The List: 22 Sep 2011 (46/124)

Books EVENTS COMIC

CRIME/HORROR/SCI-FI JONATHAN ROSS & TOMMY LEE EDWARDS Turf (Titan) ●●●●●

Yes that Jonathon Ross. The chat show host has long been an acknowledged geek with a superhero fixation, so perhaps it’s high time he stepped up to take the reigns on his own comic title. And he certainly goes for it, all guns blazing, with a mix of vampires, aliens and gangsters set in prohibition era New York. A clan of vampires plan to wake ‘the Old One’ from his slumber as they attempt to take over New York, but they hadn’t counted on resistance from the indigenous Tommy gun-wielding criminals who

find an unlikely ally in a crash landed creature from outer space. The main problem is Ross’ heavy exposition, dense descriptive panels and speech bubbles that almost drown out Tommy Lee Edwards’ gritty artwork. It’s a very old fashioned approach to comics. Things improve by the second issue and the action flows more readily as the various elements all link together. It’s a fun mash-up of styles but nothing in the horror, crime or sci-fi elements really reach beyond tried and tested stereotypes. It’s certainly not an embarrassing effort from Ross but it would benefit from some streamlining. (Henry Northmore)

ALSO PUBLISHED BIOGRAPHIES

What the Dickens can people still find to say about the arch chronicler of foggy old London town? Quite a lot it seems, given that biographies and analyses of the Victorian author are still being churned out. There’s two on the way this month alone, with one coming from the actor perhaps most closely associated with the author these days. The confusingly-titled Dickens (HarperPress) from Simon Callow (pictured) considers the Great Expectations scribe as driven by performance and showmanship as much as by literary ambition.

Title-wise, Claire Tomalin plumps for Charles Dickens: A Life (Viking) and focuses on the apparent contradictions within him: a republican who disliked America; an advocate of family values who took up with an actress; and a man who could show enormous generosity yet cut off his penniless offspring.

In more contemporary matters, Andrew Marr has penned a dissection of HRH’s 60-year reign in Diamond Queen: Elizabeth II and Her People (Macmillan). He reckons that her tenure on the throne has helped oversee a dramatic modernisation of the monarchy and made it a relevant force for the 21st century. Plenty of folks will go into dissenting overdrive about this, you’d imagine.

On the political front, Sonia Purnell’s biog of the London Mayor, Just Boris (Aurum), examines how a shy lad from a broken home became one of the very few ‘box-office’ UK politicians of our day. And in sport, Tony Francis asks the big question, Who Was Hurricane Higgins? (Hodder). A Belfast child who won two world championships and had a penchant for headbutting snooker officials is only half the answer. (Brian Donaldson)

44 THE LIST 22 Sep–20 Oct 2011

EVENTS Monday 26

Events are listed by date, then city. Submit listings at least 16 days before publication to books@list.co.uk. Listings are compiled by Laura Ennor. ✽✽ Indicates Hitlist entry