OMAC YOUR ENTHUSIASM (11)
By:
May 10, 2026
One in a series of enthusiastic posts, contributed by 25 HILOBROW friends and regulars, analyzing and celebrating our favorite… Seventies (1974–83) sci-fi novels and comics! Series edited by Josh Glenn.
SABRE | DON McGREGOR and PAUL GULACY | 1978
Sabre: Slow Fade of an Endangered Species (1978) was originally marketed as ‘comic novel’ — predating the term ‘graphic novel’. One of Eclipse’s inaugural releases, first in a new ‘direct market’ scheme, designed to get indie work into retail outlets, beyond the controlling purview of conglomerates, Sabre found fresh audiences, who, succoured on the high-quality presentation of mass market comics, were yearning for more extreme subject matter.
Written by Don McGregor and illustrated by Paul Gulacy, Sabre was praised for contravening many of Marvel’s bans — including, for example, interracial relations, homosexuality (well, eroticised lesbianism, let’s be fair, lol) and violent sex.
Initially, Gulacy’s artwork was the main attraction for me. Cutting his teeth on Marvel’s Masters of Kung Fu series, Gulacy went on to draw and paint the fantastic Six from Sirius series, along with Doug Moench. Sabre was, however, a different beast altogether from the psychedelic ’60s sci-fi pop-op of Six from Sirius. Cited as a hybrid of Jimi Hendrix and Clint Eastwood’s stranger from the Sergio Leone spaghetti Westerns (although, it seems clear to me that the main influence for the character derives from that famous photograph of Jimi Hendrix with a holstered six-gun, bandolier, crop-top and Sabre’s signature headband), Sabre exploded in a haze of brooding machismo, joined by Melissa Siren, in denim shorts and Jean Seberg hair, touting a flintlock, cutlass and a headband-heavy afro. Melissa runs the gamut of exploitation, raped by skeletons, deprogrammed by robots, later fighting for freedom (heavily pregnant and somehow still in denim shorts).
At the time of its release, Sabre was seen to challenge social restrictions, although, in reality the writing was nothing ground-breaking. Rather, the narrative rode a wave of social resistance, becoming a perfect example of style over substance — but, one that somehow worked. McGregor was fresh off writing a Black Panther run for Jungle Action (known for its mostly exploitative titles, riddled with damsels in distress and ‘white saviours’). Unusually, most of the narrative for McGregor’s Black Panther story was set in a fictionalised Africa — as opposed to the usual, unimaginative American locales inflicted upon Marvel’s characters.
Sabre presents a glimpse of what American mainstream comics might have looked like in the ’70s were they not so militaristically controlled and groomed. The psychedelic pacing of panels is richly cinematic, intensely graphic black and white (give or take the odd sepia-tone portrait, rendered in a sort of ‘17th century tavern’ style, complete with galleons in the background and all manner of era wenchery).
The ’70s were a fertile breeding for all manner of hybrid cinematic influences in comics, although these, for the most part, were played down in mainstream American comics (except in horror titles, which thrived off the lighting effects of the ’40s and ’50s), in favour of well-chewed post Golden-Age aesthetics. In this way, Sabre survives as a time-capsule of what might have been, had the comics scene in ’70s America been less conservative and more in synch with the changing times.
OMAC YOUR ENTHUSIASM: INTRODUCTION by Josh Glenn | Mark Kingwell on RIDDLEY WALKER | Carlo Rotella on THE FACE | Sara Ryan on DREAMSNAKE | Matthew Battles on THE WORD FOR WORLD IS FOREST | Ramona Lyons on HIGH-RISE | Adam McGovern on SHADRACH IN THE FURNACE | Deb Chachra on THE HITCHHIKER’S GUIDE TO THE GALAXY | Tom Nealon on DHALGREN | Michael Grasso on FLOW MY TEARS, THE POLICEMAN SAID | Stephanie Burt on BRIGHTNESS FALLS FROM THE AIR | Nikhil Singh on SABRE | Gordon Dahlquist on VALIS | Miranda Mellis on THE DISPOSSESSED | Marc Weidenbaum on SOFTWARE | Peggy Nelson on THE TRANSMIGRATION OF TIMOTHY ARCHER | Josh Glenn on ENGINE SUMMER | Mimi Lipson on A SCANNER DARKLY | Douglas Wolk on THRILLER | David Hirmes on ARZACH | Anthony Miller on THE SHOCKWAVE RIDER | Annie Nocenti on JIMBO | Seth on MR. MACHINE | Alex Brook Lynn on JUDGE DREDD | Joe Alterio on THE INCAL | Jason Grote on JOSIE AND THE ELEVATOR.
JACK KIRBY PANELS | CAPTAIN KIRK SCENES | OLD-SCHOOL HIP HOP | TYPEFACES | NEW WAVE | SQUADS | PUNK | NEO-NOIR MOVIES | COMICS | SCI-FI MOVIES | SIDEKICKS | CARTOONS | TV DEATHS | COUNTRY | PROTO-PUNK | METAL | & more enthusiasms!