Mike Grell keeps turning up in these posts. A few posts back it was his painted cover for The Warlord #100. This time it’s his other big creation, Jon Sable, in a book Grell had nothing to do with. Sable #5 comes from the 1988 relaunch at First Comics, when Marv Wolfman took over the character.
The basics
- Title: Sable #5, “Fatal Mistakes”
- Publisher: First Comics
- Cover date: July 1988
- Cover price: $1.75 ($2.45 Canada)
- Writer: Marv Wolfman
- Pencils: Denys Cowan
- Inks: Paul Guinan
- Letters: Clif Jackson
- Colors: Julia Lacquement
- Editor: Laurel Fitch
Who is Jon Sable?
Grell created Jon Sable for First Comics in 1983. According to Wikipedia, Sable competed in the 1972 Munich Olympics, then moved to Africa, where he ran safaris and later worked as a game warden. After poachers murdered his family, he took his revenge, came back to the US and went to work as a freelance mercenary.
The best part is his cover story. When he isn’t hunting people down, Sable writes children’s books under the name B.B. Flemm. It’s a great setup: a hard-edged action hero whose day job is writing kids’ stories.
Grell’s original Jon Sable, Freelance ran 56 issues, from 1983 to early 1988.
The Wolfman relaunch
A few months after Grell’s series ended, First brought the character back as just Sable, with Marv Wolfman writing and Bill Jaaska as the regular artist. Grell wasn’t involved, though he still gets a “created by” credit inside. This issue is drawn by Denys Cowan with inks by Paul Guinan rather than Jaaska. The new series ran 27 issues. Wolfman left suddenly after #23, and Steve Kaye wrote the final four.
The relaunch came right after Sable’s short run on network TV.
The TV show
ABC’s Sable ran for seven episodes from November 1987 to January 1988, with Lewis Van Bergen as Sable and Rene Russo in her first TV role. The show split the hero in two: Nicholas Fleming wrote the children’s books, and Sable was the masked vigilante. It didn’t last, but there’s a fun piece of trivia here. Before it was made, Gene Simmons of KISS owned the rights and starred as Sable in an earlier pilot that never aired.
This issue
The story is called “Fatal Mistakes,” and the cover pitch is simple: “Theft and treachery trap Sable in a fight he cannot win!”
There’s a fun wink on the credits page, too. One character complains that “there hasn’t been anything good on since they cancelled that show last December.” With the ABC series pulled off the air that winter, it’s hard not to read that as a little nod to Sable’s own TV show.
The cover is a good one. Sable is lit up in profile with his black mask of face paint and silver hair, holding a pistol and looking back over his shoulder at a figure with a rifle on their back lighting a cigarette in the woods. It’s a starry purple night, with a big tree trunk splitting the scene and the scratchy orange Sable logo above “Return of the Hunter.” The corner box carries First Comics’ fifth-anniversary logo (1982 to 1987).
Is it worth anything?
Not much. PriceCharting puts ungraded copies at about $2, based on a handful of completed eBay sales. This is a cheap way to try the series, or the start of a run.
Where to read more
If this one hooks you, go back to Grell’s original Jon Sable, Freelance run. That’s where the character was built.