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''Sabre'' (subtitled ''Slow Fade of an Endangered Species''), published in August 1978, is the title of an American
graphic novel A graphic novel is a long-form, fictional work of sequential art. The term ''graphic novel'' is often applied broadly, including fiction, non-fiction, and anthologized work, though this practice is highly contested by comic scholars and industry ...
. Created by writer
Don McGregor Donald Francis McGregor (born June 15, 1945) is an American comic book writer best known for his work for Marvel Comics; he is the author of one of the first graphic novels. Early life Don McGregor was born in Providence, Rhode Island, where he w ...
and artist
Paul Gulacy Paul Gulacy (; born August 15, 1953) is an American comics artist best known for his work for DC Comics and Marvel Comics, and for drawing one of the first graphic novels, Eclipse Enterprises' 1978 '' Sabre: Slow Fade of an Endangered Species'', ...
, it was published by Eclipse Enterprises, whose eventual division Eclipse Comics would publish a spin-off comic-book series. It was one of the first
graphic novel A graphic novel is a long-form, fictional work of sequential art. The term ''graphic novel'' is often applied broadly, including fiction, non-fiction, and anthologized work, though this practice is highly contested by comic scholars and industry ...
s and the first to be distributed in comic book shops.


Publication history

The initial project of Eclipse Enterprises, the
graphic novel A graphic novel is a long-form, fictional work of sequential art. The term ''graphic novel'' is often applied broadly, including fiction, non-fiction, and anthologized work, though this practice is highly contested by comic scholars and industry ...
''Sabre'' is a 38-page, black-and-white, science fiction
swashbuckler A swashbuckler is a genre of European adventure literature that focuses on a heroic protagonist stock character who is skilled in swordsmanship, acrobatics, guile and possesses chivalrous ideals. A "swashbuckler" protagonist is heroic, daring, ...
in which the self-consciously romantic rebel Sabre and his companion Melissa Siren fight the mercenary Blackstar Blood and others to achieve freedom and strike a blow for individuality, all amid a futuristic
Disneyland Disneyland is a amusement park, theme park in Anaheim, California. Opened in 1955, it was the first theme park opened by The Walt Disney Company and the only one designed and constructed under the direct supervision of Walt Disney. Disney in ...
-turned-torture-chamber. It was published in August 1978 with no
ISBN The International Standard Book Number (ISBN) is a numeric commercial book identifier that is intended to be unique. Publishers purchase ISBNs from an affiliate of the International ISBN Agency. An ISBN is assigned to each separate edition and ...
number.''Sabre'' (Eclipse, 1978)
at the
Grand Comics Database The Grand Comics Database (GCD) is an Internet-based project to build a database of comic book information through user contributions. The GCD project catalogues information on creator credits, story details, reprints, and other information useful ...
The Eclipse graphic novel came 2 months after a try-out of the first 8 pages were featured in the June 1978 issue of ''Heavy Metal Magazine'' ("Prologue One" featuring Sabre and Melissa Siren). This would mark the actual first appearance of both characters. As McGregor described the project's genesis in the afterword of the original edition, writer-editor
Jim Salicrup Jim Salicrup (; born May 29, 1957) is an American comic book editor, known for his tenures at Marvel Comics and Topps Comics. At Marvel, where he worked for twenty years, he edited books such as ''The Uncanny X-Men'', ''Fantastic Four'', ''Avenger ...
, who in 1976 was toying with the idea of producing a weekly newspaper tabloid, asked McGregor to write a weekly adventure
comic strip A comic strip is a sequence of drawings, often cartoons, arranged in interrelated panels to display brief humor or form a narrative, often serialized, with text in balloons and captions. Traditionally, throughout the 20th and into the 21st ...
. McGregor had unsuccessfully pitched a feature called "Dagger" to
Marvel Comics Marvel Comics is an American comic book publishing, publisher and the flagship property of Marvel Entertainment, a divsion of The Walt Disney Company since September 1, 2009. Evolving from Timely Comics in 1939, ''Magazine Management/Atlas Co ...
