7 Days to Fame: I'd be so good on this show!

The first issue of 7 Days to Fame came out a couple weeks ago, and the second should be well on its way to comics shops. It's a three-issue mini-series with the premise splayed on the cover with gleeful macabre:

A reality TV show... about suicide!



The first issue introduces the players - a sleazy, do-anything-for-success television personality, and his noticeably-less-so-but-still-kinda-sleazy producer. They witness a stirring suicide in the opening scene and, when their late-night talk show finds itself in the shit, a golden coin drops in their laps in the form of an old woman with cancer. They spend a week focusing on her life and finally building to the Friday night climax - she whips out a gun and blows her brains out on live television.

Where the series is going with this is unclear at this point. This was an enjoyable issue, with some strong supporting characters and a lot of anticipation, but it ends with the suicide. So, I don't have much more to go on than I did when I read the solicit text for issue two - which seems to promise folks competing to have the most interesting, TV-worthy deaths. Will the series become a moral finger-waver, letting us know that television is exploitative and shallow? Or will it revel in the premise a bit - try to answer the question, "What kind of suicides would you watch?"

There's a middle-ground to be struck, but I'm hoping they lean towards the latter.

So: Promising work from brand new creators, though they need to learn not to spend the entire first issue building the premise (especially in a mini-series only three issues long). This is worth a look, and I expect the upcoming issue 2 will be even better.