Blue Estate #6

Viktor Kalvachev's crime noir series reaches "Point of No Return" with this sixth issue, and the cover makes the tone unmistakably clear — a coolly confident woman perches atop an oversized handgun while brandishing a rolled-up hundred-dollar bill, the whole image styled as a sardonic "Hollow Point Bullets" ammo box. The red-drenched composition, penciled and inked by Kalvachev himself, blends pulpy glamour with sharp dark humor in a way that feels wholly its own. With a creative team that also includes Andrew Osborne, Toby Cypress, Nathan Fox, and Kosta Yanev, Blue Estate continues to look like one of 2011's more distinctive crime comics.