I’m going to call it right out of the gate: “Satellite Sam”, from Matt Fraction and Howard Chaykin, is going to be this year’s love it or hate it books. I would make a Marmite reference if it weren’t for the fear that some of you wouldn’t know what I’m talking about. Launching in July from Image Comics, Fraction and Chaykin will be exploring the depraved history of the formation of television in New York in the 1950s. The book seems to primarily focus on the mystery surrounding the actor who portrayed the titular Satellite Sam and with the book being from these two creators, I highly doubt they will hold back anyone on the depravity of the times.
“Satellite Sam” launches this July from Image Comics and if you want to check it out, Fraction himself urges you to pre-order it from your local comic book shop. However, if you’re still not swayed there’s more information in the Image press release below.
Image Comics Press Release
This July, acclaimed comic book creators Matt Fraction (Hawkeye, Casanova, Iron Man) and Howard Chaykin (BLACK KISS, AMERICAN FLAGG) will take readers back to the Golden Age of Television, a time when innocence was as manufactured a fiction as the perfect families in the comedies that captivated audiences at home. Their new Image Comics series SATELLITE SAM, debuting in July, takes a look at the darkness behind the small screen when, in 1951, Carlyle Bishop, the star of the beloved serial “Satellite Sam” turns up dead in a filthy flophouse.
Carlyle’s son Michael has a hunch that his father’s death was anything but natural, but the only clue is a box full of photographs of women in various states of undress — and Mike can’t bring himself to stay sober long enough to make any sense of it.
For Fraction and Chaykin, SATELLITE SAM is a chance to tell a murder mystery while simultaneously divesting the 1950s of its mantle of moral purity.
“It’s a detective story, a history of television, and a record of addiction, sex, and depravity during a time when the antiseptic shine off Ozzie and Harriet obscure what was really happening in the world,” said writer Fraction. “And these are just a few of the many joys that come from telling a story about television while it was being invented as a mass medium in New York City.”
The creative team researched television’s early days in preparation for the series, getting a feel for the era and for the people who lived real lives while inventing an idealized — and fictionalized — image of families and relationships.
“We’d been talking about SATELLITE SAM for a while, but what really got it going was a long Winter’s day Matt and I spent wandering New York, feeling the city’s ghosts, its lost and found architecture, ending up at the Paley Center, where we watched kinescopes of long dead men and women, acting out children’s fantasies, while living complex lives off-camera,” said Chaykin. “To say that I’m both having the time of my life collaborating on this project, and getting my ass kicked in the process, is to grossly understate the case.”
SATELLITE SAM is an ongoing black-and-white series. Its first issue can be pre-ordered now from the May issue of Previews and will be in stores on July 3.
