Jon Sable:Freelance was one of the very first titles created for the fledging First Comics back in 1983.It was written and drawn by Mike Grell and was a fully creator owned title as all of First Comics titles were. First Comics was an American publisher of comic books. ... 1983 is a common year starting on Saturday of the Gregorian calendar. ... Mike Grell (born 1947) is a comic book writer and artist. ... First Comics was an American publisher of comic books. ...

Origins And Influences

The character of Sable was that of a bounty hunter and mercenary who had started as an athlete who competed in the 1972 Munich Olympic Games.After witnessing the terrorist outrages at those games he married a fellow athlete and they relocated to Rhodesia where Sable became an organiser of safaris for tourists.It was during this time his family were killed by poachers and this caused Sable to take the path he did. A bounty hunter is an individual who seeks out fugitives for a monetary reward. ... A mercenary is a soldier who fights, or engages in warfare primarily for private gain, usually with little regard for ideological, national or political considerations. ... 1972 was a leap year that started on a Saturday. ... Munich: Frauenkirche and Town Hall steeple Munich (German: München (pronounced listen) is the state capital of the German state of Bavaria. ... The Olympic Games, or Olympics, is an international multi-sport event taking place every two years and alternating between Summer and Winter Games. ... Look up terrorist in Wiktionary, the free dictionary. ... This article is about the former British colony of (Southern) Rhodesia , today Zimbabwe. ...

He also has a double identity as a successful children's book writer under the name of B.B Flemm

The character was also heavily influenced by Ian Fleming's James Bond novels as well as drawing on pulp fiction crime stories. Ian Fleming Ian Lancaster Fleming (May 28, 1908 – August 12, 1964) was an English author, best remembered for writing the James Bond series of novels as well as the childrens story, Chitty Chitty Bang Bang. ... James Bond is best known from the EON Productions film series. ...

History

Jon Sable:Freelance lasted 56 issues from 1983 to 1988 before being cancelled.It did have a brief spin off called Mike Grell's Sable which lasted 10 issues before cancellation.This spin off was a tie-in to the short lived TV series simply called Sable. 1983 is a common year starting on Saturday of the Gregorian calendar. ... 1988 is a leap year starting on a Friday of the Gregorian calendar. ...

There was also a tie in mini series featuring one of the semi recurring characters, a thief called Maggie The Cat who featured in her own self-titled mini-series.

After the title's cancellation the character has made some cameo appearences in some of Grell's other titles over the years but never in his own title. That is until March 2005 when IDW Publishing released the first of a new 6 issue mini-series titled Jon Sable, Freelance: Conspiracy written and drawn by Grell.On top of that, IDW have been reprinting the entire original run in a series of trade paperbacks. 2005(MMV) is a common year starting on Saturday of the Gregorian calendar. ...

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 adapted from early issues of the comic series, with some changes in chronology.

External Links

Mike Grell interview discussing Sable's revival