by Matt Fraction and Howard Chaykin; Image Comics
Satellite Sam is a love letter to the Golden Age of Live Television. The story takes place behind the scenes of Satellite Sam, a highly rated Space serial on the LeMonde network, as the show is rocked by the death of Carlyle White, Satellite Sam himself, under mysterious circumstances. Mysterious circumstances that reveal an illicit secret life of debauchery. Satellite Sam is a story of murder and sex and the history of TV. The story itself is shaping up to be an intricate and slow burning mystery with a generous helping of greed and perversion, and a surprising amount of information about 1950's television. The thing is, Satellite Sam might not be the easiest sell: it's a pretty complicated beast and I know Howard Chaykin's art isn't for everyone. Despite not usually being a big Chaykin fan, I really like him on this book: he really understands the period, and his gritty linework benefits tremendously from the Black and White colours in Satellite Sam. Although, that same black and white element can also make it a bit hard to keep the large cast straight at times (it's amazing how much I rely on colour for character identification). There are helpful character charts in the backup, which should help. The other thing I think you should know is that Satellite Sam is a slow builder, improving a bit every chapter, until ending on a really intriguing note. If you give it a fair, long chance you might be pleasantly surprised.
Word count: 249
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