Not *much* taller. According to the official DC stats Ollie is 5'10" and Travis is 6', but enough to get a joke out of it. Especially if you're familiar with Grell's work.

Met him at a small con in Collinsville, IL (across the Mississippi from St Louis), in the early 00s, as well as Mike Gold and John Ostrander, who shared his table.  We talked a lot about First Comics and some of the things Grell threw into Jon Sable, as well as some Legion stuff, from Grell's tenure.  That was where Mike Gold told me the story about firing Elliot Maggin after he stopped turning in work.  Just never submitted the story he was working on, no reason, nothing.  Gold decided if he didn't want to work, then DC wasn't going to pay him and fired him off the book.  He said Maggin sucker-punched him at a Con, soon after and only people getting between Mike Gold and Maggin prevented him from giving Maggin a receipt.  I've never met Maggin or seen anything other than a headshot; but, Mike Gold is a big dude and I wouldn't want him coming after me in anger.

Jon Sable 8



Jon Sable vs Light Pollution!

Indicia Gag: Pay Attention. There will be a short quiz later.

Time for some new material, Mike!

Creative Team: Mike Grell-story & art, Peter Iro-letters, Janice Cohen-colors, Mike Gold-editor

Synopsis: Jon has his 4-way shower interrupted......



(Seriously, dude; conserve the environment!)
...by Sonny Pratt and they banter , somewhat playfully. Soony wants to join Jon's operation, which isn't going over well with Jon, though not as badly as having the barrel of his Mauser pointed at him, while he is naked, dripping wet, and agitated...



The woman holding the gun tells Jon to hang up and he does. He makes a few jokes and she says she just wants a few minutes of his time. He asks to put on his pants, then tells her the gun isn't loaded. The woman glances down at it, with the barrel pointed upwards and pulls the trigger. It goes off and Sable grabs her wrist and then backhands her across the face. He takes the gun and she just pleads to hear her out. Sable tells her to start talking.

The woman is Trina Cole and she was the social director of a resort, The Eagle's Nest, in upstate New York. The boss, Andrew Sherman, gave her a break when no one else would. Two days before, she went to the office to return some papers and found the safe open. She went to close it, figuring Mr Sherman forgot, again. the security chief, Vince Hawkins walked in and thought she was trying to rob the safe and grabbed her. She pushed him away, but he tripped over a coffee table and cracked his head on a desk. She ran, but read in the papers that Hawkins was alive and the safe had been rifled. She is wanted by the police. She wants Sable to help clear her name and find the real guilty party and show Mr Sherman he wasn't wrong to help her out. Sable questions why she didn't stay to explain to the police and she says she has a record and has done time and they wouldn't believe her.

Sonny shows up to finish his conversation and sees the woman. Sonny introduces himself, as only a romantic hero could, then notices the bruise on her face and demands to know if Jon hit her. he then reads him the riot act, as the phone rings....



It's Eden, adding to Jon's woes, as she demands to know what he is going to do about her destroyed car and he tells her to look outside her window, where she sees a brand new sedan, wrapped in a red ribbon. Eden changes her tune and suggests she show him her gratitude, later. Jon has to go out of town, and Eden says things won't keep forever. Story of Jon's life! he tells Sonny to babysit Trina and not to let anyone in and tells Trina he'll take her case for 25% of the money that was in the safe. Sonny proceeds to regale Trina with tales of his colorful past, while Jon grabs his gear.

Sable drives up to the Eagle's Nest resort and sees Mr Sherman. He offers to find the missing hundred grand. Sherman says his people are looking for Trina, and Sable retorts that he didn't say he'd find Trina, just the money. He asks Sherman if he actually believes she did it. He says the evidence is against her, but he doesn't want to see her in trouble. he has convinced Hawkins to drop the assault charge and will drop the robbery charge, if the money is recovered. Sherman agrees and Sable names his price of 25%.

Sable talks to Hawkins, who says the money was in the safe when he found trina and claims to have been knocked out for only a minute. He says Carter Haines, the desk clerk found him as he was coming to. Sable sugegsts that Trina interrupted a robber, who hid and took the money after, but Hawkins says there is no place to hide in there, by design. They are interrupted by Angela Ryder, a performer in the nightclub, who was booked by Trina. She doesn't believe Trina did it. She points out Haines, who Hawkins says follows her like a puppy. She thinks he is sweet. Angela asks Sable outside for some fresh air, before her next shift.

