Sable

I used to gobble up everything Mike Grell produced in comic format. Jon Sable Freelance was always one of my favorites. Grell's characters and story are engaging. His prose is as vivid as his drawings and reading this book I realize just how much I miss Jon Sable. Mike please give us more in novel or comic format. Either is fine by me.

I have been a fan of Mike Grell's comic work for years. Jon Sable, Freelance is considered by many to be his best work. His first novel, SABLE, takes the story of those first five or six issues and instead of just rewriting it into prose, creates something new. For fans of the series, it does not just rehash events depicted in the comic book. Some minor details are changed, but many of the gaps of Sable's story present in the comic series are detailed here. It also finally answers the question I have had for years: "Who IS the white-haired man?" For people discovering this character for the first time, this is an incredible action/mystery read, with a lot of humanity in the protagonist. Some of the sequences are raw, but match in tone to the environment that two-thirds of the book takes place: Africa. The detail is rich and there are many humorous moments. I recommend this book to anyone, comic and non-comic readers alike.

Mike Grell once referred to himself as a "storyteller" and he proves it here with his first novel. Though I love his art, I am also a fan of his sense of character and pacing. He gives us a realistic set of characters and events that we can believe and believe in. He also paint beautiful backdrops, from Africa to New England. Indeed, the most effective parts of this book are not the action sequences, but rather the sould searching human parts. If you want more than the typical adventure novel, this is the one. I have read that Grell hopes to do more novels and I am anxiously awaiting the next installment in the Sable series. He has also mentioned a screenplay and perhaps a return to comics. All these sound excellent, and judging from the performance here, entirely possible. Keep up the good strong work, Mr. Grell. And welcome back.

"Sable" was an excellent action adventure novel, based on one of the best and most "adult" (meaning dealing with mature subject matter, not prurient) comic book series of the 80s. It's good to see the character come back. Grell is a very talented writer, providing extremely vivid and powerful descriptions of places as diverse as the African bush, New York City, and New England. His descriptions are lush, powerful, and involving. He makes Africa itself into a character. His characters are far more human and fully realized than your typical action-adventure novel protaganists, like Cussler's Dirk Pitt (and I'm a fan of Cussler's work). Sable sweats, suffers, and bleeds for his victories, and the scars of his experiences run deep. And the action scenes - NO one I've read conveys action as powerfully as Mr. Grell here. The scenes are punchy, powerful, gripping, lightning-fast, and brutal. "Sable" is one of the best books in this genre in a long time. The only reason it doesn't get 5 stars is the presence of numerous distracting typos. Bad proofreader!

Sable is the tale of a hunter. It's one of Mike Grell's telling points. In _The LongBow Hunters_ he reinvented Green Arrow as an urban hunter. And in _John Sable, Freelance_ from First Comics, he tells a story about a man entrenched in misery, that becomes an Urban Hunter. And now this book, which retells the first part of that series in a very faithful format. This is not for the Mack Bolan or Punisher fans. It's not about revenge. It's about survival, hunting, and in the end, love. It may culminate in vengeance, but that is far from the heart of the book. Grell's prose surprised me. He's pretty good, compared to a lot of the stuff out there. This is not your regular comic book fare.