Bone #17 Letter Page - Dan T. Davis

From: Dan T. Davis

To: Jeff Smith

Date: 22-Sep-94 19:35:00

Subject: Bone Cards in Extremis

First, a sincere thank you.

I've collected comics all my life, and I've been married to a wonderful person for 15 years. BUT, she has never shared my interest in comics, and I have had several failures in trying to get her to share my interest in them.

But, with BONE, she has done a complete about face. Every new BONE is read by her FIRST; she wants to find out what happens next. Every time I go to the comic store, she asks if BONE came out. She might even go through my stack to see if I am holding out on her (to surprise her later).

So, for that, I am deeply indebted to you.

Also, I just moved to rural North Carolina, but while revisiting Cincinnati, I picked up a few of the "Bone Cards" to give to her as one of our anniversary surprises. I SHOULD have simply bought a "set of 90", but, no, I decided to reprise my childhood and assemble a set myself.

In doing so, I was "caught in the act", and my wife eagerly jumped in. It was BONE! We were slightly short the set, so we went and bought a few more packs. We completed the set, but, suddenly a "chromium" card appeared in one of the packs. Jan oohed and aahed and said "How many of THESE are there?"

At her insistence, we rushed to the comic store just before they closed on Sunday (we were leaving Cincinnati Monday morning). I kept her down to 20 more packs, and "that was it".

Sure enough, we got one more chromium card. Not enough. It was BONE! (She had not seen some of these covers - we started collecting at #7 after buying the #1-#6 collection).

Thus, even though the store opened at 11am on Monday, and we were leaving around 8am, she said, "let's just drive by the store". Jeff just happened to be in, and even though I'd moved, as a long term customer he let us in.

THIRTY FOUR PACKS LATER, we had a total of 4 chromium cards and 6 full sets of 90. It was also after 10am! I finally persuaded her to leave, after bribing her with current printings of Bone #2-6 so she could see the covers (Jeff didn't have #1).

As we drove away (finally), she said, "Let's go ahead and buy the other 2 chromium cards later in Atlanta or Orlando (where we are going in the next week). I blithely said, "well, Jeff says they are about $8 each if he had any - we might as well buy a box and sift them out...." - Her response: "CAN WE?????"

A quick turn around, and $35 got us a sealed box. Today, back in North Carolina, we opened and found we now had about 12 sets of 90, and 6 chromium cards (one repeat). I promised to trade the extra for the one she is missing in either Atlanta or Orlando.

Now, I ALMOST wasn't going to thank you for this, but in reality, this has been the best present I've had in a long time. You see, Jan just had her third miscarriage two weeks ago; we've been trying to have children for almost ten years. She has been extremely depressed; during this "Bone Card" incident, she has been smiling, excited, and happy. I may have 11 extra sets of cards, but seeing her recovering from her depression quickly has been wonderful. I may have spent over $100 just for Bone Cards, but it's the best $100 I've ever spent. And the $2.95 for each comic is even cheaper.

I've gone on for a while, but I thought you'd be interested in the impact your comic has had.

Thank you.

Dan

Jeff's reply:

Wow, what an amazing letter! At first I thought some of it was too personal to run in a letter column, but after talking to Dan and Jan over Compuserve, they assured me that in their case the opposite is true. Not only do they think couples should talk more about tragedies like this, Jan and Dan are currently at work on a book about the subject. Good luck, guys!

Printed in Bone #17, January 1995

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