Still don't have my pen tablet pen, so bear with one last standard picture here:
Also: If I'm going to start including comics collection reviews in here, I'm going to overshoot my 52, so consider yourself lucky. I did read a novel this week, but I was more excited about this, so the novel review will get published later.
Indian Country, the first collection of Scalped, Jason Aaron's first ongoing series, published by the fine people (with who I am personally angry for other reasons) at Vertigo, is vicious, ugly, stomach-turning, and pants-wettingly awesome.
Jason Aaron, who will, even if Scalped somehow self-destructs, be remembered for his excellent mini-series The Other Side, about two young men on opposite sides in the Vietnam War, delivers nothing but peak performances on every page.
The basic premise behind the series is that Dashiell Bad Horse, formerly of the Reservation, has returned home after ten years, and sets about starting trouble. Chief Red Crow, former criminal and Indian rights activist, and now respectable leader of the Oglala Sioux nation, is opening a brand new casino, and sees potential in young Dash to help him run the place with an iron fist. But Dash, like so many wonderful characters in this book, has plans of his own.
What starts out as mildly confusing quickly coagulates into a taut suspense-filled piece of crime fiction. We're introduced to the various factions, the Indian rights activists, the FBI, the crime syndicate, the tribal council, the little meth labs trying to operate on Res soil and so on, and the best part is, they all feel real. The whole book shows a dramatic ecosystem wherein each faction feels necessary and has actions that cause repercussions for everyone.
Crime is the distillation of The American Dream, and to take what can arguably be labeled as a group of people who had The American Dream stolen out from under them, and then watch them scrabble to get it back by any means necessary is the root of some damn fine compelling drama.
R.M. Guera's art has been called ugly, which I don't think deserves to even be commented on, but other people have commented that they can't tell characters apart. Granted, this can be a huge problem in some comics, and since it's a primarily visual medium, it can cause all sorts of headaches. I, however, don't see that happening here. Once you've been introduced to the characters, and see them interacting, I think it's extremely easy to tell them apart. The color palette is extremely muted, giving way to primarily earth-tones to properly represent the drab prairie environment. The less than flattering figures and art style are a stylistic choice in and of themselves, as this is a vicious and ugly place.
Less important in a collection than in singles is the covers to each issue, but they're reprinted faithfully in the book, and deserve to be noted. Jock, a favorite artist of mine (see the majority of The Losers by Jock and Andy Diggle), is the cover artist for the series, and each one screams, "BUY ME!" They're the kind of pieces you could hang on your wall once you stripped the title off. I'm hoping Vertigo publishes an art book of their covers like they did with Glen Fabry's Preacher covers.
All in all, definitely worth checking out for any fans of crime fiction, non-superhero comics, or those interested in life on the Reservation.
Grade: A
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