4.06.11 Releases

I’m looking forward to Blue Estate #1 (Image) this week, which includes the work of Viktor Kalvachev, Nathan Fox, and Toby Cypress, all of whom have worked on Brian Wood’s DMZ, and Nathan Fox is now a buy-on-sight creator for me. It looks like they’re doing some sort of noir jam project that's just dripping attitude. Nonplayer #1 (Image) is also getting a lot of advance buzz for creator Nate Simpson. I love the art images, which have the detailed line work of Brandon Graham or James Stokoe, and I’ve also heard comparisons to everyone from Geoff Darrow to Moebius and Frank Quitely. At the very least, it should be very impressive visually. On the graphic novel front, Aaron & Ahmed (DC/Vertigo) looks to be a challenging work that examines the underlying causes of terrorism in the human psyche. I suppose the big mainstream news is the official kick-off of Marvel’s next big “game-changing” event, with Fear Itself #1 (Marvel) hitting the stands. I’m not one for event books, but I’d be lying if I said I wasn’t curious to see how Matt Fraction handles his first major crossover in the mastermind role, and artist Stuart Immonen is also becoming a buy-on-sight sort of guy, so I’m probably in for the first issue at least.