Jon Sable

Jon Sable
Cover to Jon Sable Freelance #7. Art by Mike Grell.
Publication information
Publisher	First Comics
First appearance	Jon Sable, Freelance (June 1983) #1
Created by	Mike Grell
In-story information
Full name	Jon Moses Sable

Jon Sable Freelance is an American comic book series, one of the first series created for the fledging publisher First Comics in 1983. It was written and drawn by Mike Grell and was a fully creator-owned title. Beginning in November 2007, it was published as an online comic series by ComicMix.

At a convention in the late 1980s, Grell stated that his idea for Sable was heavily influenced by Ian Fleming's James Bond novels as well as drawing on pulp fiction crime stories saying "something like a cross between James Bond and Mickey Spillane's Mike Hammer." Also, many of the stories of Sable's hunting exploits in Africa were influenced by Peter Hathaway Capstick's novels.

Jon Sable Freelance lasted 56 issues from June 1983 to February 1988 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 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 was writing and Bill Jaaska 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 featuring one of the semi-recurring characters, a thief called Maggie The Cat, at Image Comics in 1996. Only 2 issues were released and the series was never completed. In 1997 Grell announced that he would again be writing and drawing the character in a new black-and-white Jon Sable Freelance from Caliber Comics, debuting in October. However, the series never materialized.