Written by Jonathan Ross
Illustrated by Tommy Lee EdwardsNew York in February is never great, but back in 1929 it was unbearable. The weather sucked, of course, and prohibition meant it was hard to get a stiff drink in a hurry. But the Dragonmirs, a vampire clan from Romania really made life tough. Once they finished wiping out New York’s gangs, they turned their attention to the Police. Their plan: to take over the city, keep humans like livestock and wake up the oldest vampire in existence to seal the deal. Mankind’s feeble hopes lie with a young female newspaper reporter, a weak and dying member of the Dragonmir family, and a one-eared, one-eyed former gang boss named Eddie Falco, who hopes to persuade Samuel Kane and his gang of Harlem racketeers to join them. Oh, add in a giant alien with unbelievable weapons called Squeed. Sounds about even, then…
After a lengthy delay, Jonathan Ross’ warped period piece continues. As the story enters its final act, does this latest chapter build on the solid foundation built by the first three? Click below to find out.
Admittedly, I wasn’t quite sure what the basic premise behind Turf was when I opened the first issue (Edwards’ involvement plus Image approval was enough to get me in the front door.) So needless to say my (pop)cultural historian sensibilities found a lot of love in this story when I realized the basic premise was a 1920s organized crime Turf war between the sides of “human”, “vampire” and “alien”. The mishmoshing of genres, however, was not as much the selling point as Ross’ ability to work strongly and respectfully in all three realms and still manage to weave them all together within the period landscape. Much like other fantastic genre crossing comics (Cowboys and Aliens and perhaps even The Unwritten being the most notable), none of the various elements seemed forced to co-exist, which is a sign of perfect story craftsmanship.
This issue opens with, and can indeed be summed up as, the build-up to the final battle. All the various pieces are moving toward their endgame: the Strigoli begin the resurrection of the Old One and launch their opening salvo against humanity, all while Gregori and Susie find inter-species love in each other’s arms. Meanwhile, Eddie continues to form the human/alien resistance by building up a group of humans along with the mysterious alien, Squeed. After defeating a bloodsucker one on one, Squeed earns the tentative trust of Kane and his gang, who set off to gather as much of Squeed’s ideal power source (AKA diamonds) as possible, despite the established agreements and rules of etiquette established by the city’s gangs.
This is around the time we discover the major twist of the issue and one more to add to the list of “whobuhwha?” moments this series has had to offer: Squeed is not as alone as it seemed as deep within his ship a nursery with several alien young is discovered, leaving one to wonder if there was more than met the eye to discover about this mysterious creature. The issue finds it end as Susie begins building a resistance force of her own, all the while being stalked by some very sinister creatures of the night, which appears to be the story thread that will lead us into the next issue. With each subplot thoroughly coming to a head, and with them having done so with the right amount of detail and creative drive, I can rest assured that next issue will absolutely be the pay off we’ve been looking for (whenever it ends up coming out, that is.)
On the art end, Edwards manages to not disappoint, as his angular, almost washed out pencils manages to take three separate visual histories and making them work with each other better than anyone I could imagine. Space alien epics, vampire stories and 1920s mobster period pieces all have very distinct visual requirements to make them look and feel right, and finding a way of balancing both style and visual ambiance in order to smooth them all together is no small feat, but Edwards does is with the sleek, polished but still a little dirty style we’ve come to expect from his comic output. While he is not the only writer I could see excelling on a book like this, its hard to really envision anyone else adapting their style so much that each piece of this puzzle looks and feels right. This, really, will end up being career defining work for him.
It would be foolish to follow any five issue mini-series to its fourth issue and not bite the bullet and spring for the fifth, but even if it weren’t I’m pretty damn close to edge of my seat just writing this, and all I can do is hope for a speedier delay til the finale rolls into my hands.
Final Verdict: 9.5 – Buy
