The Complete Jon Sable, Freelance: Volume 1
By Mike Grell, Janice Cohen, Peter Iro, and Mike Gold
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In New York City there's a freelance mercenary named Jon Sable. He'll do any job no matter how dangerous. He's not hurting for money as he masquerades as a children's book author (!) to bring in a fortune from his works. He just likes the danger and excitement.
And he's not messing around either as in his first story he takes a job from President Reagan to hunt down an assassin out to kill him when he makes a speech before the U.N. very soon. The path leads to one of Sable's old friends from when he worked in Africa and can match him in skill.
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Then the introduction of a new artist for his children's books named Myke Blackmon, who turns out to be a woman, leads to her uncovering his secret identity and that leads into her reading his autobiographical manuscript, "A Storm Over Eden," which tells the tragic origin story of Jon Sable.
When he was a young man he was a pentathlete at the 1972 Olympics in Munich where he met his wife, Elise. The two eventually moved to Rhodesia, Africa where he set up a safari tour service and life was good as they had a family. But when he starts making things unprofitable for poachers of ivory the criminals kill his wife and children. Before you can say "Punisher" Jon races out in the bush to hunt down the murderers and kill them all, using soot from the remains of his home to paint his face in his now iconic battlemask. Why?
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The path eventually leads back to the present day and the mastermind behind his family's murder and he will not be stopped from taking his vengeance.
This take-charge pulp hero story feels like a bunch of men's magazine stuff, but Mike Grell makes it compelling and personal with a damaged but competent hero having plausible yet over-the-top adventures in exotic places. Sable is a hero you can get behind and relate to while his two-fisted tales are awesome. Recommended.
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...
Actually, I found out that it's a bit easier to just read the omnibus collections instead of individual trade paperbacks since they seem to contain three TPBs worth each, so...
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Jon Sable, Freelance Omnibus, Vol. 1
By Mike Grell, Ken F. Levin, Mike Gold, Peter Iro, and Janice Cohen
In the continuation of the story in this omnibus Jon gets a visit from his old fencing trainer/ex-movie stuntman Jason "Sonny" Pratt and decides to try to get in on Jon's adventures. Luckily, Jon's good at eluding the old man of action as first he gets contacted by a widow on the run from the mob trying to testify against her husband's killer. Then a maid from an upstate New York hotel needs help when she accidentally stumbles into what seems to be a robbery, then turns out to become a 007-type terrorist plot to start a preemptive nuclear war with Russia that the U.S. will somehow win?! Now that's a leap in a story! And it works!
I actually want to point out the next story despite there not being as much action. Pretty much all of the loose threads get some maintenance as Jon faces a deadline for his next children's book, meets his books' illustrator Myke's gay best friend, and takes on some thugs while on a jog. Not many comics would take the time to do this and maybe quickly try to shove them away with some dialogue. It's like a well-written action TV show.
Then Jon finds himself in charge of protecting a jewel at an auction, but begins to fall for the feminine wiles of a gorgeous cat burglar, the beginning of recurring character Maggie the Cat. What's an action hero to do?
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Then Jon wonders why Sonny decides to get smashed on booze for Christmas instead of seeing his family and it leads to him going on a mission back to Vietnam with some mercs to find out what happened to a relative of theirs, then he gets kidnapped and tortured by some VC general because that was still going on in the 80's somehow.
Speaking of the 80's the last story is where Jon has to help a ballet dancer rescue his wife from behind the Berlin Wall. Using some more 007-type equipment this winds up being the most outlandish and explosive. Crazy!
![]()
Again, Jon Sable, Freelance is a comic for dudes who dig cool action in the James Bond vein. Stuff blows up and bodies are flying around as bizarre plots unfold in somewhat more realistic fashion than your usual comic superhero stories. Recommended.
