Signed First Hardcover

Out from Boneville: Bone, Volume One [Hardcover]

Smith, Jeff

Notes: The hardcover issue of the first graphic novel volume of the collected Bone series, collecting the first six installments (of 55) originally published between 1991 and 1993. Bone features three Schmoo-like brothers and alternates between comedy and drama in the storytelling. When I was running a general new-and-used bookshop, we steadily sold the complete Bone, a War and Peace length book of 1344 pages, to kids who couldn't get enough.

Like many graphic novels, the bibliography can be confusing. This first volume (of nine) in graphic novel format reproduces the original black-and-white version. The comic was later colorized and revised. This graphic novel was first published in paperback, in 1993. This is the hardcover reissue, published as the series gained popularity. While Smith has made various deals with comic books and children's book publishers at various times, this book and the complete Bone are produced by his own publishing company, making him one on only a handful of comics creators who control their work.

"The sales of the first Bone graphic novel, Out of Boneville, [50,000 copies in the first 18 months] produced by a tiny company, was a powerful demonstration of the emerging graphic novel format. Bone became one of the most celebrated comic book series, winning forty-one awards for a storyline running fifty-five issues long."—The Cambridge Companion to the Graphic Novel, p. 47.

Edition + Condition: First hardcover edition (first printing with a numberline ending in 1). A fine copy in a fine dust jacket. Signed by Smith on the half-title. Uncommon signed.

Publication: Columbus, OH: Cartoon Books, 1995.

ISBN: 0963660993

Item No: #361868

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