‘Turf’ – Jonathan Ross, Tommy Lee Edwards (Titan Books)

 

Page Count: 144 Pages

It wasn’t just ‘Doctor Who’ books that I bought, in Greenwich, the other day. I don’t normally go into ‘Casbah Records’ but I saw a little sign, saying ‘books for sale’, and figured… Just this once :o)

‘Turf’ is one of those titles where I see #1 in ‘Forbidden Planet’ and think to myself, ‘I’ll pick up a copy next time’. The next thing I know, it’s years later and I’ve just found a really nice looking collected edition (still wrapped up in the plastic) in a Greenwich Record Shop. I thought to myself, ‘if I don’t read it now, I’ll have retired by the time I next remember to read it…’ So, that’s what I did.

New York, 1929: The height of prohibition.

Gangs fall like bloody dominos as the mysterious Dragonmir family fights to rule the city and begin to wake the Old One – a gigantic sleeping vampire buried in the roots of their mansion. But an unlikely alliance between tough guy Eddie Falco and an alien gun-runner leads to an uneasy stalemate. Meanwhile, a strong-willed young reporter, dirty cops and ousted Harlem racketeers all try to survive in the middle of the maelstrom , and it’s anyone’s guess who’s going to win the battle for this particular slice of turf.

‘Undead prohibition-era gangsters’, that is literally the pitch that got me into ‘The Goon’ so there was no doubt that I’d read ‘Turf’, erm… eventually :o) I got there in the end though and on the whole, ‘Turf’ was a lot of fun to read. I’m glad my memory was jogged and I finally gave it a go.

I’ll be honest though, it did feel like Ross threw a little too much at the plot for all of it to land satisfactorily. Your opinion may differ but I couldn’t help but think that while aliens are cool, ‘regular gangsters vs vampire gangsters’ is already cool enough and the plot would have fared better just concentrating on that rather than spreading itself a little too thin. There wasn’t the space for things to breathe and as a result, there was a pretty pivotal moment (towards the end) that was glossed over. At least it felt like that from where I was sat; I’m currently the guy who wakes up thinking that every day is the weekend so it might very well be me. Either way though, ‘Turf’ could have lost the alien sub-plot and been better for it.

But… ‘Regular gangsters vs vampire gangsters’, bootleggers, corrupt cops on the take, tommy guns! And some cosmic horror too. I’m prepared to let a lot slide when Ross proves to be so good at not only setting the brutality of ‘prohibition New York’ against sharply dressed vampires but doing this with a cast all following their own compelling arcs. Earlier quibbles to one side, it’s incredibly easy to keep turning the pages here ;o)

And this would be fine by itself but Tommy Lee Edwards’ artwork just happens to be superb and really complements what Ross is doing with his plot. Edwards has Manhattan looking all art-deco and opulent but also full of shadows where you’d expect to find gangsters about their business, and vamipires looking to muscle in on that action. ‘Turf’ is a book that I happily got lost in, both the plot and the art.

I’d still say that ‘Turf’ could have been tightened up a bit but the fun I had reading it, I do feel a little mean sticking to my guns. Oh well :o)

If you haven’t read ‘Turf’ already, it’s definitely worth a look if you come across a copy. And there’s a little opening for a sequel, I will have to take a look and see if anything came of that… :o)