Since it's such a big week, I have two favorites!

Pick of the week: Star Wars: Chewbacca #1 - Written by Gerry Duggan, illustrated by Phil Noto, and published by Marvel.
This series is also set around the same time as Shattered Empire; after the destruction of the second Death Star. Chewie has set forth on a secret, personal mission. The likes of which have yet to be explained! He finds himself on Andelm 4. Also on Andelm 4, we meet Zarro and her father Arrax. An ugly green thug by the name of Jaum has them cornered, threatening Arrax to pay the debts he owes. When Arrax can't pay, he and Zarro are captured by Jaum and his gang and taken to work in the Andelm beetle caverns. Nearly everyone on Andelm 4 has shared the same fate. Jaum is rising to power, and the Empire is sure to be involved. Arrax won't stand for his child being a slave, so he helps her escape that night in a mine cart. Zarro runs and steals a speeder and makes a hasty get away! When she runs into trouble, guess who intervenes? Chewie steps in to save her, and the two become an unlikely team, keen on taking out the evils at work on Andelm 4 and rescuing everyone in the mines. Phil Noto's art is absolutely beautiful and perfect for this book. His colors and textures convey so much emotion, and Chewie has never looked so soft and huggable. This is going to be a 5 issue series, and I'm so glad I picked it up! I was a bit hesitant at first, but it's funny with an excellent storyline. Can't wait for #2!

AND

Pick of the week: I Hate Fairyland #1 - Written by Skottie Young, illustrated by Skottie Young, colored by Jean-Francois Beaulieu, and published by Image.
As some of you may know, Skottie Young's work is not always adorable little kid versions of Marvel characters. He's an amazing illustrator and storyteller, with quite a dark streak! This is his first entirely self written and self illustrated title, and it's freakin' awesome. The weirdness, violence, and gore is a total juxtaposition with the adorable main character Gertrude and the fantastical world she finds herself in. Gertrude wishes to go to a magical land, and suddenly the carpet in her room opens up and sucks her into a portal as she tries desperately to get away, drops her through the sky and smack dab into the middle of Fairyland. All the adorable residents of Fairyland gather to meet their new guest, who is now covered in blood from the fall with several bones protruding! Gertrude cries that she just wants to go home, and the Queen Cloudia of Fairyland descends and hands her a map. She also designates her a little cricket companion named Larry to help her find her way across the land and back home. Easy peasy adorable adventure, right? 27 years later and Gertrude is still stuck in Fairyland with no sign of her finding her way home. She hasn't aged, but has become a perpetual terror to Fairyland. Robbing banks, blowing things up, killing people, defying the law! Queen Cloudia is not allowed to harm a guest of Fairyland, so she hires an assassin, Brud The Brutal, to hunt Gertrude the menace down! I can't wait to see where this totally chaotic and hilarious story goes. I Hate Fairyland is clearly his love letter to the wacky and whimsical, and you should most definitely pick it up!