I saw a
pre-release interview with Satellite Sam
creators Howard Chaykin and Matt Fraction a couple weeks ago and the premise
looked incredibly interesting. I love
stories that transport us back in time, even if it’s only a few years, and with
this one sending us back to 1951 it really piqued my interest. Let’s see if it lives up to my expectations.
Cover:
Chaykin’s
cover pretty much tells you all about the inciting incident of the series right
off the bat. While we don’t know who any
of the characters on the cover are, we have an idea that the “spaceman” is
Satellite Sam, so it’s pretty obvious that this starts with his murder at the
hands of this random scantily clad woman.
The imagery of blood spatter inside the helmet with just a single bullet
hole is gruesome and intriguing at the same time. It is 100 times more effective of an image
than if Chaykin had drawn it more realistically with the mangled face of the
corpse visible in the helmet.
A
couple issues I had with the art were not dealbreakers by any means, but made
me pause a bit when I was looking at it.
Satellite Sam himself looks a bit flat.
There doesn’t seem to be a lot of weight and depth to the character
(which is in direct contrast to all of the revelations we are going to find out
over the course of the series). The foot
of the woman is also planted firmly on the hand of Sam, and yet her leg is
straight and her foot is flat, as if she is standing on the ground itself. Chaykin could have moved the hand up a bit
and it would have worked better in my opinion.
I would have thought that maybe, just maybe, the suit was empty, but
there is no indication that is the case given the weight provided to the gloves
and boots.
8/10 – A striking narrative cover can’t be spoiled by a few
graphic missteps. The woman is well
drawn (what little we can see anyway) and the coloring is great. The attention to detail is incredible as
well, especially in the undergarments of the woman. Chaykin could have made up some silly design
that didn’t look as realistic but was easier to execute, yet he went a more
authentic route.
Story:
The
best thing about the story is that it starts with Satellite Sam already
dead. That sounds a little morbid, but
the reaction to his death, from thinking that he just hasn’t shown up for his
job, to realizing that he is gone but his job still needs to be done, is more
impressive than a linear narrative that included the act as well. Being on the periphery of the murder and
experiencing it along with everyone else gives us a closer tie to the living
than it would if we had just seen the murder happen because we are finding out
with them without being desensitized to it.
Their reactions are our reactions and we are sharing something with them
as opposed to just reading about them. The
fact that this story starts off with the death of the title character (or at
least the guy that plays that character on the television show) serves to throw
many wheels in motion that will most likely reveal more mysteries than resolutions
for some time to come.
While
the plot and the overall craft of the story is excellent. The first twelve to fifteen pages, up and
through the reveal of Sam’s death, does not feel like a comic book. The feel of the story to that point is almost
like a movie script. The frenetic pace
coupled with the way that the characters are speaking would feel more at home
in a movie setting than in the static world of a comic book. It almost feels like Fraction is trying to
control the pace by throwing as much dialogue as possible at you from the get
go, except it’s not really saying much.
I’m not against dialogue heavy comics (hell, I grew up with the X-Men in the early nineties for Christ’s
sake) but that dialogue seemed to have a purpose. The opening half of issue one of Satellite Sam feels like the opening of
a movie, before the title card. You
almost expect the names of the “talent” to scroll across the page as if you
were watching it unfold on the big screen of your local movie theater. While I understand what Fraction was trying
to do to a point, it doesn’t have the desired effect on me, so I would have to
say that it was unsuccessful.
6/10 – The story is good, I’m just not too sold on the
delivery system as of yet. Obviously
there is a possibility that it will even itself out (and it kind of did after
we got out of the television studio) but if it dips back into that break-neck,
throw all these words at you kind of pace, it will revert to the unimpressive
nature that it was for the first half of issue one.
Art:
First
of all, I’m all for black and white comics.
Love them. Second, Chaykin is a
master of creating textures in this medium.
Where many comics nowadays are eschewing texture for clean, crisp lines
that leave plenty of room for the colorist to work, Chaykin has instead filled
up the entire book with texture and character.
This is done in all manner of ways, from zipatone backgrounds to ink
splatter, grease pencil and straight up pen and ink textures. I love it all. Everything is detailed and realistic, with
just a hint of cartoony in there so you realize you are reading a comic book.
The characters are not stylized but they are not to the point where they look
traced out of a magazine. The
backgrounds are beautifully done and look just like a legitimate backdrop of 1950s
New York City.
Sometimes
the art gets a little odd in terms of proportion (hands being too small and
things like that) but the only reason that is inherently noticeable is because
the rest of it is spot on. When you have
something that looks incredible, any little wart is going to stand out. The warts here do not detract from the overall
product though, as Chaykin has done an incredible job of utilizing all of the
traditional comic-making media to his advantage in crafting a period piece that
feels like a period piece. This is not
an easy feat given that it is all in black and white, but he does it, and does
it better than I have seen in a long time.
9/10 – Chaykin delivers, showing that he is still one of the
better artists out there and that a no-frills, back to basics approach to comic
making can work well in the hands of a master.
Overall: 7/10 – The saving
grace of the first half of the book is that it is pretty to look at. When The story catches up to the writing it
makes the book incredible.
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