History ComicBook / JonSableFreelance

* SomethingCompletelyDifferent: #33 is about the children's books that Jon writes and tells the story of a group of leprechauns living in Central Park. Aside from a framing sequence, the art is by Sergio Aragones instead of Mike Grell.

* ParanoisGambit: In #21, Jon vows to make sure a woman named Carla who attempted to murder her husband (an old friend of Jon's) and left him him a coma spends the rest of her life in jail. Jon turns up wherever Carla goes, always making a point of being seen by her. At shops, restaurants, the ballet and even parking garages. Carla has grown anxious. Jon catches up with her again at Paul's stables and says hello to Widowmaker, the horse Paul rode in the Olympics. Jon says he is surprised that she is still there and she is confident and cocky that her lawyers can press the technicality of evidence obtained illegally and have the case thrown out. She takes Widowmaker for a ride, but keeps looking back. Eventually, she comes to a parked car, but finds the key gone and Jon sitting nearby, with it dangling from his hand.

* PocketProtector: One of the poachers who killed Jon's family is saved from Jon's RoaringRampageOfRevenge by the AK-47 he was carrying at chest height. Jon's bullet hits the rifle and the impact is enough to knock the poacher out, leading Jon to assume he is dead.

* ShoottheFuelTank: In #18, Ana decks Jon with a kick and runs off, holding a transmitter. She gets into a car and Jon fires his HandCannon out the window and hits the car, igniting the fuel tank. Ana presses her detonator and the rocket launcher fires its rocket, which turns out to be a heat seeker and swerves to hit her burning wreck, utterly destroying it and her.

* CuttingTheKnot: In one issue, Sable and an archaeologist are looking for treasure in a Central American pyramid. It's one of those designed so that a beam of sunlight shining through a hole in the wall will reveal the lock - but it only works on one day of the year that's months away. Sable points out that the ancient builders hadn't anticipated modern electricity and duplicates the effect with his flashlight.

* PlankGag: In #10, Sable goes looking for trouble and finds three thugs standing by a TrashcanBonfire with baseball bats. Jon challenges the biggest one to a fight and picks up one of the bats. He then says "Okay, let's get the rules straight". when another of the thugs responds "[ThereAreNoRules There ain't no rules!", Sable invokes the Plank Gag by turning quickly with bat over his shoulder and whacking the big guy in the head. He then follows it up by using the bat to launch a GroinAttack on the second thug.

* EmptyQuiver: In #8-9, Sable--while investigating something else--stumbles upon a conspiracy involving five nuclear bombs stolen from a U.S. Air Force base. A [[MiddleEasternTerrorists Middle Eastern terrorist group]] is planning to have one of the bombs smuggled into the U.N. Building to prove they can get a bomb anywhere, and then use the other four bombs to make demands. However, the [[RightWingMilitiaFanatic right-wing militia group]] they have allied with for their plan intends to doublecross them: planning to detonate the bomb at the U.N. as a falseFlagOperation to cuse the U.S. to go to war with the Soviet Union. It falls to a Sable and an undercover agent of the AFOSI (Air Force Office of Special Investigations) to thwart both schemes.

* GreatWhiteHunter: Jon was a game warden in Kenya before he became a mercenary. After his family was murdered, he used his skills as a hunter and tracker to become a hunter of men.

%%* OlderSidekick: Sonny Pratt.

''Jon Sable Freelance'' was an American comic book, 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, as were all of First Comics' titles.

The character was heavily influenced by Ian Fleming's Literature/JamesBond novels as well, as well as pulp fiction crime stories. Many of the stories of Sable's hunting exploits in Africa were influenced by [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Peter_Hathaway_Capstick Peter Hathaway Capstick's]] novels. At a convention in the late [[TheEighties 1980s]], Grell stated that his idea for Sable was "something like a cross between James Bond and Mickey Spillane's Literature/MikeHammer."

''Jon Sable Freelance'' lasted 56 issues from 1983 to 1988 before being cancelled. While Grell wrote and did all the covers, he stopped drawing the stories after #44. Late in this run, Grell announced within the comic that Tony [=DeZuniga=] would soon become the new artist, but that never came to pass. Another artist came on the book, but the book was soon cancelled, and after a few months, another book just called ''Sable'' was launched, written by Marv Wolfman, with art by Bill Jaaska, with Grell having no part. This lasted 27 issues before cancellation.

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 ClassyCatBurglar called Maggie The Cat, at Image Comics in 1996. Only two issues were released and the series was never completed.

* BoobyTrap: As an expert in JungleWarfare, Sable is an expert at rigging booby traps. In #4, he wipes out most the mercenary band that killed his family by rigging a deadfall at the one safe river crossing on their escape route.

* GunsFiringUnderwater: Jon's .357 Magnum pepperbox--a SwissArmyWeapon--can fire underwater; usually firing stell spikes like a miniature spear gun. Justified as this a gun specifically designed to fire underwater, being based on a prototype weapon designed for the Navy [=SEALs=].

%%* BountyHunter

%%* ClassyCatBurglar: Maggie the Cat.

%%* FriendOnTheForce: Captain Josh Winters

%%* GreatWhiteHunter: Jon before he became a mercenary.

%%* HandCannon: The Magnum pepperbox.

%%* RatedMForManly

%%* WeHelpTheHelpless

%%* RoaringRampageOfRevenge: Sable went on one of these after his family was murdered.

* SomethingCompletelyDifferent: #33 is about the children's books that Jon writes and tells the story of a group of leprechauns living in Central Park. Aside from a framing sequence, the art is by Sergio Aragones instead of Mike Grell.%* SwissArmyGun: Sables .357 Magnum pepperbox. The weapon could fire underwater, fire rifle shot, arrow/bolt type projectiles and a multitude of other loads, such as tear gas, explosive, and tranquilizer. This was a RealLife weapon designed for Navy [=SEALs=] that never went beyond prototype.