Sabre is the title of a creator-owned American graphic novel, first published in August 1978. Created by writer Don McGregor and artist Paul Gulacy, it was published by Eclipse Enterprises, later known as Eclipse Comics. It was one of the first American graphic novels, and the first to be distributed solely in comic book shops via the direct market. The story is a science fiction swashbuckler 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.
Following the success of the graphic novel, an ongoing series continuing the story was published by Eclipse between 1982 and 1985.
Creation
Writer Don McGregor had received considerable acclaim with two Marvel Comics strips in the 1970s, "Killraven, Warrior of the Worlds" (in Amazing Adventures) and "The Black Panther" in Jungle Action. However, neither book was a strong seller and both would end up cancelled, leaving McGregor both without work and - due to the series both being work-for-hire - no means of completing his planned stories. He was also frustrated by Marvel's uneasiness with long plot arcs, and that he was only paid page rate for his work for the company, with no royalties. Thus McGregor began exploring work he would retain the rights to, and pitched a story called Dagger to Mad Genius, a small studio ran by Marvel alumni Jim Salicrup, Steve Gerber and Dave Kraft, as part of a planned anthology of creator-owned stories. The basic concept of the character came to McGregor when watching Errol Flynn movie Captain Blood on television.
After changing the name to Sabre - which fit the swashbuckling theme he was aiming for - he linked up with artist Paul Gulacy, who had found success on Marvel's The Deadly Hands of Kung Fu and was looking to do something new. He began design work on the character, drawing on Jimi Hendrix and Clint Eastwood's The Man With No Name character for inspiration, also using issues of Soldier of Fortune for reference. McGregor meanwhile was keen to explore story ideas that were frowned upon by Marvel editorial policy at the time, including an interracial relationship between the black Sabre and the white Melissa Siren, and homosexual characters.
Gulacy's art caught the eye of McGregor's friend Dean Mullaney at a gathering at McGregor's apartment. Mullaney had recently started Eclipse Enterprises in April 1978 with his brother Jan to publish creator-owned comics, and the pair soon began planning how to release Sabre. They settled on a graphic novel format, inspired by Ed Aprill's newspaper strip reprint compilations. While this allowed high quality paper stock compared to the newsprint used by monthly comics, financial reasons limited it to black-and-white interiors and only 38 pages of story; McGregor would later note the irony of the low page count considering his ambitions for lengthier works. Nevertheless as a sign of faith in the project and hoping to earn from future royalties, he was paid only a nominal fee of $300 for writing the story.
Gulacy and other contributors to the graphic novel were paid above page rate, and would also receive royalty payments for any further printings. The book was delayed when several pages of Gulacy's art were lost, the mailman having simply left the package containing them on the doorstep of McGregor's Queens apartment while the writer was out. As such, Gulacy simply had to redraw them. Annette Kawecki was the letterer. P. Craig Russell inked "several" pages, Gulacy said in 1980. A further delay came when both Gulacy and Mullaney objected to the closing section of the book featuring Melissa giving birth; however, McGregor stuck to his guns and the ending stayed. The book bore a dedication to McGregor's daughter, Lauren.
Publication history
Graphic novel
Mullaney initially found the book difficult to sell; McGregor recalled that major direct market distributor Phil Seuling balked at the price of "$6 for a comic book" - at the time a typical monthly comic book was 35¢, and Marvel's 68-page Giant-Size issues cost 50¢. To help drive orders a seven-page preview was published in the June 1978 issue of Heavy Metal and titled "Prologue One", which was a success. The book - subtitled "Slow Fade of an Endangered Species" - was published in August 1978, and such strong orders that the first printing was sold out in three months; a second printing followed in 1979.