Flying Colors Comics and Other Cool Stuff of Concord, CA will host Jeff Smith, creator of Bone and Rasl, in his only North American bookstore appearance of 2008 & 2009 on Saturday December 6th.  The exclusive appearance resulted from a fundraising auction for the Comic Book Legal Defense Fund that was available only to the members of ComicsPRO, the trade association for comic book retailers. 

The auction was announced at the 2008 ComicsPRO annual meeting.  Smith’s Cartoon Books was a sponsor of the ComicsPRO event.  After praising the efforts of comic book retailers in selling out the 20,000 copy print run of Rasl #1, Smith offered to make his only comic book shop appearance of the year a benefit for the CBLDF via an auction among ComicsPRO members (see “Jeff Smith Store Appearance Auction”).

Joe Field of Flying Colors, one of the founders of ComicsPRO, won the auction with a bid of $4,650, all of which will be donated to the CBLDF.  Cartoon Books is paying for all the travel and lodging expenses.

The CBLDF also announced that a number of rare Tori Amos items will be auctioned off on eBay starting at 12pm (EST) on Halloween, Friday October 31st.  The items to be auctioned include signed program tours for “Under the Pink” and “Boys for Pele” tours; Comic Book Tattoo posters signed by Tori Amos, editor Rantz Hoselely, and the creative team behind the book; as well as Rantz Hoseley’s signed, numbered and sealed limited edition hardcover copy of Comic Book Tattoo signed by Tori Amos.