MIKE GRELL'S JON SABLE RETURNS @ IDW

[MattBrady]

Making the announcement at his website, Mike Grell has confirmed that Jon Sable, Freelance will return to comics in a new miniseries to be published by IDW. The miniseries is slated to debut in March of 2005, coinciding with the re-release of collections of the original comics which were published by First from 1983-1988.

As the character was originally created, Jon Sable saw his family killed by poachers after he had tried to stop the poachers from preying on endanged species in Africa. The murder of his family forever changed Sable, and he disappeared. Years later, living under the assumed identity of popular children’s book writer B.B. Flemm, Sable led a double life – author when he needed to be, but mercenary for the right price.

The series ran for 56 issues, both written and drawn by Grell. After the final issue, the series was relaunched as Sable, with Marv Wolfman writing. Sable lasted 27 issues, before ending in 1990.

”I'm very excited to be working on this new miniseries. Not only is SABLE my favorite among all the characters I've ever created, he's also the right kind of hero for today's world - less than perfect but doing his best, willing to face any danger for what's right, and absolutely relentless when he's on the hunt,” Grell said on his site.

Sable will be the second First propoerty to land at IDW. The company has already announced that it will publish new adventures of John Ostrander and Tim Truman's Grimjack.

[Wordsmith]

This is wonderful news! I still have good memories of Grell's work on this book in the 80s!

[drdash]

this is great! and i was just thinking about sable. i'll definitely be getting this one.

ciao
drdash

[jedbartlett]

This is awesome news!

Jon Sable was one of the best comics of the 80s, both best-selling and critically acclaimed.

I've been waiting for Grell to write and draw a new series for years. I now have a reason to go to a comic shop again.

Jed

[quigleytree]

Hey Guys,

To anyone not in the panel on Saturday afternoon, you missed the first public announcement that Jon Sable was returning. Mike Grell made this announcement in Baltimore, at the Baltimore Comic-Con this weekend.

Saturday afternoon, we had (from left to right) : Steve Rude, Marc Hempel, Mark Wheatley, Mike Gold, Mike Grell, Tim Truman, and Howard Chaykin. They talked for over an hour about all of the plans they had to reprints of existing and new material featuring the First characters. They also shared their memories of what it was like to work at First Comics, as one of the early success stories of the independent market.

Clearly, we have covered American Flagg! and Grimjack already. But also, Mike Grell announced the Jon Sable plans. Marc and Mark talked about a massive 280+ page collection of Mars. Steve Rude talked about Dark Horse reprinting Nexus. Mike Gold hinted that there are plans for Badger as well.

It was fun to attend this panel. Thanks to all of the creators for coming out to Baltimore.

Later,
Brad.

[ElijahSnowFan]

First, let me see that I am excited to see books like Jon Sable, Grimjack, and American Flagg! returning, in any format. Hopefully, Nexus and Badger won't be too far behind (First Comics fans are still out there!)

And that brings me to my rant. I'm 35 now, and I've read comics since the mid-70s -- I started as a child, like most everyone. I still read them, selected ones, to this day, and enjoy them immensely.

But I absolutely despise what happened to this industry in the late 80s-early 90s, so much so that I STILL grit my teeth when I see the name Rob Liefeld. Or Fabian Nicieza. Or Scott Lobdell. I still avoid Marvel Comics, even though Chris Claremont is doing some X-Men work, and I see that Peter David is doing some work on the Hulk. And when I see multiple relaunches and specialty covers and multi-title crossovers, I simply gag.

It's like if you go out to eat at a restaurant and you got horrible service and terrible food. You pay, but you sure as hell aren't going back anytime soon.

Companies like First Comics and Comico (remember Elementals, anyone?), among others, aren't the first publishers to go out of business, and they won't be the last.

But it nauseates me to this day that talented writers and artists with original ideas and great stories are so often underappreciated, while publishers like Marvel and DC continue to churn out the mindless drivel that they do. Totally ignoring quality for the sake of quantity -- so, how many X-Men related titles are there now? How about Batman?

Then I see Liefeld and Nicieza are back at the scene of one of their earliest crimes with X-Force, and it makes me want to scream some more. I don't care how long ago it was, or what titles they worked on, or how many copies they sold. Hacks like them -- yes, I said HACKS -- shouldn't even be allowed to create comics.

Liefeld's "work" at Image was so absolutely worthless that not one -- NOT ONE -- of his characters or books is still being published today. I know what I've read about his departure, but I submit to you that not a single one of his books or characters was memorable enough to even warrant publishing, even if they HAD been on time and he had been a good partner at Image.

