I will be honest and say that I picked up this first issue because 1. No one else had and 2. My name is on the cover. Not exactly a great start. But sometimes that is all it takes. Okay anyway, I was intrigued by the whole murder mystery and this first issue dives right into in. I thought maybe it would take a couple of months to find the body but we get death by the end of this issue. Satellite Sam is based on a famous show by the same name. The comic takes us back to the 50s and the whole print is in black and white, rightfully so. The crew of the show is going crazy trying to find their star, Carlyle. I guess I don’t appreciate the creation of television enough to not be bored with this whole plot idea. The crew is running around trying to make a good impression on possibly new clients and they are all stressed about the commercials and finding Sam. I wanted to get past all this stuff into the murder scene. It took too long and I didn’t feel like the rush of the show came through in the pictures.
The comic will clearly be taking a father/son relationship aspect in the next couple of issues. Mikey, Carlyle’s son, works behind the camera. Carlyle works in front. That alone explains a lot. Mikey must take the place of Sam at the very end of the show in order to keep the audience tuned in. I don’t know if his role as Sam will continue but if so that will bring some sort of reflection between him and his father. We don’t know much more about the two men or how they felt about each other. Carlyle has his apartment set up as a photo shoot. What is he shooting? Girls half-naked. I have no idea if Mikey knew about this or not but he does now. I suspect that Carlyle got in with some bad people or had to find some money real fast.
I am interested to see where the murder mystery goes but for everything else I am already tuned out. I can appreciate creativity and learning about new things but Satellite Sam isn’t the comic for me. I think it only takes one issue to know if you like it or not, so check it out and see for yourself.
Score: 3/5
Writer: Matt Fraction
Artist: Howard Chaykin
Publisher: Image Comics
Price: $3.50
Release Date: 7/3/13