538 SACCO, JOE
noses” has caused most people to give up their individuality, while “I.Q. scores and
salaries became more important than a sense of honor, or a measure of dignity in deal-
ing with yourself or others.”
Melissa shares Sabre’s romantic rejection of the coldly calculating world around her,
though from a diff erent point of view that arises from her status as the fi rst “test tube
fetus,” a product of a project designed, in a mode somewhat reminiscent of Aldous
Huxley’s Brave New World, to do away with sexual reproduction altogether, freeing up
humans for “more important things.” Melissa, however, feels that something important
has been lost in freeing conception from its “orgasm origins.” Th at something, she con-
cludes, is “magic,” a quality that is entirely lacking in the thoroughly routinized world in
which she grows up.
In the Sabre graphic novel, the total triumph of consumer capitalism has led to an
almost total collapse of civil society, creating a post-apocalyptic atmosphere of chaos and
despair in which a few unscrupulous individuals have seized power, creating a (rather
dysfunctional) dystopian state, the power of which is resisted by only a few determined
rebels. Th e routinization theme is emphasized in the way Sabre and Melissa must make
their way across a bizarre Disneyland-like amusement park in order to try to free a
group of rebels who have been taken captive by the dark powers who run the park. Th e
implication is clear: any apparent magic in this world is a mere simulacrum of magic,
contained and commodifi ed, bottled for mass consumption in carefully controlled doses.
Th is park is run by the Overseer, a mysterious and sinister fi gure, though much of the
actual work is carried out by his henchman Blackstar Blood, a villain with a certain
sense of honor; this honor ultimately leads him to come to the aid of Sabre and Melissa
at a crucial moment, helping them to defeat the Overseer, though even more powerful
enemies remain on the horizon.
Sabre’s romanticism now seems a bit quaint, while its portrayal of Melissa is a bit
sexist: despite the fact that she is strong and courageous, she functions in the text
largely as a sexual object who must be rescued from a sexual fate worse than death by
the hyper-masculine Sabre. Sabre himself is a hero somewhat in the Blaxploitation
vein, though his swashbuckling style is modeled more directly on Errol Flynn’s Captain
Blood. Indeed, Sabre’s race is largely beside the point, serving mainly to help establish
his status as an outsider to the society around him, a status he shares with more main-
stream African American comic-book heroes such as Luke Cage.
Selected Bibliography: McGregor, Don. Sabre. Fullerton, CA: Image Comics, 1978.
M. Keith Booker
SACCO, JOE (1960–). Joe Sacco is best known for practicing comics journalism, often
reporting on politically volatile confl ict zones. Born in Malta and raised in Australia,
California, and Oregon, Sacco studied journalism at the University of Oregon, where he
later published an alternative magazine before working as a news writer for Th e Comics
Journal. After editing the humor anthology Centrifugal Bumble-puppy (Fantagraphics,
