I vaguely remember someone, perhaps one of the iFanboys mentioning “a vampire story that takes place in Prohibition?  sold!”.  And I thought, “Hey, this is that comic.”  But then I thought harder, and realized….no…that person said “a zombie story that takes place in the Depression?  sold!”  And I didn’t like that comic, either.

Taking a tired trope and placing it in a different era does not make it a new and interesting idea.

I found the narration in this comic tiresome.  Of New York: “Many would say it’s the greatest city on Earth.”  Really?  That’s the best thing you can think of to say? 

And then they REPEAT that very unpoetic statement, and add “I’d say it has potential.  One thing no one would disagree on is that New Yorkers love to enjoy themselves.  Even now, with Prohibition in full swing, they drink and dance like there’s no tomorrow.  Which, for some, there won’t be.  But these clowns don’t care that four cops were killed earlier today…. Four new widows created so the gangs can take even more money from these drunks, and pass it on to the cops and politicians who turn a blind eye.  It’s run by the gangs, the whole rotten city.”  That’s a lot of bland, unpoetic, hackneyed narration.  Add that to the stilted “Aw, tell it to The Boss.  Their money’s same color as everybuddy else’s.  They wanna buy blood instead o’booze, who cares? Least it ain’t yers.” dialog and you have a clinker of a story.

Tommy Lee Edward’s illustrations (he’s credited as illustrator, not artist) deserve a better story.  Ross’s word balloons are an unfortunate interruption to Edward’s work.

I’m not shocked to see that there’s an afterward by Mark Millar raving about how awesome a nerd Jonathan Ross is.  This is, of course, followed by an ad for Nemesis #2, and on the inside back cover, Kick Ass.  Millar just wanted us to know that he convinced Edwards to do Turf after they worked together on 1985 (which is the last Millar vehicle that I really enjoyed).  I hope he sent Edwards an apology after he read this issue.