''Jon Sable Freelance'' is an American

comic book A comic book, also called comicbook, comic magazine or (in the United Kingdom and Ireland) simply comic, is a publication that consists of comics art in the form of sequential juxtaposed panels that represent individual scenes. Panels are of ...

series Series may refer to: People with the name * Caroline Series (born 1951), English mathematician, daughter of George Series * George Series (1920–1995), English physicist Arts, entertainment, and media Music * Series, the ordered sets used i ...

, one of the first series created for the fledgling publisher

First Comics First Comics was an American comic book publisher that was active from 1983 to 1991, known for titles like ''American Flagg!'', ''Grimjack'', ''Nexus'', ''Badger'', ''Dreadstar'', and ''Jon Sable''. Along with competitors like Pacific Comics and ...

in 1983. It was written and drawn by

Mike Grell Mike Grell (born September 13, 1947) is an American comic book writer and artist, known for his work on books such as '' Green Lantern/Green Arrow'', '' The Warlord'', and '' Jon Sable Freelance''. Early life Grell studied at the University of W ...

and was a fully

creator-owned In the United States, creator ownership in comics is an arrangement in which the comic book creator retains full ownership of the material, regardless of whether the work is self-published or published by a corporate publisher. In some fields of ...

title. The comic was one of the first of the independent and dark superhero stories of the 1980s and "helped usher in the grim and gritty sensibility that came to define the genre."Jon Sable, Freelance" by Robert Greenberger, Critical Survey of Graphic Novels: Heroes & Superheroes, Salem Press, May 2013, p367-370. Beginning in November 2007, it was published as an online comic series by ComicMix.''Jon Sable Freelance: Ashes of Eden''
at

ComicMix IDW Publishing is an American publisher of comic books, graphic novels, art books, and comic strip collections. It was founded in 1999 as the publishing division of Idea and Design Works, LLC (IDW), itself formed in 1999, and is regularly recog ...

Publication history

At a convention in the late 1980s, Grell stated that his idea for Sable was heavily influenced by

Ian Fleming Ian Lancaster Fleming (28 May 1908 – 12 August 1964) was a British writer who is best known for his postwar ''James Bond'' series of spy novels. Fleming came from a wealthy family connected to the merchant bank Robert Fleming & Co., a ...

James Bond The ''James Bond'' series focuses on a fictional British Secret Service agent created in 1953 by writer Ian Fleming, who featured him in twelve novels and two short-story collections. Since Fleming's death in 1964, eight other authors have ...

novels as well as drawing on pulp fiction crime stories saying "something like a cross between James Bond and

Mickey Spillane Frank Morrison Spillane (; March 9, 1918July 17, 2006), better known as Mickey Spillane, was an American crime novelist, whose stories often feature his signature detective character, Mike Hammer (character), Mike Hammer. More than 225 million c ...

Mike Hammer Michael Hammer or Mike Hammer may refer to: *Michael Armand Hammer (1955–2022), American philanthropist and businessman *Michael Martin Hammer (1948–2008), engineer and author *Mike Hammer (character), a fictional hard boiled detective ** ''Mick ...

". Also, many of the stories of Sable's hunting exploits in Africa were influenced by

Peter Hathaway Capstick Peter Hathaway Capstick (1940–1996) was an American hunter and author. He was born in New Jersey and educated at the University of Virginia although he was not a graduate. Capstick walked away from a successful Wall Street career shortly befor ...

's novels, while Grell also drew on his own military experience. ''Jon Sable Freelance'' lasted 56 issues from June

1983 The year 1983 saw both the official beginning of the Internet and the first mobile cellular telephone call. Events January * January 1 – The migration of the ARPANET to Internet protocol suite, TCP/IP is officially completed (this is consid ...

to February

1988 File:1988 Events Collage.png, From left, clockwise: The oil platform Piper Alpha explodes and collapses in the North Sea, killing 165 workers; The USS Vincennes (CG-49) mistakenly shoots down Iran Air Flight 655; Australia celebrates its Australian ...

before being cancelled. While Grell wrote and drew all the covers, his last issue of interior art was #43. Late in this run Grell announced in the comic's own text pages that

Tony DeZuniga Antony de Zuñiga (November 8, 1932 – May 11, 2012) who worked primarily under the name Tony DeZuniga, was a Filipino comics artist and illustrator best known for his works for DC Comics. He co-created the fictional characters Jonah Hex and ...

would soon join him as the new artist. Just what happened to these plans is unclear, but soon the series was suspended, and after a few months,

Marv Wolfman Marvin Arthur Wolfman (born May 13, 1946) is an American comic book and novelization writer. He worked on Marvel Comics's ''The Tomb of Dracula'', for which he and artist Gene Colan created the vampire-slayer Blade, and DC Comics's '' The New Te ...

