By: Viktor Kalvachev & Kosta Yanev (story), Andrew Osborne (script), Kalvachev, Toby Cypress, Nathan Fox & Robert Valley (art), Kalvachev (colors, direction & design) & Philo Northrup (contributing editor)
The Story: Detective noir with a few clever twists to keep it fresh.
What’s Good: If you like the noirish detective genre you’re going to like this just fine. And, if you like detective stories with a few novel, slightly campy twists, your’re going to like this more. And if you like clever, stylish art you’ll probably like this a lot.
The story has all the things that you need for a good detective/crime story. There is a sexy redhead who may or may not be the victim, there’s a private detective and there’s an organized crime angle. What makes it fresh are the interesting little twists that are tossed in, such as a motion picture star who seems a LOT like Stephen Seagal who, after becoming washed up as a film star, ends up being an enforcer for the Russian mob (not to mention some very odd and unclear shower action between the film star & another mob enforcer). And, the detective isn’t cool or hard-boiled. He’s basically Jonah Hill: fat, bumbling and questionable in competence. This first issue is all set up, but the creative team as some neat elements to work with as the issue wraps up and you are definitely left wanting to know more.
I really don’t know how to describe the art, because it is quite different from Kalvachev’s art in Pherone (which has art by Kalvachev that I reviewed a few weeks ago). I would say that Blue Estate has similar stylistic sensibilities as Pherone, but with a lot less use of photo-reference. With four credited artists (all of whom are pretty solid names), it is a little hard to see who did what, but the linework reminds me a little bit of what Riley Rossmo would do: rough, vibrant, sketchy (although in some places it is cleaned-up, but still retains its sketchy nature, if you know what I mean). Color is used almost exclusively for mood where a panel gets kinda a wash of yellow to establish the vibe that the creators are shooting for (contrasted to colors where the colorist is trying to think of what colors objects would be in real life).
What’s Not So Good: Well, it’s hard to say what’s bad, because I enjoyed this a lot. One thing that some people might pick at is that there could be movie ambitions with this story. I know it drives some comic fans bananas that creative types “use” the comic medium to leverage a story for film purposes. I don’t really care personally and when you look at the sales numbers for Image #1’s you’d understand the desire to leverage your cool story in every way possible. Good story is good story, but some folks get their panties in a twist about this stuff.
And if you only like your detective noir, hard-boiled, you should look somewhere else. There is a definite hip/cool/tongue-in-cheek angle to Blue Estate. Again, I kinda like it, but we all know there are myopic folks out there.
Conclusion: A very cool, hip and fun entry in into the detective/crime/mob genre with very stylish art. Worth a read!
Grade: B+
-Dean Stell
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