Peel open your head, pour in some “Scalped”

March 7, 2008 on 10:53 pm | In Uncategorized

I don’t ever want to know what it feels like to have a diminutive, one-armed psychopath pull out one of my eyes with a painfully sharp instrument.

However, for some reason, writer Jason Aaron decided to put me through that very scenario in the most recent issue (#15) of his DC/Vertigo series, Scalped with artist R.M Guera. And I just about messed myself the same way the poor victim soiled himself while enduring said torture.

Is there any doubt as to why I love Scalped? Aaron is without a doubt the real deal, the next great graphic novelist, another treasure in the mold of Gaiman, Ennis, Azzarello, etc.—a comic book writer with literary sense.

And the fact that he dabbles on the dark side with his crime thriller—set on a desolate Native American reservation and starring an undercover FBI agent as a cop on the take, working for a crimelord who runs the rez with an iron fist, which sounds like the perfect recipe for an HBO series—appeals to my baser nature.

Check out the most recent arc: Titled “Dead Mothers,” it finds said FBI agent Dashiell Bad Horse investigating the murder of a dead prostitute—and caring for her oldest son in the interim—while dealing with the brutal killing of his own mother (whom he apparently detested), which in turn pits him against the godfather of the rez, Chief Red Crow, who was in love with Gina Bad Horse, Dash’s murdered mother.

Sounds juicy, doesn’t it? Like an eyeball plucked from your head while you’re totally conscious.

Put some Scalped in your head ASAP. The first two trades, “Indian Country” and “Casino Boogie” are available now, and issue #15 just hit this week. What are you waiting for, kemosabe?