Sabre #3

My comic book collection highlights several key figures in the comic book industry.  Billy Graham, one of Marvel’s first Black illustrators, is at the top of my list.

Graham is best known for his work on the Black Panther ( Jungle Action #6–24 (Sept. 1973–Nov. 1976), becoming the series’ regular penciler with issue #11 (Sept. 1974) and leaving after penciling the first five pages of issue #22 (July 1976) [Source: Wikipedia].

The vast majority of his work, beginning with such books as Vampirella and Luke Cage are extremely rare and/or expensive.  Which makes his run on Sabre (issues 3-9) such an awesome find.

If you can’t find them in a dollar bin, these books run for $3 a piece if not less.  Such a steal for a piece of history.

The general synopsis of the book via MyComicShop.com:

In a world that no longer cares and has been destroyed by those sworn to protect it, one man will rise above and be the avenger that the spirits demand. His name Sabre! Move over Shaft, Sabre is the baddest of the bad. Can Sabre along with his girl, Melissa Siren, a homegrown test tube baby, foil the plans of the nefarious Overseer and Blackstar Blood, possibly the only man who can rival Sabre? Find out in this exciting and beautifully rendered series. In this issue: Slow Fade of an Endangered Species, in which we learn of the downfall of the US and our hero and heroine take on an evil band of bounty hunters in a dilapidated Disneyland.

What’s also intriguing about the book is of course the Black main character Sabre.  Created by Don McGregor and Paul Gulacy, the series is lauded as one of the first Graphic Novels and the first to be distributed in comic shops.