was writing and

Bill Jaaska William C. Jaaska (June 22, 1961 – November 9, 2009) was an American comics artist. Career Bill Jaaska's first published comics work was a Skywolf story in ''Airboy'' #11 (Dec. 1986). He worked with Peter David on ''The Incredible Hulk''. Dav ...

was drawing a new series called ''Sable'', with Grell having no part. This lasted 27 issues before cancellation. Marv Wolfman abruptly left the series after issue #23 and comic book fan Steve Kaye took over the writing chores for the final four issues. Fan favorite artist Tim Vigil provided covers for the remaining issues. A third First Comics series, ''Mike Grell's Sable'', reprinted the first ten issues of the original ''Jon Sable Freelance'' series. There was also a tie-in

miniseries A miniseries or mini-series is a television series that tells a story in a predetermined, limited number of episodes. "Limited series" is another more recent US term which is sometimes used interchangeably. , the popularity of miniseries format h ...

featuring one of the semi-recurring characters, a thief called ''Maggie The Cat'', at

Image Comics Image Comics is an American comic book publisher and is the third largest comic book and graphic novel publisher in the industry in both unit and market share. It was founded in 1992 by several high-profile illustrators as a venue for creator-ow ...

in 1996. Only 2 issues were released and the series was never completed. In 1997 Grell announced to write and draw the character in a new black-and-white ''Jon Sable Freelance'' from

Caliber Comics Caliber Comics or Caliber Press is an American comic book publisher founded in 1989 by Gary Reed. Featuring primarily creator-owned comics, Caliber published over 1,300 comics in the decade following its inception and is ranked as one of America ...

, debuting in October, but the series never materialized. After the title's cancellation (and First's ceasing operations), the character made some cameo appearances in some of Grell's other titles over the years. He did not receive his own series again until March 2005, when

IDW Publishing IDW Publishing is an American publisher of comic books, graphic novels, art books, and comic strip collections. It was founded in 1999 as the publishing division of Idea and Design Works, LLC (IDW), itself formed in 1999, and is regularly recog ...

released the first of a new six-issue mini-series titled ''Jon Sable Freelance: Bloodtrail'' (originally announced as ''Jon Sable, Freelance: Conspiracy'') written and drawn by Grell. IDW have also been reprinting the entire original run in a series of trade paperbacks. A new series, ''Jon Sable: Ashes of Eden'', began publication as an online series in November 2007, and was published as a 5-issue mini-series beginning in 2009 and ending in 2010.

Fictional character biography

Jonathan Sable was a bounty hunter and mercenary who previously had been an athlete in the

1972 Munich Olympic Games The 1972 Summer Olympics (), officially known as the Games of the XX Olympiad () and commonly known as Munich 1972 (german: München 1972), was an international multi-sport event held in Munich, West Germany, from 26 August to 11 September 1972. ...

. After witnessing the terrorist outrages at those games, he married a fellow athlete and they relocated to

Rhodesia Rhodesia (, ), officially from 1970 the Republic of Rhodesia, was an unrecognised state in Southern Africa from 1965 to 1979, equivalent in territory to modern Zimbabwe. Rhodesia was the ''de facto'' successor state to the British colony of S ...

, where Sable became an organizer of

safari A safari (; ) is an overland journey to observe wild animals, especially in eastern or southern Africa. The so-called "Big Five" game animals of Africa – lion, leopard, rhinoceros, elephant, and Cape buffalo – particularly form an importa ...

s for tourists, and later a

game warden A conservation officer is a law enforcement officer who protects wildlife and the environment. A conservation officer may also be referred to as an environmental technician or technologist, game warden, forest ranger, forest watcher, forest gu ...

. It was during this time his family was murdered by poachers. After avenging his slain family, Sable returned to the USA and became a freelance mercenary. He also has a double identity as a successful

children's book Children's literature or juvenile literature includes stories, books, magazines, and poems that are created for children. Modern children's literature is classified in two different ways: genre or the intended age of the reader. Children's ...

writer under the name of "B.B. Flemm". Unlike many such characters, his literary agent is aware of his other identity's activities, but is most persuasive in enforcing his writing contract obligations as well.

Legacy

''Jon Sable Freelance'' was the third release from First Comics and the company's first from a high-profile creator, with the appeal of the comic even outlasting its publisher. The pioneering creator-owned comic was also one of the first of the independent and dark superhero stories of the 1980s and, as described in ''Critical Survey of Graphic Novels: Heroes & Superheroes'', "helped usher in the grim and gritty sensibility that came to define the genre.

