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A review by lawrenwithaw
Satellite Sam, Vol. 1: The Lonesome Death of Satellite Sam by Howard Chaykin, Matt Fraction
I'm not sure about this one. The men behind this book are obviously masters of the craft, but something falls flat here.
This is my first Chaykin book, but his experience shows. I love the amount of detail he puts into his work, but it felt cluttered at points. You can tell this was intentional by the amount of speech bubbles and the hurried atmosphere of the station, but I couldn't help but be overwhelmed by the sheer number of characters being thrown at me.
The other thing worth mentioning that shouldn't surprise you if you've seen any of the covers to this series is the portrayal of women. Fraction has shown the ability to write about female sexuality with great understanding in his book Sex Criminals, so when paired up with someone who draws smut as well as Chaykin, I was expecting some sort of commentary or spin on the subject and I received none. To be fair, this book was so tightly woven that there wasn't room for that sort of commentary. They may get around to it in the next book, but it doesn't look like that the direction they want to go.
The style, atmosphere, themes and setting are all very interesting to me and I wish I was able to go more in depth, but I very much feel like I'm reviewing the opening chapter of a story.
This is my first Chaykin book, but his experience shows. I love the amount of detail he puts into his work, but it felt cluttered at points. You can tell this was intentional by the amount of speech bubbles and the hurried atmosphere of the station, but I couldn't help but be overwhelmed by the sheer number of characters being thrown at me.
The other thing worth mentioning that shouldn't surprise you if you've seen any of the covers to this series is the portrayal of women. Fraction has shown the ability to write about female sexuality with great understanding in his book Sex Criminals, so when paired up with someone who draws smut as well as Chaykin, I was expecting some sort of commentary or spin on the subject and I received none. To be fair, this book was so tightly woven that there wasn't room for that sort of commentary. They may get around to it in the next book, but it doesn't look like that the direction they want to go.
The style, atmosphere, themes and setting are all very interesting to me and I wish I was able to go more in depth, but I very much feel like I'm reviewing the opening chapter of a story.