Nicieza was just as bad, slapping together such poorly plotted and written comics he, along with Lobdell, absolutely destroyed whatever Marvel title they touched, especially X-Men. (Gee, anybody up for another 12-part crossover with bookend multiple covers that do absolutely nothing to develop characters? No? Then how about we create some absolutely uninspiring characters that are completely incapable of being developed enough to make ANYONE care about them? Because we can do that too.)

When an industry can publish series like Watchmen or The Dark Knight Returns, you realize just how high comics can go. When creators like Mike Grell and Matt Wagner and John Ostrander and Mike Baron, among others, can take characters and tell great stories, that is the industry giving fans choices, because the Wal-Marts of Comics, Marvel and DC, are certainly not as concerned with telling stories as they are in counting profits.

But flat-out hacks like those mentioned above -- and make no mistake, there are others, and everyone knows who they are -- will always drag this medium down. They will always make it so people like me who actually read the books, who really enjoy great stories, will continue to be repulsed by the ridiculous and rampant money-grabbing tactics that make series totally unreadable. Of course, when those series don't work, there's always another relaunch or retcon that can be done.

I've got a rule: For every book like Gaiman's early run on Sandman or Ellis and Cassaday's Planetary -- a truly wonderful, inspiring and intricate piece of art -- there are 20 books like Cable & Deadpool, books that won't even be remembered a year from now, after they're cancelled. Yet so many will pick up the churn generated by hacks, and just don't realize that there are books out there that truly are special.

So, Mike Grell, welcome back. John Ostrander, Howard Chaykin and others who have created great comics for a long time, welcome back to you, as well.

I, for one, have missed you all.

[OcCaM]

Feel better now?

Seriously, I would agree with you on Robbie and for the most part Fabian (he did drive me off of Thunderbolts somewhere around the 50's but, it wasn't THAT bad up to that point! Come to think of it Nomad was fairly decent!) Anyway, everyone has a hand in creating drek from time to time. I submit to you Howard Chaykin and Mutant X. He has a hand in directing or producing or whatever he does with that drek!

Anyway, while Deadpool/Cable and work like Austen's X-Men are indeed hack work, it's all relative. If, it's crap than hopefully noone will buy it and they'll wise up and put someone good on it. I have no sympathy for someone who whines about crap and yet still buys it.

There are many good books out there. My favorite stuff right now is the DC/Humanoids stuff coming out. I couldn't afford these much when they were hardcovers. Just purchased White Lama, TechnoPriests, Deicide, Hollow Grounds, and more. Actually, I'm glad there's a lot of crap out there. I can barely afford al the good stuff I want anyway!

Anyway, great news on Sable! It, and one other series, I have awaited eagerly for! (Actually, they were the only two series I really enjoyed from First, but really missed. I've said it a million times, but I'll say it again, WHERE THE HELL ARE THE BADGER TRADES????????????????? I want trades of my all-time favorite series. Esp. the first couple dozen issues! Phew I'm better for now!)

CrossGen (once they stopped doing all sigil books) kindof filled the void companies like First and Valiant left behind. Perhaps, with Acclaim going bankrupt we might eventually see another Quantum and Woody! Ah, one can dream.

Ah well, Sable is back for now and that will have to do!

[ElijahSnowFan]

...didn't i? man. i've held that bitterness in me for 14 years now.

anyway, i want to clarify: i didn't read that crap that those guys were producing. like most people, i was curious about Image as a new company, and i picked up a title or two, but Good Lord, some of them were so bad it was truly stunning. and Marvel -- my gosh, they were beyond belief back then. some of the things they did were just laughable. anybody remember The New Universe? any of those beauties still being published?

then speculation reached its heights, and it was amazing how many horrible books were being published. it was left and right -- i was in a comic shop the other day, and the owner was literally telling a guy on the phone that he had no interest in purchasing his collection if it had a lot of stuff from the early 90s, because he couldn't even sell what he already had. (that one had me laughing out loud.)

so really, i'm getting better now. and i've always been selective about what i buy anyway, so i don't get caught up in the crossover-oriented books anyway.

but i'm totally happy that some of these guys are coming back and generating stories. i'm loyal to those who try to put out good material, and the only way i know how to support them is by purchasing their stuff. if they still care when they write or draw it, then the quality will be there, and i'll be pretty stoked to see it.

