Friday 4 March 2011

"Turf" Jonathan Ross & Tommy Lee Edwards

"TURF"


Jonathan Ross the television and radio personality recently made his debut into comic writing with “TURF” from Image Comics. The actual publishing and acquiring copies of the comic have been very hard work because they aren’t regular, but I’m happy to say that Mark Millars Comic Anthology has managed to by pass this stage by serializing the comic in “CLiNT” The artwork has been illustrated by Tommy Lee Edwards who has adopted a distinct style to try and recapture the feeling of New York 1920’s where the action is set. It is at this point I must ask you to get a pen and paper ready to do a check list of the range of characters you will face in this miniseries.

“TURF” It is a mob/gangster story that weaves its way through the prohibition of the 1920 America. A gang war breaks out between the booze smuggling mobsters and the blood smuggling operation of the Dragonmir! (Yep tick off Vampires on that list!) There is unrest in the Dragonmir Empire and soon family rivalries break out and the realization that New York is up for grabs and vampires take on mobsters to gain over all control. The only glimmer of hope for New York and mankind is the unlikely alliance between Eddie Falco a mobster boss and general tough man, and a stranger on the run from another planet. (Yes tick off Aliens as well!) stick this altogether with a mix of booze bullets and broads and you know you’ve got a story that will appeal to every comic book fan!


Having just acquired a signed copy of number 4 in the series, the tension is starting to pile up as alliances are forged and broken and the prophecy of the Vampires is starting to be realised. Issue one was mainly dialogue based which made the pace rather pedestrian at times, but you quickly realised that this was to give you time to learn the characters and absorb the environment where the action was to happen. One clear thing that stands out from this series is, Jonathan Ross knows his Vampires and has a distinct feel for pace and drama. Maybe this comes from years of watching films, but this is definitely building up to a crescendo!.

No comments:

Post a Comment