, for which he wrote features including " The Black Panther" and " Killraven, Warrior of the Worlds": He later wrote, "I think I took a token sum of money from Dean Mullaney ... of $300. I wanted Dean to be able to afford to do the book. He invested in the book for over a year. Everyone else was paid over their
sual Siberian-Urals Aluminium Company (russian: Сибирско-Уральская Алюминиевая Компания), commonly known as SUAL (russian: СУАЛ), is a fully vertically integrated aluminium company that ranks amongst the world's t ...
page rate." Described on the credits page as a "comic novel" (the term "graphic novel" not being in common usage at the time), it was followed in 1982 by a 14-issue
comic book A comic book, also called comicbook, comic magazine or (in the United Kingdom and Ireland) simply comic, is a publication that consists of comics art in the form of sequential juxtaposed panels that represent individual scenes. Panels are of ...
series (
cover-date The cover date of a periodical publication is the date displayed on the cover, which is not necessarily the true date of publication (the on-sale date or release date); later cover dates are common in magazine and comic book publishing. More unusu ...
d August 1982 – August 1985) by McGregor and, consecutively, the artists
Billy Graham William Franklin Graham Jr. (November 7, 1918 – February 21, 2018) was an American evangelist and an ordained Southern Baptist minister who became well known internationally in the late 1940s. He was a prominent evangelical Christi ...
and José Ortiz. The first two issues reprinted the graphic novel in color.''Sabre'' (Eclipse, 1982 series)
at the Grand Comics Database
According to McGregor, Eclipse co-founder Jan Mullaney strongly objected to some of the series' content, such as the graphic depiction of childbirth and the kiss between gay men, saying that it would cost them sales. Annette Kawecki was the
letterer A letterer is a member of a team of comic book creators responsible for drawing the comic book's text. The letterer's use of typefaces, calligraphy, letter size, and layout all contribute to the impact of the comic. The letterer crafts the comi ...
.
P. Craig Russell Philip Craig Russell (born October 30, 1951) is an American comics artist, writer, and illustrator. His work has won multiple Harvey and Eisner Awards. Russell was the first mainstream comic book creator to come out as openly gay. Biography ...
inked "several" pages, Gulacy said in 1980.Gulacy in Interview conducted September 8, 1980. The first graphic novel to be sold in the new "
direct market The direct market is the dominant distribution and retail network for American comic books. The concept of the direct market was created in the 1970s by Phil Seuling. The network currently consists of: * four major comic distributors: ** Lunar ...
" of comic-book stores, the book, priced at a then-considerable $6.00, helped prove the new format's viability by going into a second printing, dated February 1979. Publisher Dean Mullaney recalled in 2008, Eclipse published a 10th-anniversary edition of the original graphic novel (hardcover, ;
trade paperback Trade paperback may refer to: * Trade paperback, a higher-quality softcover version of a book * Trade paperback (comics) In comics in the United States, a trade paperback (shortened: TPB or trade) is a collection of stories originally published ...
, ) with a new Gulacy cover and
Jim Steranko James F. Steranko (; born November 5, 1938) is an American graphic artist, comic book writer/artist, comics historian, magician, publisher and film production illustrator. His most famous comic book work was with the 1960s superspy feature " ...
logo. A 20th-anniversary edition was published by
Image Comics Image Comics is an American comic book publisher and is the third largest comic book and graphic novel publisher in the industry in both unit and market share. It was founded in 1992 by several high-profile illustrators as a venue for creator-ow ...
in 1998,''Sabre'' (
Image Comics Image Comics is an American comic book publisher and is the third largest comic book and graphic novel publisher in the industry in both unit and market share. It was founded in 1992 by several high-profile illustrators as a venue for creator-ow ...
, 1998)
and a 30th-anniversary edition by
Desperado Publishing Desperado Publishing is an American independent comic book publisher, established in 2004. Located in Norcross, Georgia, Desperado's president is Joe Pruett, its creative director is Stephan Nilson, and its director of business development is forme ...
in 2008.