[Fazhoul]

SWEET! I absolutely loved this series and I'm glad to see that Grell is bring back one of my favorite characters from the 80's.

[Jed Saxon]

Yay! With all the old books returning - where are new adventures of the DNAgents?

Originally posted by ElijahSnowFan
anybody remember The New Universe? any of those beauties still being published?

MDT: I'm sure this is one you get all time: the New Universe. How did that start and why did it ultimately become a comics casualty?

JS: Well, the way it started, about 2 1/2 years before our 25th anniversary, we had a staff meeting of all the vice presidents to talk about what we were going to do for it. Some ideas were bandied around.

So somebody said, "Look, this is an anniversary of a publishing event." "Well," I said, "there are two possibilities. You could start everything over from number one, like the Marvel universe reborn. Like the anniversary in May or June, all the titles wrap up the month before and start again the next month. Sort of like Marvel, 2nd edition, do it right and really make that spectacular." ... We were selling incredibly well so it wouldn't be a good idea to derail the train.

So I said, "Then let's celebrate the birth of a universe with the birth of another universe."

I walked out of there with a development budget of about $120,000 and I'd create eight titles. It was money to spend on research, sketches, things like that.

...[Tom] DeFalco came to me -- he was sort of my head editor, my assistant you might say -- he said let this be mine. This'll be my chance, he said. He said, I'll be like Archie, I'll have my own group of books. I said, you think you can handle this, here's your budget.

Months go by. Many months go by. I kept telling Tom, I want reports. I want to know what you have. I want to know what it's about. It was like almost a year and he had almost nothing. He'd come up with a couple of fairly lame characters... There was no point of difference. They were Marvel, but worse.

He hadn't spent much of the money, so we still had the money. I got together with him and Eliot Brown and we spent the day [pitching ideas]. I said, you know, the original Marvel Universe -- Stan's conception of it -- instead of doing something Superman or Green Lantern, he was really trying to do science fiction. The Fantastic Four didn't have costumes in the first issue. He was trying to be down to Earth.

The problem is Stan doesn't have any science background and the minute you start working with Kirby, you're going to get Atlantis under the ocean, the Blue Area on the Moon, a repulsor ray. It's like Kirby does fantasy, period. He wasn't a science guy either. I said, so Stan's concept was why don't we do this more realistic? ... [W]hat if we went back to that moment in time where Stan said, let's do this more realistic. We have some science background. Let's do a science fiction comic book universe, where things are based more on real science, try to make it more real. We don't have Atlantis under the ocean and the Blue Area of the Moon.

I wrote a page and presented it to the staff VPs. To Stan. This is hailed as the greatest genius since sliced bread. Stan just marveled at it. Thought it was wonderful.

Right after that, this is about the time the company had been taken private and put on the block to be sold. I'm called up to Galton's office and he says "What's your budget for the New Universe?" I said, "$120,000." He said, "How much of it have you spent?" I said, "Not much, we just got started really." He said, "We have to cut your budget." I said, "What? We have to create these titles out of thin air." He said, "You'll have to do it with $80,000." Son of a bitch!

I get a call and he says "We're cutting your budget to $40,000." I said, "What?"

The next day, he calls up and said "How much have you spent?" I said, "About $20,000." He said, "Don't spend any more."

So if you will check, the New Universe books were done volunteer by assistant editors, practically every book in that line was done by me, Archie Goodwin and an assistant editor. For free. Because we didn't have any money.

...One of the things in my business plan is that we were going to guarantee royalties or pay higher rates in order to get the big name artists to do this stuff. What artist is going to leave Iron Man to go do Potato Man unless he knows he's going to make good money to do Potato Man?

All that stuff got scrubbed. I was told, you can pay people their page rate, that's it. ... So basically, if you check the New Universe, the artists you'll find were people who couldn't get any other work. There were exceptions. Some of these guys who grew up to be contenders, like Mark Texeira and Whilce Portacio. But they were brand new. They didn't know what they doing. These kids came along and needed work.

The two people who were contenders [at the time] were John Romita, Jr. and Al Williamson, both of whom worked with me on Star Brand. They volunteered. They came to me and said, we want to work with you.

Other than that, it was me, Archie, assistant editors and anyone who couldn't get work. So, that stuff was awful. It was horrible. They didn't spend any money on promotion. I don't blame them. There was nothing to promote. The stuff was shit. Ask Stan. "Oh, I always thought it was a bad idea." He loved it, raved about it. But when the wheels came off, it was all Jim Shooter's fault.