Publishers Weekly ''Publishers Weekly'' (''PW'') is an American weekly trade news magazine targeted at publishers, librarians, booksellers, and literary agents. Published continuously since 1872, it has carried the tagline, "The International News Magazine of B ...

has described the series as featuring "an unstoppable hero, realism in the weaponry and settings, lots of beautiful women and a combination of action and detection." KISS frontman

Gene Simmons Gene Simmons (born Chaim Witz; he, חיים ויץ, ; born August 25, 1949) is an Israeli-American musician. Also known by his stage persona The Demon, he is the bassist and co-lead singer of Kiss, the hard rock band he co-founded with Paul ...

is a fan of the comic and purchased the rights to the series earlier in his career with the hope of turning it into a big action movie with

Pierce Brosnan Pierce Brendan Brosnan (; born 16 May 1953) is an Irish actor and film producer. He is best known as the fifth actor to play secret agent James Bond in the Bond film series, starring in four films from 1995 to 2002 (''GoldenEye'', ''Tomorrow ...

as the lead. Simmons even starred in the lead role in an un-aired pilot for the eventual Sable TV show.''Age of TV Heroes: The Live-Action Adventures of Your Favorite Comic Book Characters'' by Jason Hofius and George Khoury, TwoMorrows Publishing, 2010, page 13.

Collected editions

The series have been collected into individual volumes by

: *''The Complete Jon Sable, Freelance'' (softcover): **''Volume 1'' (collects #1-6, ) **''Volume 2'' (collects #7-11, ) **''Volume 3'' (collects #12-16, ) **''Volume 4'' (collects #17-21, ) **''Volume 5'' (collects #22-27, ) **''Volume 6'' (collects #28-33, ) **''Volume 7'' (collects #34-39, ) **''Volume 8'' (collects #40-45, ) **''Omnibus Volume 1'' (collects #1-16, ) **''Omnibus Volume 2'' (collects #17-33, ) **''Omnibus Volume 3'' (collects #34-45, ) **''Omnibus Volume 4'' (collects #??-??, ) *''Jon Sable, Freelance: Bloodtrail'' (collects'' Jon Sable, Freelance: Bloodtrail ''#1-6, ) *''Jon Sable Freelance: Ashes of Eden'' (collects ''Jon Sable Freelance: Ashes of Eden ''#1-5, )

In other media

Television

The first series also spawned a short-lived 1987 ABC TV series, called ''

Sable The sable (''Martes zibellina'') is a species of marten, a small omnivorous mammal primarily inhabiting the forest environments of Russia, from the Ural Mountains throughout Siberia, and northern Mongolia. Its habitat also borders eastern Kaza ...

''. Seven episodes were filmed. The aired pilot also included

Lara Flynn Boyle Lara Flynn Boyle (born March 24, 1970) is an American actress. She is best known for her role as Donna Hayward in the television series ''Twin Peaks'' (1990–1991). After portraying Stacy in Penelope Spheeris's comedy ''Wayne's World'' (1992), ...

, as a kidnap victim, in her first acting role. The TV series was notable only for its changes to the premise, and for introducing supermodel turned actress

Rene Russo Rene Marie Russo (born February 17, 1954) is an American actress and model. She began her career as a fashion model in the 1970s, appearing on magazine covers such as ''Vogue'' and ''Cosmopolitan''. She made her film debut in the 1989 comedy '' ...

to audiences as one of the leads. In the TV series, instead of Sable being the public face and masquerading as a children's book author, "Nicholas Fleming" was the children's book author and Sable the mysterious masked do-gooder. Sable was wanted for murder in Africa, and the vaguely effete Fleming persona was the only way he could live safely in Chicago. A new character for the TV series was "Cheesecake" Tyson, played by Broadway actor

Ken Page Ken Page (born January 20, 1954) is an American actor and singer. Page created the role of "Ken" in the original Broadway production of '' Ain't Misbehavin, and played the role of "Old Deuteronomy" in both the original Broadway and filmed stag ...

as a hacker friend who inevitably supplied exposition.

Novel

Grell wrote a prose novel featuring the character, simply titled ''Sable'', which was published in hardcover in 2000 and in paperback in 2001. The book was partly adapted from early issues of the comic series, with some changes in chronology.

References

External links

* * *{{comicbookdb, type=character, id=10431, title=Jon Sable
Jon Sable
at

Don Markstein's Toonopedia Don Markstein's Toonopedia (subtitled A Vast Repository of Toonological Knowledge) is an online encyclopedia of print cartoons, comic strips and animation, initiated February 13, 2001. Donald D. Markstein, the sole writer and editor of Toonopedi ...

Archived
from the original on October 21, 2016. 1983 comics debuts 2005 comics debuts 2007 comics debuts 2009 comics debuts Characters created by Mike Grell Comics by Marv Wolfman Comics characters introduced in 1983 Defunct American comics Sable, Jon Sable, Jon First Comics titles IDW Publishing titles Comics adapted into television series