EXCLUSIVE: The landmark title will get a treatment similar to Absolute Editions – including NEW art…
Hey, here’s some exciting early Christmas news: Creator Mike Grell is planning a series of no less than FIVE deluxe omnibus editions of Jon Sable, Freelance – in the same size as DC’s Absolute Editions.
The first installment of the Jon Sable, Freelance Deluxe Omnibus Set from Grell’s Masterstroke Studios will be crowdfunded through Kickstarter in December.
Each of the planned five volumes will be about 400 pages each and larger than ever — measuring approximately 8.5” x 12.25”, with glossy interior pages, rare materials (including never-before-seen artwork), all new covers, and dust jackets that will line up to form a complete image when placed in order on a shelf. Each volume will retail for $100.
Grell left art duties on Jon Sable — the story of a former bounty hunter and mercenary in the concrete jungle — with Issue #44, but continued to write the title through Issue #56 before leaving to do Green Arrow: The Longbow Hunters for DC in 1987. There’s a chance that he may go back and re-draw the issues that he missed.
The Kickstarter campaign will also feature companion books that will include the original “Freelance Writing” letters columns, a guide to the characters, guns and gadgets, creator commentary and new art from Grell. More will be announced as the campaign gets under way.
Jon Sable, a major touchstone in the 1980s indie comics movement, was originally published for the defunct First Comics. It has been collected before but never in such an ambitious fashion and Grell is looking for this to be the definitive production. It also could lead to new Sable stories from Grell, according to Masterstroke Studios.
The editions will be released first via the Kickstarters, then through wide distribution. Kickstarter backers will get them first, with a variety of additional perks available only through the campaigns.
Look for the Jon Sable, Freelance Vol. 1 three-week Kickstarter to launch in time for Christmas, with an early Spring 2021 release date. The rest will be produced over the two years that follow, culminating in Vol. 5 being published to celebrate Grell’s 75th birthday in 2022.
Once the first campaign is live we’ll bring you the link and further info here at 13th Dimension.
Lots more to come…
—
MORE
— MIKE GRELL Returns to MAGGIE THE CAT, Plans Other Projects. Click here.
— MIKE GRELL Reveals the Secrets of GREEN ARROW: THE LONGBOW HUNTERS. Click here.
November 30, 2020
And here I just finished off my IDW trade run. Great news, though. I will definitely be getting this. Hopefully it does well, and inspires John Ostrander and Timothy Truman (and Tom Mandrake, Flint Henry, Steve Pugh, among others…) to do the same with Grimjack. Those ComicMix omnibuses are just awful.