Turf #1 Cover by Tommy Lee Edwards

British television personality Jonathan Ross makes his comic writing debut with the first installment of the five issue Image miniseries Turf. Collaborating with artist Tommy Lee Edwards of Marvel 1985 fame, Ross riffs on pop-culture character archetypes in this new genre-bender.

It’s 1929 and Prohibition is the law of the land, but the crime families of New York are willing to do anything to get booze into the US, whether that means killing a few cops or offing some of their rivals. Small time female journalist Susie is looking for her breakout scoop when she finds that something much more dangerous than honest cops and bootleggers is weeding out the competition: Vampires! As a violent feud between the NYC mafia and a literally bloodthirsty vampire family cuts a crimson swathe through the Prohibition-era ganglands, a crash-landing visitor from outer space may signal the dawn of an ancient vampire prophecy.

If you’re a comic book enthusiast who considers the medium as something more than an outlet for light reading, Turf is right up your alley. Overloaded with dense text and word bubbles and caption boxes all jostling for a place amongst nearly crowded panels, this book will take you much longer to read through and absorb than your average monthly offering. Engaging and ingeniously original, Turf covers all its bases with well-written dialogue and narrative and Edwards’ astoundingly dark artwork squeezing its way up through the heavily scripted pages. Do yourself a favor, put all your five-minute reads on the backburner, and allot yourself the time to sit down and become fully engrossed in this immersive high-concept sci-fi epic. This is the miniseries to get in on the ground floor of in 2010.

Upcoming #1 second printing cover