There is a convention going on and Angie has been a center of attention. She and Sable go for a walk along the lake, while someone watches from the railing, at the hotel.

The next morning, Sable interviews Haines. he backs up Hawkins story and says he had gone to the office to get brochures for the conventioneers. He claims the money was gone from the safe when he found Hawkins and Trina had fled. Sable phones Sonny and tells him to keep an eye on Trina, as her story is the only one that doesn't check out. He is interrupted by a scream.

Carter Haines is found dead, of an apparent heart attack, though he did hit his head on steps, as he fell down a flight leading down from the hotel to the shore. Sable tells Angie, who is crestfallen, as she liked him, despite the unwarranted attention.

Sable meets up with Sherman, who is speaking to a guest, who calls him colonel. He explains he had been a colonel in the USAF, with Strategic Air Command, but got tired of butting heads with top brass. sable admires the exotic woman (of Mediterranean or Middle eastern extraction) as she leaves. Sherman tells him the police autopsy confirms Haines' death was by heart attack. Sable was hoping for an indication of murder.

Sable returns to his room and finds someone trying to leave by the window. He tackles them, but gets hit over the head, from behind. He wakes up, with Angie tending to him and tells her two people were inhis room, though he doesn't know what they were looking for. His room has been rifled. He goes to see Sherman, but Sherman claims no knowledge of what they sought. Later, Sable spots someone in the trunk of his Studebaker and chases them. the figure hops in a car and tries to run down Sable, who pulls his Mauser and fres and the car crashes. Hawkins is the driver, dead from a bullet from the Mauser.



Sable confers with Sherman, who says Hawkins must have been in on the robbery. Sable is still looking for an accomplice. He asks if there was anything else in the safe and is told just a few pieces of jewelry. Sable calls Sonny and asks about a package, which Sonny confirms arrived. Sable has him express deliver it to the resort. He then takes it to go see Angela. Sable tells her a story....



Hawkins opened the safe to rob it, but was interrupted by Trina and ducked out the patio door. he circled back, but saw Haines coming down the hall, and decided to roll with it. he interrupted Trina and she pushed him and he was knocked unconscious. Sable remarks that you lose track of time, when knocked unconscious. He says Haines took the money and jewelry, hiding it in a box of brochures. He then says Angela was the accomplice and Haines gave her the emerald pendant she was wearing earlier, to impress her, after she showed attention to Sable. Hawkins recognized it and tried to shake Haines down. He hit Haines, but he suffered a heart attack. To cover up the bruises, Hawkins shoved him down the stairs. He broke into Sable's room and Sable caught him, but Angela hit him over the head. he shot Hawkins in self-defense, later. He wondered why Hawkins went after him, knowing that sable had nothing on him, until he realized how things fit together.

Haines mailed the box of brochures, with the loot, to Sable's home address, since Sable couldn't find it there, while he was at the resort. Sable had Sonny send it back; and, sure enough, the missing money is inside. However, he finds something else with it....



Thoughts: Another detective mystery, with a bit of a twist, as Sable investigates a robbery to clear his client, and finds it compounded with murder and attempted murder. The real surprise is when he recovers the loot and finds a document, titled "Operation First Strike," then is confronted by Sherman, in military gear, along with the exotic woman he had been speaking to. Obviously, this was the real MacGuffin of the plot, though we, and Sable, did not know it. So, this just went from Philip Marlowe to James Bond, which was Mike Grell's intent, for the series.

Grell handles the mystery element well, laying out the clues for Sable to find and us, and he plays fair, as you can put things together. The loot is the question , though you do have to wonder why Haines would mail it to Sable and not to someone else he knew. How did he intend to retrieve it? Even while trying to avoid discovery, his greed would likely be such that he wouldn't risk losing the money altogether. Why not mail it to a fictional address, so it would come back as undeliverable, later?

Given the cliffhanger ending, it would seem that the document, with a military sounding name and Sherman and his cohorts paramilitary clothes and weapons, is some kind of military plan and not for the US government. The woman gives the suggestion of a terrorist strike, given her apparent ethnicity and the fact that she holds an AK-47, a favorite weapon of terrorists, throughout the world (and delivered by the boatload, throughout the Middle East, for decades). You do have to ask why a retired colonel would be involved in terrorism against the United States. i think the answer lies in the likely inspiration for Andrew Sherman: General Jack D Ripper, from Stanley Kubrick's Dr Strangelove...


