# Is "Bone #1 (comic)" by Jeff Smith a First Edition?

> **Quick answer.** A first edition of Bone #1 (comic) by Jeff Smith (Cartoon Books, 1991) is identified by: Self-published black-and-white first issue, July 1991, the printed price. First appearance of the Bone cousins (Fone Bone, Phoney Bone, Smiley Bone), Thorn, and the Rat Creatures; among the most sought self-published indie keys of the 1990s.

**Checklist — a true first has these:**
- Self-published black-and-white first issue, July 1991, the printed price
- The decisive identifier of the true first printing is the RED Bone logo on the cover (later printings use other logo colors); the first printing carries the Cartoon Books indicia with the 1991 date and no printing notation
- Later printings (more than a dozen exist, including tenth-anniversary, Wizard, and Image editions) are explicitly marked and far more common
- The first printing had a very low print run
- Correct publisher/imprint: Cartoon Books

| | |
|---|---|
| Author | Jeff Smith |
| Publisher | Cartoon Books |
| Year | 1991 |
| True first | world edition |
| Format | Comic / graphic novel |
| Key point | Self-published black-and-white first issue, July 1991, the printed price |
| Book-club edition exists? | No |

## Points of issue
Self-published black-and-white first issue, July 1991, the printed price. The decisive identifier of the true first printing is the RED Bone logo on the cover (later printings use other logo colors); the first printing carries the Cartoon Books indicia with the 1991 date and no printing notation. Later printings (more than a dozen exist, including tenth-anniversary, Wizard, and Image editions) are explicitly marked and far more common. The first printing had a very low print run.

## Is this the true first?
First appearance of the Bone cousins (Fone Bone, Phoney Bone, Smiley Bone), Thorn, and the Rat Creatures; among the most sought self-published indie keys of the 1990s. The genuine collectible is the 1991 first-print floppy with the red logo, not the later 'Complete Cartoon Epic in One Volume' omnibus (first issued 2004), which is a separate 'first thus.'

## Telling it from reprints & book-club editions
No book-club edition. Distinguish the scarce 1991 first print from the many marked reprints by the red logo, the absence of a printing number, and the original indicia. The one-volume omnibus and the Scholastic Graphix color editions are entirely later.

## Source
New Mexico Literacy Project — Is *Bone #1 (comic)* by Jeff Smith a first edition? https://newmexicoliteracyproject.org/first-edition/bone-1-comic
CC BY 4.0. Part of the Canonical First-Edition Points of Issue dataset (https://newmexicoliteracyproject.org/api/first-edition-titles.json). Last reviewed 2026-07-04.