And it probably was. If I was smarter, I probably wouldn't have gotten myself into that mess. In any case, it was a disaster, but I had help. A couple of the ideas were pretty good. A couple of the issues of Star Brand were pretty good. It was kind of a shame. It could have worked. In essence, we did the same thing with the Valiant universe. I took that same idea and did it there.

http://www.comicbookresources.com/fe...1/index3.shtml

[Starsky_Hutch76]

What I need to know is, how much is this book going to cost? As excited as I was at the prospect of new Grimjack stuff, I'm not going to buy it if it's $3.99 an issue like most IDW books. Same goes for John Sable.

[tricksterpup]

All I can say is that my prayers are being answered.
I will get this series, looking forward to the rerelease of Scout, Grimjack and American Flagg. Now I can wish for are new Hunter Rose stories from Wagner.

[dollman]

As Mr. Burns often says....EXCELLENT!

I'm glad the First characters are finally making a comeback, especially Sable, by far my favorite from the First stable of books.

And I'm glad Grell is going back to writing "gritty" characters. Green Arrow and Sable are by far his best works.

[Darth Presley]

Didn't Gene Simmons (KISS) play Jon Sable in really lame-o TV movie back in the late 80s? Good times, yeah, good times.

And Elijah while I totally agree with your rant, Fabian Nicieza will always receive a tiny dispensation from me for his work on that most excellent story made classic by Steve "the Dude" Rude: SPIDER-MAN: LIFELINE.

[Dave Accampo]

Originally posted by ElijahSnowFan
And that brings me to my rant. I'm 35 now, and I've read comics since the mid-70s -- I started as a child, like most everyone. I still read them, selected ones, to this day, and enjoy them immensely.

I can kinda relate to this. I'm 32, so I've been reading comics for roughly the same period of time, and man, haven't we seen some weird shifts in the industry?

I was mostly a Marvel reader as a kid, and by the late 80's I was getting pretty bored. To be honest, I had never really got into the indie titles of the time, so I was basically just going to let the whole thing slide away. I most likely would have dropped the hobby altogether if it wasn't for Rolling Stone magazine. Yeah, I want to say it was 1988 or so, and RS has it's annual "Hot" issue -- and comics were prominently featured. Suddenly, there was a whole new avenue for me: Gaiman's Sandman, Morrison's Animal Man, Love & Rockets, etc., etc. And I'd have to say that it was Morrison's Animal Man that actually made me realize that DC super-heroes could work in spite of the silly costumes. I never really "got" the appeal of Superman, but now this new world was opening. That got me more into the traditional super-heroes, while simultaneously discovering that DC was doing something different with their properties: O'Neill's The Question, Grell's Green Arrow, Truman's Hawkworld, Ostrander's Suicide Squad...so that was my introduction to those writers...and even as those series were phased out, Vertigo was in full swing, and I was discovering more indie work, as well as stuff like Robinson's Starman, etc.

And so I never dropped the hobby, and eventually, I gave up any "allegiance" to characters, universes, or companies, and I started following creators. So the fact that Ostrander, Grell and similar creators might get another chance in the spotlight is really cool.

And yet, there's trepidation. I don't know about you guys, but I'm constantly faced with this feeling that some of these writers I loved in the 80's are simply not at the top of their game anymore. Now, I have to be honest; I'm not sure if this is because MY tastes/expectations in writing has changed or if there has been a lessening of quality. But, I mean, I used to really dig Peter David's Hulk. NOw, I can't really find interest in any of his work. I enjoyed Ostrander's work on Spectre and Martian Manhunter, but none of it affected me like his suicide squad did at the time it came out. I loved Grell's Green Arrow, but had no real interest after a couple issues of Shaman's Tears (was that the title?) or of his Iron Man run. O'Neill's The Question was one of my all-time favorite series, but his Azrael and and other recent stuff was just a mess to me.

OK, so that was a long ramble and strayed pretty far off-topic, but you know...I guess to keep in on topic: I think it's great if this stuff can come back into the public eye, but I have to wonder if it's really for me anymore...

[Posco]

I loved Grell's Green Arrow, but had no real interest after a couple issues of Shaman's Tears (was that the title?) or of his Iron Man run.

I have to agree I really liked Grell on Sable and Green Arrow (with a few exceptions at the end of his run) but his more recent work left me cold. I hope he finds back to his strenghts because Sable was a good title. I´m really happy to see some First titles make their comeback. First was a company with interesting titles. Not all series were good but they brought something new to the market.

