Mark A. Sable (born June 22, 1975) is an American writer for stage, screen, and

comic books 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 ...

Biography

Mark Sable is a writer for comics, film and television, best known for such creator-owned comics as Image Comics "Graveyard of Empires" and Boom! Studios "Unthinkable". Sable graduated cum laude with B.A. in English from Duke University, and received an M.F.A. in Dramatic Writing from NYU’s

Tisch School of the Arts The New York University Tisch School of the Arts (commonly referred to as Tisch) is the performing, cinematic and media arts school of New York University. Founded on August 17, 1965, Tisch is a training ground for artists, scholars of the a ...

as well as a J.D from The

University of Southern California Law School The USC Gould School of Law, located in Los Angeles, California, is the law school of the University of Southern California. The oldest law school in the Southwestern United States, USC Law traces its beginnings to 1896 and became affiliated with ...

. He also has a M.B.A. from the

University of California, Los Angeles The University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) is a public university, public Land-grant university, land-grant research university in Los Angeles, California. UCLA's academic roots were established in 1881 as a Normal school, teachers colle ...

. Sable started his comic book career in 2005, writing ''

Grounded Grounding or grounded may refer to: Science and philosophy * Grounding (metaphysics), a topic of wide philosophical interest * Grounding (psychology), a strategy for coping with stress or other negative emotions * Grounding in communication, th ...

'' for

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-o ...

. In 2007, Sable followed up ''Grounded'' with ''

Fearless Fearless or The Fearless may refer to: Psychology * Lack of fear * Courage or bravery Film, television and audio Film * ''Fearless'' (1978 film), an Italian film directed by Stelvio Massi * ''Fearless'' (1993 film), an American drama directed ...

'', also from Image. Co-written by Dave Roth and Illustrated by

P. J. Holden Paul Jason Holden (born 28 December 1969) is a Northern Irish comic artist based in Belfast. He has worked for '' 2000 AD'', '' Warhammer Monthly'', and '' Judge Dredd Megazine''. Among other stories for these publications, he has provided th ...

, ''Fearless'' tells the story of a vigilante who is addicted to an anti-fear drug, which he needs not only to fight crime, but to function as a human being. Also in 2007, Sable wrote "online graphic novels" for the TV show '' Heroes'' that ran on

NBC The National Broadcasting Company (NBC) is an American English-language commercial broadcast television and radio network. The flagship property of the NBC Entertainment division of NBCUniversal, a division of Comcast, its headquarters ...

's website. His first, two-part webcomic called "Blackout" featured the character

Mohinder Suresh Mohinder Suresh is a fictional character on the NBC drama ''Heroes'', portrayed by Sendhil Ramamurthy. He is from Chennai, Tamil Nadu, India and is a genetics professor at the University of Madras holding a PhD in parapsychology. He is attempt ...

was illustrated by

Jason Badower Jason ( ; ) was an ancient Greek mythological hero and leader of the Argonauts, whose quest for the Golden Fleece featured in Greek literature. He was the son of Aeson, the rightful king of Iolcos. He was married to the sorceress Medea. He was ...

. He also wrote the two-part story "Faces", featuring new characters created by Sable for the "Heroes" universe and illustrated by

Alitha Martinez Alitha E. Martinez is an American comic book artist best known for her work on for Marvel Comics's ''Iron Man'', the '' Heroes'' webcomics, and DC's ''Batgirl''. Over the course of her career she has worked for all the major comic book publishe ...

and Micah Gunnell. In 2008, Sable wrote Image comics' '' Hazed'', an original

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 ...

, illustrated by Robbi Rodriguez. Also in 2008, Sable began work in animation by creating the original pilot Polarity for Cartoon Network. In May 2009 Sable released his comic book series "Unthinkable" from

Boom! Studios Boom! Studios (styled BOOM! Studios) is an American comic book and graphic novel publisher, headquartered in Los Angeles, California, United States. History Origins In the early 2000s, Ross Richie and Andrew Cosby had been working in Ho ...

. Unthinkable was based on true incidents after 9/11, when the Department of Homeland Security recruited novelists, filmmakers and other creative types to help envision worst-case terror scenarios. In Sable's fictionalized version of events, a writer's imaginary terror plots start coming true, and it's up to the protagonist to stop them while he himself is a suspect. In an incident that mirrored the plot of the comic, Sable was briefly detained at Los Angeles International Airport by TSA guards, who found the script for issue 3 of the series to be suspicious. After Mandalay Pictures optioned "Unthinkable" as a feature film in 2009, in 2013, 20th Century Fox and producer Howard Gordon ("24", "Homeland") gave Sable an unheard-of "put pilot" deal to develop "Unthinkable" for network In Summer 2010, Mark Sable's ''

Cyborg A cyborg ()—a portmanteau of ''cybernetic'' and ''organism''—is a being with both organic and biomechatronic body parts. The term was coined in 1960 by Manfred Clynes and Nathan S. Kline.

: Rage Against The Machine'', based on the popular ''

Teen Titans The Teen Titans are a superhero team appearing in American comic books published by DC Comics, frequently in eponymous monthly series. As the group's name indicates, the members are teenage superheroes, many of whom have acted as sidekicks to ...

