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Monday, February 18, 2008
Scalped: Casino Boogie
In the introduction to the second trade of the Vertigo series Scalped Garth Ennis tells us that if you dig this series tell everyone about it. He specifically mentions blogging about it. Well I am certainly not going to disappoint Mr. Ennis.
The first trade of Scalped was sent to me for review purposes a little before it was about to be published. I was amazed by the previous Vertigo series Jason Aaron wrote The Other Side, illustrated by Cameron Stewart. I was prepared for more of Aaron's excellent characterization skills meshing with how well he sets a sense of place. What I wasn't prepared for was how nasty the world of Scalped is. Keep in mind, The Other Side was about the Vietnam War.
The book takes place on a Lakota Indian reservation in Nebraska. As it is portrayed in the series it is as if you took the world of Deadwood and sent it into today. The modern world is represented mostly by the quality of drugs being used. It's not uncommon for fistfights to break out over any type of quarrel. The local bar is basically the closest thing to a cultural center. A minor character in the book is obsessed with movie Westerns. It's a strange hobby considering he's living in a place that has soaked up the worst of the United State's expansion towards the Pacific. R.M. Guera's art and Giulia Brusco's coloring creates a dark, inky look for everything. It's not that everything is in shadows. This is a darkness that's been living in this world for a while and still shows itself.
Aaron's first Vertigo book was about one war seen by two different soldiers. Scalped is about one soldier (after a fashion), Dashiell Bad Horse, whom has a war going on inside him. He's pulled apart by different factions in and around a Lakota Indian reservation in Nebraska. Bad Horse is one of the reservations' cops, which means he works for Tribal Leader and crime boss Lincoln Red Crow. He was sent back to the reservation he left when he was twelve because he's also an FBI agent, working undercover to aid in Red Crow's downfall. I don't think Guera has ever drawn Bad Horse with a smile on his face. He is constantly angry and scowling. Seeing that face atop a bald head, often adorned by bandages is an intense sight. Bad Horse bucks against any authority over him so he has double the antagonists here.
The second trade (which wins points by being named after a song off of Exile on Main St.) concerns the opening night of Red Crow's new casino. Aaron gives us that one night as viewed by six different characters. Bad Horse, Red Crow, Diesel Engine whose skin is white but if you remind him of that fact will brutally inform you he is 1/16th Kickapoo, Catcher the local mystic, Dino the young boy who has dreams of leaving "the rez" behind for good and Gina Bad Horse. She's Dashiell's estranged mother and the only one from a generation of activists, which once included Catcher and Red Crow, fighting the good fight.
Having one night played out six different ways means the plot of the series doesn't move forward. Indeed, the cliffhanger at the end of this trade is the same that ends the first one. But Aaron needed to get away from the momentum of a plot to take time to showcase the drastically different ways life on the reservation is seen. If Aaron didn't take this time out we wouldn't have seen the almost sympathetic, but no less honest, depiction of Red Crow. A character like Catcher would be forgotten about in a fast moving story since it's his inaction as opposed to his actions that defines him. His issue was my favorite of the six. Guera delves into disturbing territory, pulled off by his magnificent skills, depicting the other main players' spirit animals the way Catcher sees them. Don't worry that there isn't enough action in a collection so concerned with introspection. In Scalped violence comes in brutal, random bursts. Diesel Engine's chapter in particular keeps that motif alive.
I hope some of you out there are interested in enough in picking up the first or second collections of Scalped. Vertigo still trades in genre and while I suppose you can count Scalped as a crime/modern day Western story it's apparent early on its own special brand of darkness sets in. It doesn't read like much else available in comics today. Is it even possible to create a meaner, nastier piece of work than this?
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