I also support the poster who said he hoped the new Sable would not cost 3.95$. Sorry, but 3$ is the end of the line for 24 pages of comic story for me.

Christian

[Burke 0011]

Cheers for this comeback.

And yeah, I remember the TV show (six episodes I believe).

Gene Simmons?!?
No - some guy named Lewis Van Bergen played Sable....

But Rene Russo played his girlfriend!!



As for FIRST comics, I am still waiting:

BRING BACK DYNAMO JOE

[tricksterpup]

yep, Sable ran for 6 episodes. I still have 4 on tape. I remember being very disappointed at the time at the show, but I got over it after awhile. It was typical Hollywood flair to take a great idea and trash it.

but here are the characters on that show
Lewis Van Bergen .... Jon Sable/Nicholas Fleming
Rene Russo .... Eden Kendell
Ken Page .... Joe 'Cheesecake' Tyson
Holly Fulger .... Mike Blackman
Marge Kotlisky .... Cynthia

[SpyGuy]

Originally posted by MattBrady
Mike Grell has confirmed that Jon Sable, Freelance will return to comics in a new miniseries to be published by IDW. The miniseries is slated to debut in March of 2005, coinciding with the re-release of collections of the original comics which were published by First from 1983-1988.

A new JON SABLE miniseries by Mike Grell? Oh, I am so there...

Concerning the "re-release of collections," was more than one JON SABLE, FREELANCE collection released way back when? I have a trade paperback of the first six issues, but wasn't aware that there were others. Hopefully, IDW will (re)print the entire original Grell run in trade form.

Man, it's going to be a long wait until March...

[Darth Presley]

Always google before you post - I should have known.

Gene Simmons was invoved with the SABLE show - as a producer. He purchased the rights and set the show up at ABC, then he cast himself as Sable BUT six days into shooting, ABC decided he was totally wrong for the part and requested another actor.

Rene Russo has said that Gene Simmons was the worst kisser.

I must have just read the series announcement with Gene Simmons and then avoided it when it finally aired - but I could swear that somewhere I've seen a pic with Gene perched on a window ledge in cat burglar mufti outside a plate glass window....

Gene must love Sable - he purchased an option on a JON SABLE movie back in 2002...

[Wordsmith]

Originally posted by Starsky_Hutch76
What I need to know is, how much is this book going to cost? As excited as I was at the prospect of new Grimjack stuff, I'm not going to buy it if it's $3.99 an issue like most IDW books. Same goes for John Sable.

While I agree that $3.99 is a totally inflated price to pay for a comic, this IS the return of Jon Sable we are talking about, so I can always drop a marginal book to take up the slack.

[KyleV]

Then I see Liefeld and Nicieza are back at the scene of one of their earliest crimes with X-Force, and it makes me want to scream some more. I don't care how long ago it was, or what titles they worked on, or how many copies they sold. Hacks like them -- yes, I said HACKS -- shouldn't even be allowed to create comics.

Don't blame Fabian. When left to his own devices, the man is an excellent writer.

He has a tendency to play down to his co-writers and editors, though.

The only good thing to come out of these 80's revivals has to be the old school indie stuff. Now where are the Elementals?

[Frankie Thirteen]

I was about seven when my dad gave me that Jon Sable trade with the first six issues. It wasn't age-appropriate, but fuck it, I knew great work when I saw it, even then.

Whenever I think about how I fell in love with comics, right there with Byrne's Man of Steel, Marvel's Star line, and X-Men is Jon Sable, Freelance. I will make damn sure to buy the new series and the reprints.

[Frankie Thirteen]

I was about seven when my dad gave me that Jon Sable trade with the first six issues. It wasn't age-appropriate, but fuck it, I knew great work when I saw it, even then.

Whenever I think about how I fell in love with comics, right there with Byrne's Man of Steel, Marvel's Star line, and X-Men is Jon Sable, Freelance. I will make damn sure to buy the new series and the reprints.

[stalker101]

Originally posted by Darth Presley
[b]
I must have just read the series announcement with Gene Simmons and then avoided it when it finally aired - but I could swear that somewhere I've seen a pic with Gene perched on a window ledge in cat burglar mufti outside a plate glass window....

/B]

I also remember exactly as you do ..i too saw i think in comic scene magazine back in the 80's early 90's of that same exact picture with gene as sable..so i to always thought he was sable in that tv show.. live and learn