ads feature A Distant Soil #15 by Colleen Doran and New Men #21. The inside back cover has an ad for the deluxe hardcovers of Out From Boneville and The Great Cow Race.
Bone-a-Fides
The Bone-a-Fides make another indelible mark on the Bone saga when a fan from Australia (R.J. McCarthy, with his 3rd letter) suggests having a contest to name the rat cub. Jeff applauded the idea and asked everyone to send their ideas to the Name the Cub Contest at the Cartoon Books’ P.O. Box. The winner will get the original art for an upcoming art print which will include all three Bone cousins (info about the print will be coming in the next issue).
One fan mentioned the Tolkien elements in Bone with which Jeff agreed. He says that he often describes the series as “Bugs Bunny meets Lord of the Rings”. A couple fans mentioned a possible Bone movie but Jeff hasn’t said a word about anything just yet. A reader from Seattle congratulated Jeff on his Eisner wins in 1994. She said that she had some friends who were also nominated that year but they all knew that Jeff would win because “BONE was such a great book!” She had never read it up to that point but binged everything by the time she got back from San Diego. She met Jeff at the 1995 SDCC and was happy to find him “as enthusiastic and fresh as his creation!”
Estimated Copies Sold thru Diamond: ????
Back Cover Collectible
Comic’s Buyers Guide #1153 & #1182
CBG had a history of helping to promote the Bone series through the early years and these two issues were the first to have Bone images on the actual cover. The #1153 issue has very little Bone content. All that’s described is that the cover was drawn by Jeff for the Christmas on the Green charity cartoon art auction. They mention that it was about the same size as the magazine (14” by 11”) and was fully inked over blue pencil. Bids were accepted by fax, mail, and phone until noon on January 5, 1996. Unfortunately, I haven’t seen it displayed anywhere over the years so I have no idea where it ended up. Hopefully it still exists.
The #1182 issue has an article called Bone’s five-year plan and, exactly as titled, Jeff thought that the entire series would end in five years [2001] rather than the eight it actually took [2004]. A quote from this story appears on the second-to-last page of the Bone Reader where Jeff explains that he’s always seen the saga as a set of three trilogies. He also said that the Dragonslayer chapter would end with #28 (actually #27) and that Thorn would appear in Rock Jaw (only Fone Bone, Smiley, and Bartleby would be featured). This particular CBG came out between Bone #24 and #25.
Neither of these are in fantastic condition and both were purchased at a comic store. I’d say they’re VG at best.
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