Plot

By February 2020, Earth has succumbed to global famine, energy crises, a plague based on a leaked American-government
bioweapon A biological agent (also called bio-agent, biological threat agent, biological warfare agent, biological weapon, or bioweapon) is a bacterium, virus, protozoan, parasite, fungus, or toxin that can be used purposefully as a weapon in bioterrorism ...
, and, in the U.S., a nine-year drought and a variety of terrorist acts including the contamination of Manhattan's water supply. The U.S. government retreated to a fortress and commenced battling rebels through proxies known as Overseers. One rebel, Sabre, arrives at an abandoned
theme park An amusement park is a park that features various attractions, such as rides and games, as well as other events for entertainment purposes. A theme park is a type of amusement park that bases its structures and attractions around a central ...
intending to free a group of captured comrades. With him is his lover and fellow rebel, Melissa Siren. As the local Overseer and technician Misty Visions follow their whereabouts, using security cameras that cover most but not every part of the park, Sabre and Melissa infiltrate the park's fantasyland castle and encounter
animatronic Animatronics refers to mechatronic puppets. They are a modern variant of the automaton and are often used for the portrayal of characters in films and in theme park attractions. It is a multidisciplinary field integrating puppetry, anatomy a ...
mermaids and musicians while discussing the nature of men, women and the world that has been left to them. Hunting them are the mercenary Blackstar Blood, who sees Sabre as an honorable adversary, and the Overseer's troops – including the nervous, prattling Willoughby, and Grouse, an "ani-human construction" resembling a hybrid human and jungle cat. Sabre, fully aware the hostages serve as bait to trap him, nonetheless commandeers a replica of an old sailing ship as he searches for the captives. Blackstar and his crew ram it with one of their own, and capture the duo. Sabre is taken to a Synchronization Center, where, displayed before a gathering of scientists and officials, his memories are methodically wiped clean as he is forced to view Melissa, in a brothel suite, being groped and violated by Clarence, a sentient skeleton, and Grouse. She feigns submissiveness and steals Grouse's metal whip, swinging its bunched coils to tear apart Grouse's robotic head and whipping Clarence until he falls apart. Willoughby, who'd been repulsed by his comrades actions, unlocks her shackles. In the Synchronization Center, the Overseer frees a docile-seeming Sabre, who instantly fights back, having resisted the removal of his last few memories and pieces of identity. Escaping with a gun, he reaches the brothel suite but finds Melissa gone – and is told by the Overseer that she is dead. They prepare to duel, while elsewhere, Melissa and Willoughby bond as they talk about what brought him here. He tells her the Overseer is keeping the captive rebels in the castle's dungeon. As Blackstar and his men hunt Melissa, the dueling Sabre and Overseer fall from a building onto the monorail tracks just below. Technician Visions prepares to shoot Sabre, but Blackstar kills her out of disgust for the way Sabre and Melissa were tortured and wanting to best Sabre personally. As Sabre and the Overseer battle, and as Blackstar charges his horse toward them while a monorail bears down on all, Melissa and the freed rebels attack. Melissa takes a horse from one of Blackstar's men and rides onto the monorail track, chasing Blackstar. Sabre overpowers the Overseer, but when he sees Blackstar, Melissa and the monorail bearing down, he loses his grip. Blackstar fires his weapon at the monorail, destroying it in a cataclysm that throws the combatants and horses from the track. Sabre shoots the Overseer dead. Blackstar, saying he is now unemployed, suggests that Sabre leave before more forces arrive to capture him. Two months later, a pregnant Melissa, knowing militias are hunting Sabre, orders him to leave without her. He does, vowing to return for her and their child.


References


External links


''Sabre''
at Don McGregor official site

from the original on August 12, 2015. * *{{comicbookdb, type=title, id=7816, title=Sabre (1982) 1978 graphic novels 1978 comics debuts 1982 comics debuts American graphic novels Characters created by Don McGregor Comics set in the 2020s Fictional swordfighters in comics Post-apocalyptic comics Science fiction comics