(Played by the brilliant Sterling Hayden)

That character initiates a nuclear strike against the Soviet Union, to force the government's hand into wiping out the Soviet Union. The character was somewhat inspired by USAAF (and USAF) General Curtis LeMay, who was in charge of the strategic bombing of Japan, up to and including the Atomic bomb. He was also head of Strategic Air command, from 1948 to 1957. he had advocated bombing Cuba, during the Cuban Missile Crisis and advocated for the bombing campaign in North Vietnam. He drafted war plans, in 1949, which called for a pre-emptive air strike on the Soviet Union, over 30 days, dropping 133 nuclear bombs on Soviet cities, predicting WWIII would last only those 30 days and the USSR would be destroyed. LeMay was noted for his ever-present cigar and is at the center of various nuclear conspiracy theories from people who believe Dr Strangelove and Fail Safe were documentaries, just that the bombers were destroyed, en route. I suspect Sherman has something similar, in mind, though I think it is less a strike against the Soviet Union, than one within the US. to look like a terrorist attack, as a provocation for war. This puts it a bit more into another paranoid film, Seven Days in May, directed by John Frankenheimer.

Seven Days in May features a plot to carry out a military coup of the United States government, orchestrated by an Air Force general (Burt Lancaster) that is uncovered by a subordinate, at the Pentagon (Kirk Douglas). Douglas investigates, with a few key allies, at the behest of the President of the United States (Frederick March). He uncovers a vast conspiracy, involving key elements of the military, to use a war game exercise to position troops in key positions, and then seize power from a president who the general feels appeases the Soviets too much. The film has a dramatic climax where March and Lancaster face off in a philosophical and moral debate, that should be viewed by every member of the White House staff and the Department of defense, in every administration. It underlines the democratic foundations of the US government and civilian control of the military, as well as the constitutional duties of all involved. So, Sherman may be plotting his own little coup.

Raymond Chandler meets Ian Fleming, meets Peter George (and Eugene Burdick and Harvey Wheeler), as told by Stanley Kubrick, Richard Levinson & William Link and John Frankenheimer.

Grell does a nice job with the architecture of the resort, which has a nice mix of mid-Century Modern and Woodland Resort design. I suspect it is based on a real location, though I can't identify it. Grell has shown a fondness for Mid-Century Modern architecture, as Sable's townhouse is of that style, recalling the designs of Frank Lloyd Wright's "Fallingwater" house, as well as similar house, by architects & designers like Neutra, Eames, Saarinen, and Arno.

Next, just what the hell is Sherman's plan?

(And now that I've written that, I can't thinking how awesome it would be to see Grell do some Jonah Hex.)

Here's West "gearing up," in the pilot episode...

The Wild Wild West is a great one and it pretty much hit the ground running.  Miguelito Loveless, the mad doctor, appeared in that first season ("Night of the Wizard") and became the recurring villain.  His stuff just keeps getting better and Michael Dunne was fantastic, in the role.  Ross Martin's part improves greatly as time passes, as he moves from being Jim West's contact and support to a full-fledged partner.  Martin gets to do character work, as Artemus is a master of disguise.  The fight scenes are good, too, as the actors would do a lot of their own stunts (especially Robert Conrad).  They had a producer change, later in the series, that messed with things, for a bit; but, it didn't last long.  They also had a hiccup when Ross Martin suffered a heart attack and they had to use guest agents for several episodes (similar thing happened to Edward Woodward, on The Equalizer).

Actually, I wiling to give Capt. Winters a pass on not spotting Sable and Flemm as being the same person.

I've done a bit of research on the psychology of masks and disguises (mostly to have answers when people claim some of the comic conventions like domino masks are ridiculous). As a general rule, people tend to see what they expect to see: often missing things like a difference in height. Even though he is trained investigator, Winters has no reason to associate Sable and Flemm, especially as this is the first time Winters have seen Flemm in the flesh. And as he regards Sable as a pain in his posterior, but is favourably disposed towards Flemm as his son's favourite author, he is not going to be looking for similarities between them, and any difference he notices will self-reinforcing.

Sonny is a slightly different matter. As Sable's fencing coach, he is going to be intimately familiar with the way Sable holds himself and moves in a way that Winters is not. And as an ex-stuntman, he will have a greater knowledge of wigs and makeup, especially as he will have been made up to double for various actors.