'' character, saw print from

DC Comics DC Comics, Inc. (doing business as DC) is an American comic book publisher and the flagship unit of DC Entertainment, a subsidiary of Warner Bros. Discovery. DC Comics is one of the largest and oldest American comic book companies, with their f ...

. Sable's series featured art by Ken Lashley and Carlo Magno. Sable's other work for DC comics includes "Supergirl" (2007) with Ale Garza, where along with Joe Kelly he created a new origin for Kara Zor-El; "Teen Titans: Cold Case" with

Sean Gordon Murphy Sean Gordon Murphy (born 1980) is an American comic book creator known for work on books such as '' Joe the Barbarian'' with Grant Morrison, ''Chrononauts'' with Mark Millar, '' American Vampire: Survival of the Fittest'' and ''The Wake'' with Sc ...

(Punk Rock Jesus, Chononauts), featuring the first meet up between the Titans and The Flash's "Rogues Gallery" and "Batman - Two-Face: Year One", codifying Two-Face's origin for the 21st Century. Two-Face: Year one, illustrated by Jesus Saiz, Jeremy Haun, Jimmy Palmiotti with covers by Mark Chiarello, was released originally as a mini-series in conjunction with Two-Face/Harvey Dent's introduction to cinema in The Dark Knight. Starting in 2011, Sable created books for DC's rival Marvel Comics as well, including "What If Spider-Man" (Killed Kraven the Hunter) and Marvel Universe Avengers: Hulk and the Fantastic Four. In 2015, Sable started writing the comic book series "The Armagondas" for Domain Entertainment in Dubai, based on a story by famed Emirati artist Jalal Luqman and illustrated by Italian artist Denis Medri. Sable was recruited by to write "The Armagondas" after appearing at the original Middle East Film and Comic-Con", the first comic convention in the Middle East. Domain Entertainment is Dubai's first privately owned comics publisher, and Sable is one of the first Western Comic creators to specifically create work for the region. Sable is also a writing professor. After teaching for 5 years at The Writer's Boot Camp in Santa Monica, California, in 2013 became one of the founding faculty members of the School of Visual Arts Masters in Visual Narrative Program, where he currently teaches "Creative Script" and "Digital Storytelling" (the latter with comics artist Jim Rugg).

Bibliography

Image Comics

(art by Paul Azaceta) (

2005 File:2005 Events Collage V2.png, From top left, clockwise: Hurricane Katrina in the Gulf of Mexico; the Funeral of Pope John Paul II is held in Vatican City; "Me at the zoo", the first video ever to be uploaded to YouTube; Eris (dwarf planet), Er ...

) *

(with co-author Dave Roth and art by

2007 File:2007 Events Collage.png, From top left, clockwise: Steve Jobs unveils Apple's first iPhone; TAM Airlines Flight 3054 overruns a runway and crashes into a gas station, killing almost 200 people; Former Pakistani Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto ...

) * 24/7 Vol. 2 "NYC2LA" (art by Dan Hipp) (2007) * Popgun Vol. 1 "They Shoot Ponies, Don't They?" (art by Rob Guillory) (2007) * Comic Book Tattoo: Stories Inspired by the Songs of Tori Amos ("Upside Down" from Tori Amos' Little Earthquakes"; art by Salgood Sam) * Hazed ( February 2008) * Graveyard of Empires (with art by Paul Azaceta), ( June 2011)

Boom! Studios

*Cthulhu Tales "There Will Be Blood" (art by Sergio Carrera) *Unthinkable" (art by Julian Totino Tedesco) (2009)

DC Comics

* Supergirl (co-writer Joe Kelly, art by Ale Garza) 2007 * Dc Special: Cyborg (art by Ken Lashley and Carlo Magno) (May 2008) * Two-Face: Year One(July 2008) * Teen Titans: Cold Case (art by Sean Murphy) 2011

Marvel Comics

* What If Spider-Man Killed Kraven The Hunter (art by Paul Azaceta) (2011) * What if? Dark Avengers (art by Paul Azaceta) (2011) * Marvel Universe Avengers: Hulk and the Fantastic Four (2012)

Kickstart Comics

* Rift Raiders (art by Julian Totino Tedesco) (2009) * Duplicate (art by Andy MacDonald)

Domain Entertainment

* The Armagondas (story by Jalal Luqman, art by Denis Medri) (2015)

Black Mask

* Occupy Comics Vol. 1 (art by Megan Hutchison)

The Atlantic Council's Art of Future Warfare/Art of The Future Project

*Allah Ex Machina - prose story (2016)

References

External links

Grounded official site

Interviews

Pulse interview on Grounded

Interview with HeroesWiki

Newsarama interview about HazedInterviews about Unthinkable with LotsofInterviews.comInterview with comics critic Abhay Khosla about Graveyard of Empires on YouTube.com
{{DEFAULTSORT:Sable, Mark American comics writers Living people Duke University Trinity College of Arts and Sciences alumni UCLA Anderson School of Management alumni Tisch School of the Arts alumni USC Gould School of Law alumni 1975 births