Jon Sable, Freelance Omnibus, Vol. 2
By Mike Grell, Ken Bruzenak, Janice Cohen, Mike Gold, and Sergio Aragones, Stan Sakai, and Lee Dolezal
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When the ballet dancer whose wife Jon helped escape from behind the Iron Curtain is suddenly killed it sets him on a path to hunt down the killer, a Russian assassin named Sparrow. As he hunts the killer a sudden twist happens and he winds up finding out who was really behind the dancer's killing.
![]()
Things get complicated after he gets shot by a rookie cop during a robbery, so Jon is out of commission for a while as the other characters have the spotlight and there's more characterization in this omnibus than action.
![]()
Eventually, the CIA gets in contact with an offer for Jon to go to the Middle East to kill Sparrow, which makes him run back into terrorist Falana and leaves him with a deadly choice to make in the end, along with Jon trying to find out if he's a cold-blooded killer since he kills so many people.
![]()
There's also an origin story for Jon where he tells his girlfriend Myke about how his parents, his father in the Air Force in WWII while his mother was a Belgian resistance fighter. It fits that the origin of an action hero would be from the meeting of two other action heroes. Later Jon was sent alone under his real name, Jon Moses, to America in a sequence clearly inspired by young Vito Corleone's story in The Godfather Part II (1974).
![]()
Things get more serious with Myke and the action again takes a backseat to a story that gets more dramatic, erotic, and realism. Meanwhile, someone steals The Maltese Falcon (from the film of the same name) when it goes up for auction and Jon has to turn detective to find out what's going on. But things go back to merc-mode when Jon joins a group of people to find out if MiG jets are being smuggled into Nicaragua (80's stuff), but finds some much worse stuff coming in. Finally, there's the origin story of the leprechauns in Central Park from the children's books Jon makes most of his money on by Sergio Aragones, Stan Sakai, and Lee Dolezal along with the regular creators.
![]()
So you've got a very diverse mix of stories here. Again the James Bond-like adventures work great here. It's not all wall-to-wall action and Jon gets more three-dimensional. I always appreciate when creators do that as it doesn't happen that often. Also the real-world problems Jon faces makes it more relevant even decades later.
By Mike Grell, Janice Cohen, Peter Iro, and Mike Gold
In New York City there's a freelance mercenary named Jon Sable. He'll do any job no matter how dangerous. He's not hurting for money as he masquerades as a children's book author (!) to bring in a fortune from his works. He just likes the danger and excitement.
And he's not messing around either as in his first story he takes a job from President Reagan to hunt down an assassin out to kill him when he makes a speech before the U.N. very soon. The path leads to one of Sable's old friends from when he worked in Africa and can match him in skill.
Then the introduction of a new artist for his children's books named Myke Blackmon, who turns out to be a woman, leads to her uncovering his secret identity and that leads into her reading his autobiographical manuscript, "A Storm Over Eden," which tells the tragic origin story of Jon Sable.
When he was a young man he was a pentathlete at the 1972 Olympics in Munich where he met his wife, Elise. The two eventually moved to Rhodesia, Africa where he set up a safari tour service and life was good as they had a family. But when he starts making things unprofitable for poachers of ivory the criminals kill his wife and children. Before you can say "Punisher" Jon races out in the bush to hunt down the murderers and kill them all, using soot from the remains of his home to paint his face in his now iconic battlemask. Why?
The path eventually leads back to the present day and the mastermind behind his family's murder and he will not be stopped from taking his vengeance.
This take-charge pulp hero story feels like a bunch of men's magazine stuff, but Mike Grell makes it compelling and personal with a damaged but competent hero having plausible yet over-the-top adventures in exotic places. Sable is a hero you can get behind and relate to while his two-fisted tales are awesome. Recommended.
...
Actually, I found out that it's a bit easier to just read the omnibus collections instead of individual trade paperbacks since they seem to contain three TPBs worth each, so...
