Satellite Sam Volume Two: Satellite Sam And The Snuff-F* Kinescope
Matt Fraction, writer; Howard Chaykin, artist
Image Comics, 2014
The second collection of Satellite Sam delivers the noir mystery in spades. Michael's investigation continues--aided by his successful sobriety--and he is increasingly convinced that his father was murdered. At first he thinks that the private stash of kinescopes was a threat because of the power that back catalog would have given to aid a planned move to Hollywood. His father owned the largest collection of Satellite Sam episodes in existence, much larger than the official Le Monde Network archives. That alone might have been enough to get him killed.
But then Michael watches a few of the kinescopes, and discovers extra material that was filmed after the episodes. It's prime blackmail stuff: live action kinky sex similar to the stash of photographs that was discovered after he died. If the people in the films--such as ambitious politician Wilson Karnes--know the copies exist, who knows what they might do to keep them secret.
Like any good noir, secrets abound. A bunch of new ones pile up in this arc. The show producer's lung cancer becomes public; the writer's homosexuality is about to be revealed; actor Eugene Ford is outed as a Negro (in the period parlance) passing for white, just as his TV show is being launched. And at the end of the collection, Le Monde owner Dr. Ginsberg has followed Libby to the secret kinescope stash. Looking forward to what is sure to be an exciting conclusion.
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