DocGo

Yeah, he’s been saying this for over two decades now whenever someone asks about his college work . I’ve mentioned before that if the entire Thorn run is read in one sitting, the narrative doesn’t really make sense with all of the plot holes and unfinished side adventures. I’m really looking forward to seeing how he bridges these moments in the upcoming book.

Tell these people to join the thread. I wanna hear more

Are you one of the five? Congrats if you are!

You are correct that they’re ungraded. The “6.5” was assigned by Heritage which seemed to be accurate to me.

This auction was for a 6.5. What condition do you think the Kickstarter books will be? It can probably be said that the Thorn campaign took some bidders out of the action as well and the timing of the consignment was just unlucky.

The buyer definitely got a good deal at $4.8k with the juice. Did any of you watch the auction? The auctioneer couldn’t figure out what she was looking at, since the first image of the book on Heritage is the signed page rather than the cover. She stumbled around for a few seconds then just focused on the bidding without giving much of an explanation. Great for the buyer but not for the consignor. Oh well…

That it is my prediction as well. Good luck Tom!

With the Thorn Kickstarter still going on, there’s still a Thorn Tales from the Lantern that will be auctioned on Heritage tomorrow afternoon. I have a number in mind but does anyone else want to venture a guess on the final bid? I never seem to get responses to questions like this but I thought I’d give it a shot

If you haven’t backed the Thorn Kickstarter yet, please do so. The campaign will end at 11:59am EST this Friday. It will be your last chance to get the hardcover edition as only the softcover will be available in stores. One of the Tales from the Lantern books was briefly up this morning so you never know if another will become available in these last few days (as the credit card charges loom). Get yours while you can

I think I remember when the OA of the cover went up for sale but this is the first time I’ve seen the book. Thanks for sharing!

And a reminder about the Thorn Kickstarter…the new Stretch Goals are pretty sweet so we need to get to 3200 backers to clear them all (currently at 2400 something which unlocked one of them). Please back it if you got some spare cash!

Alright, it’s taken me awhile but I finally went back to the books from this submission for another look. I have to say that two thirds of them are correctly graded. Unfortunately, my presser couldn’t press out some of the NCB creases that I thought could be taken care of. Ultimately, this was my error and I should have known better However, the grades on my #50, 51, 52, 53, and 55 are completely baffling (the black covers from The Crown of Horns storyline). There are no graders notes on any of them so I’m assuming that there are no internal problems or fingerprints. The #51 hit 9.8 but, IMHO, it’s the weakest of the five. Three of them got 9.4s and one got a 9.6. I’ve sent in a good amount of these black covers over the years and these were the best by a country mile…and got lower grades than all I’ve ever sent in. I wish there were a way to get greater detail on how a book was graded (cash-making opportunity CGC ). I have two of the six Crown of Horns books in Signature Series 9.8 now but I truly think that at least three of these four misses are 9.8s as well .

After a week, the Thorn Kickstarter has gotten to just under $230k. The top four tiers are all sold out but the Kickstarter exclusive hardcover is still available. It will include items from all four stretch goals. One of which will be three reproductions of mini-comics that Jeff created when he was 14 featuring Fone, Phoney, and Smiley I'm very interested to see how the college strips will be presented. I’ve read all of them in the order that they were released and some won’t make sense without some sort of explanation

You’ve got some early action on this which should be a good sign

It looks nice but I don’t trust any grades I see on slabs at the moment. The last submission I got back a couple weeks ago makes no sense and I’m seriously considering abandoning the pursuit. The cost of getting Signature Series books completed has become too high to ignore grading problems. I think I’ve demonstrated in this thread that I know the difference between a 9.6 and a 9.8 after over 15 years of submitting. None of the slabs in this submission had graders notes which is usually understandable when the visual problems are obvious. I can assure you that the visual problems are nowhere near obvious in this latest batch, with grades that ranged from 9.8 all the way down to 9.0. It’s really sad

Thanks Mike! I’ve got one more first appearance for the next round: Bone #5: 1st Appearance of Lucius Down. He’s the last of the major characters without an introductory label and I think he deserves one since his death is noted on issue #54. Thanks again!

Does this really happen? I’ve only ever watched Jeff’s campaigns and I don’t think anyone gave up the $5k Bone #1s on his first one

Very happy to see this! Apologies for assuming the worst Good luck on the auction!

Thorn Kickstarter is live! Get over there a grab a copy!

Excellent collection! Given the expense of pressing and grading a Bone #1, make sure you know what pressing defects truly are. Not saying this is you but people tend to throw around that word on these boards thinking it’s a magical cure-all for everything that ails a book. Good luck!

The final part is now live! I hope all of you enjoyed this as much as I did. A huge thanks to the collector and there’s always the possibility of future chapters…but no promises

Pictured below is the cover to The Sundial and the published page inside (courtesy of edgosney.com). IMPORTANT NOTE: So no one accuses Jeff Smith of producing kiddie porn, the Thorn character was portrayed as a college-aged woman in the Thorn strip, as opposed to the comic book series where she’s probably 14 or so

I doubt any of you have seen something like this and it is my favorite piece of his collection. Jeff drew this full page comic strip in March 1986 for a humor magazine called The Sundial which was given out for free on the campus of Ohio State. Jeff later reprinted the single page in the Bone Reader (1996) and also expanded the story for a full 8 page feature in Disney Adventures Magazine (1994), where many people first discovered Bone. Our collector bought this around 1998 in a cash and trade deal (he traded away an unsigned 3-panel pencil sketch of Fone Bone writing his poetry). The previous owner says he obtained the page from a partner at Character Builders after Jeff sold his share to start Cartoon Books with his wife Vijaya in 1991.

Definitely sounds like an interesting piece. You need to pry it from the owner

No, his piece was created long before Jeff ever went to a comic convention. Which ones are you referring to?