Jon Sable, Freelance Omnibus, Vol. 1
By Mike Grell, Ken F. Levin, Mike Gold, Peter Iro, and Janice Cohen
In the continuation of the story in this omnibus Jon gets a visit from his old fencing trainer/ex-movie stuntman Jason "Sonny" Pratt and decides to try to get in on Jon's adventures. Luckily, Jon's good at eluding the old man of action as first he gets contacted by a widow on the run from the mob trying to testify against her husband's killer. Then a maid from an upstate New York hotel needs help when she accidentally stumbles into what seems to be a robbery, then turns out to become a 007-type terrorist plot to start a preemptive nuclear war with Russia that the U.S. will somehow win?! Now that's a leap in a story! And it works!
I actually want to point out the next story despite there not being as much action. Pretty much all of the loose threads get some maintenance as Jon faces a deadline for his next children's book, meets his books' illustrator Myke's gay best friend, and takes on some thugs while on a jog. Not many comics would take the time to do this and maybe quickly try to shove them away with some dialogue. It's like a well-written action TV show.
Then Jon finds himself in charge of protecting a jewel at an auction, but begins to fall for the feminine wiles of a gorgeous cat burglar, the beginning of recurring character Maggie the Cat. What's an action hero to do?
Then Jon wonders why Sonny decides to get smashed on booze for Christmas instead of seeing his family and it leads to him going on a mission back to Vietnam with some mercs to find out what happened to a relative of theirs, then he gets kidnapped and tortured by some VC general because that was still going on in the 80's somehow.
Speaking of the 80's the last story is where Jon has to help a ballet dancer rescue his wife from behind the Berlin Wall. Using some more 007-type equipment this winds up being the most outlandish and explosive. Crazy!
Again, Jon Sable, Freelance is a comic for dudes who dig cool action in the James Bond vein. Stuff blows up and bodies are flying around as bizarre plots unfold in somewhat more realistic fashion than your usual comic superhero stories. Recommended.
Jon Sable, Freelance Omnibus, Vol. 2
By Mike Grell, Ken Bruzenak, Janice Cohen, Mike Gold, and Sergio Aragones, Stan Sakai, and Lee Dolezal
When the ballet dancer whose wife Jon helped escape from behind the Iron Curtain is suddenly killed it sets him on a path to hunt down the killer, a Russian assassin named Sparrow. As he hunts the killer a sudden twist happens and he winds up finding out who was really behind the dancer's killing.
Things get complicated after he gets shot by a rookie cop during a robbery, so Jon is out of commission for a while as the other characters have the spotlight and there's more characterization in this omnibus than action.
Eventually, the CIA gets in contact with an offer for Jon to go to the Middle East to kill Sparrow, which makes him run back into terrorist Falana and leaves him with a deadly choice to make in the end, along with Jon trying to find out if he's a cold-blooded killer since he kills so many people.
There's also an origin story for Jon where he tells his girlfriend Myke about how his parents, his father in the Air Force in WWII while his mother was a Belgian resistance fighter. It fits that the origin of an action hero would be from the meeting of two other action heroes. Later Jon was sent alone under his real name, Jon Moses, to America in a sequence clearly inspired by young Vito Corleone's story in The Godfather Part II (1974).
Things get more serious with Myke and the action again takes a backseat to a story that gets more dramatic, erotic, and realism. Meanwhile, someone steals The Maltese Falcon (from the film of the same name) when it goes up for auction and Jon has to turn detective to find out what's going on. But things go back to merc-mode when Jon joins a group of people to find out if MiG jets are being smuggled into Nicaragua (80's stuff), but finds some much worse stuff coming in. Finally, there's the origin story of the leprechauns in Central Park from the children's books Jon makes most of his money on by Sergio Aragones, Stan Sakai, and Lee Dolezal along with the regular creators.
So you've got a very diverse mix of stories here. Again the James Bond-like adventures work great here. It's not all wall-to-wall action and Jon gets more three-dimensional. I always appreciate when creators do that as it doesn't happen that often. Also the real-world problems Jon faces makes it more relevant even decades later.
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