Flying Colors Comics & Other Cool Stuff of Concord, CA will host Jeff Smith, creator of the best-selling BONE and RASL series, in his only North American book store appearance of 2008 & 2009 on Saturday December 6.

The exclusive appearance was bid on as part of a fundraising auction available only to members of ComicsPRO, the trade association for comic book specialty retailers. The winning bid amount of $4650.00 will be donated in its entirety to the Comic Book Legal Defense Fund.

"I've known Jeff Smith and both admired and been an enthusiastic retailer of his work for more than 15 years, but this will be the first time his legions of fans will be able to come meet him at Flying Colors Comics," said Field. "Knowing Jeff has also admired the work ComicsPRO does on behalf of all comics specialty retailers coupled with the splash this makes for the CBLDF makes this even more special."

The auction idea was conceived at the 2008 ComicsPRO Annual Meeting, of which Cartoon Books, publisher of BONE and RASL, was a sponsor. After praising the effort of comics specialty retailers in selling out the initial 20,000 print run of RASL #1, Smith offered to make his only comic book shop appearance this year a benefit for the Comic Book Legal Defense Fund via the ComicsPRO auction.

"I owe everything to the comic shop owners who continue to believe in Cartoon Books and my work. The membership of ComicsPRO are among the best of the best," said Jeff Smith. "Any retailer dedicated to selling comics in the specialty market needs to seriously consider joining ComicsPRO, as well as support the important work of the Comic Book Legal Defense Fund. I'm also excited to finally do an event at Joe Field's Flying Colors Comics."

"The Comic Book Legal Defense Fund is moved by the generosity of Joe Field and all the other ComicsPRO members who bid on this unprecedented auction," said Charles Brownstein, executive director of CBLDF. "We're also grateful to Jeff Smith, Vijaya Iyer, and the team at Cartoon Books for going above and beyond to support the Fund and the membership of ComicsPRO. This effort will go a long way towards helping us perform our important work in this season as we support the defense of Iowa collector Christopher Handley."

Jeff Smith is the award-winning creator of the beloved BONE series, originally published by Cartoon Books and now being published in color by Scholastic Books. Time magazine selected BONE as one of the 10 greatest graphic novels of all time. Cartoon Books will publish the first collection of Smith's new sci-fi series RASL, titled "The Drift," this winter. Recently for DC Comics, he wrote and drew SHAZAM! Monster Society of Evil.

Joe Field of Flying Colors Comics & Other Cool Stuff of Concord, CA is a proud recipient of the Will Eisner "Spirit of Comics" Award for Retailing Excellence, a "Hall-of-Fame" award recognized internationally among comic book professionals. He is also President of ComicsPRO and the founder of Free Comic Book Day, the comic industry's only concerted outreach event.

The Comic Book Legal Defense Fund was founded in 1986 as a 501(c) 3 non-profit organization dedicated to the preservation of First Amendment rights for members of the comics community. They have defended dozens of Free Expression cases in courts across the United States, and led important education initiatives promoting comics literacy and free expression. For additional information, donations, and other inquiries call 800-99-CBLDF or visit http://www.cbldf.org or http://www.myspace.com/cbldf.

ComicsPRO is the only retailer trade and advocacy group for comic book specialty retailers, providing group benefits and an industry voice for its constantly growing membership. Information and applications for membership are available at http://ComicsPRO.org. For further inquiries, please contact ComicsPRO's Communications Coordinator Amanda Emmert at info@comicspro.org.

Rare Tori Amos Items Benefit CBLDF on eBay This Halloween!

Starting this Friday, the Comic Book Legal Defense Fund is auctioning off several rare and one of a kind Tori Amos collectibles from the personal collection of Comic Book Tattoo editor Rantz Hoseley!

Items up for bid include signed tour programs from the Under the Pink and Boys for Pele tours and Comic Book Tattoo posters signed by Tori Amos, Rantz Hoseley, and the creative team behind the book. Most excitingly, we are offering Rantz Hoseley's signed, sealed, and numbered file copy of the sold out,limited edition slipcased hardcover of Comic Book Tattoo--signed by Tori herself!

The auctions will go live at 12pm EST on Friday, October 31st! To bid on these items, please go to: http://www.cbldf.org/ebay

All proceeds will benefit the Comic Book Legal Defense Fund!