'Sale's work has a haunted quality,' observed Bill Jankiewicz on the Long Halloween Web site. Sale has also become known for his creative depictions of Gotham City, in his Batman work, and Smallville in his Superman novel. Even dressed in his street clothes, Sale's Bruce Wayne exudes an oldfashioned, black-and-white film star coolness, beginning with his baggy, boxy suits and ending with his trademark scowl. Sale makes particular use of Batman's long, pointy ears and his eerie, flowing cape to suggest the hero's mystery and deep-seated anger. Sale's Batman is 'dark, angry, brooding, and frightening,' to quote the artist himself on the Long Halloween Web site. Sale became famous in comics circles for his contributions to the Batman: Legends of the Dark Knight series. They have been working for DC, and occasionally Marvel, ever since. Sale's association with Loeb began in 1991, when they were asked to contribute to a DC Comics series called Challengers of the Unknown. This led to an association with Thieves' World Graphics, a fantasy anthology series, where he illustrated stories by Lynn Abbey and Robert Lynn Asprin. When he found himself working at a fast-food taco stand in his late twenties, however, he decided to try to sell some work. For some years he drew his art privately, only to please himself. Sale took his time becoming deeply involved in the business.

He studied art in college in the Pacific Northwest, and he took a brief course on comic book art with John Buscema in New York. Born in New York, Sale grew up reading Marvel Comics, an irony since the vast majority of his work is for rival publisher DC Comics.

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