Bone Appreciation Thread 9 9

[Captain ShipWreck]

On 9/25/2023 at 1:37 PM, DocGo said:

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

Heroes Con 1994 program back cover/ 2023 front cover. Jeff sent a drawing in a reply letter saying he would do the show and they could use this image for the program. I've spoken to the owner about it once a while ago and I believe it was a pencil sketch he had inked by a few different artists. The other is a cover from the Bone run. It was gifted years ago when Bone was still coming out.

[DocGo]

On 9/25/2023 at 3:42 PM, Captain ShipWreck said:

Heroes Con 1994 program back cover/ 2023 front cover. Jeff sent a drawing in a reply letter saying he would do the show and they could use this image for the program. I've spoken to the owner about it once a while ago and I believe it was a pencil sketch he had inked by a few different artists. The other is a cover from the Bone run. It was gifted years ago when Bone was still coming out.

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

[DocGo]

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.

 

[DocGo]

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 

[inscrutable]

On 9/28/2023 at 3:20 PM, DocGo said:

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.

 

I've never seen the hand lettering that would later become his signature font. That is super cool.

[Aaroncash]

Thought the folks here would appreciate this picture of my ever growing issue #1 collection. Going to send a few of these in for pressing and regrade.

[DocGo]

On 10/1/2023 at 10:13 PM, Aaroncash said:

Thought the folks here would appreciate this picture of my ever growing issue #1 collection. Going to send a few of these in for pressing and regrade.

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! 

[Aaroncash]

On 10/2/2023 at 9:16 AM, DocGo said:

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! 

100% agreed! A few of the books definitely suffer from issues that pressing could help minimize. Unfortunately, as we all know with this book, the dark front cover and full black back cover makes color breaks and spine stress easy to see (which pressing obviously does nothing for).

[tom leckrone]

On 8/29/2023 at 6:57 PM, ADAMANTIUM said:

I was hyped for your registry, until the 6.5, but idk if that would detour your or not. Or wasn't it you that was thinking 1-10 ss? Or were you meaning that it is a qualified 6.5? And signed by an artist who is no longer able? But at least with a C.O.A.?

 

[tom leckrone]

Inside signing

[tom leckrone]

BTW... Jeff is MUCH  more than able.  He's doing very well.

[DocGo]

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

[DocGo]

On 10/11/2023 at 3:08 PM, tom leckrone said:

Inside signing

Very happy to see this! Apologies for assuming the worst

Good luck on the auction!

[Legion HQ]

On 10/18/2023 at 12:15 PM, DocGo said:

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

It literally only took a few minutes for the Kickstarter to blow past its goals. Wow.

I opted for the $150 tier with the Bone Evolution signed print. 

[unagi]

On 3/3/2023 at 10:59 AM, DocGo said:

Back to comics.

For whatever reason, I've never had a solid copy NM/MT copy of #35. Most of my buying of raw Bone comics occurred between 2008 & 2010 with infrequent purchases between 2012 & 2016. I probably have 8-10 copies of this issue and they're all NM+ at best with an average grade of NM. Even the two below, which I thought had a chance before their journey started, were accurately graded by CGC and I should have seen the issues beforehand. The second one has an unfortunate NCB crease on the front cover that appears to be too difficult to press out. Oh well.

FYI, it's not my intent to disparage 9.6s in this thread . I started this collection with the goal of having the first 8 issues in blue label 9.8s and the rest in yellow label 9.8s. It's been a whole lotta fun as well as incredibly challenging. I'm getting very close to the end so some minor frustrations tend to surface with the last remaining books

Now’s your chance on the 9.8 #35 https://www.ebay.com/itm/256133229200

Edited October 23 by unagi

[DocGo]

On 10/23/2023 at 2:15 AM, unagi said:

Now’s your chance on the 9.8 #35 https://www.ebay.com/itm/256133229200

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

[DocGo]

On 10/11/2023 at 3:06 PM, tom leckrone said:

 

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

[DocGo]

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 

[Pixx_L]

[DocGo]

On 10/23/2023 at 1:43 PM, DocGo said:

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

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 .