MARCH 9, 2007

An illustrated crime
story set in a forgotten
American ghetto

FICTION: Scalped

On a weekend when the box office is about to be dominated by the film adaptation of Frank Miller’s graphic novel 300, it’s worth asking: Can an adult still read a contemporary comic book and feel like an adult afterward?

In the case of Scalped, the answer is a resounding, bloodcurdling yes. Written by Jason Aaron and illustrated with mordant relish by R. M. Guéra, the monthly serial takes the familiar noir formula of babes, bullets, and bad language to a place it’s never gone before: a dilapidated Native American reservation. As a story of corruption and redemption unfolds (and the bodies pile up), Aaron and Guéra pay tribute to genre masters from Mickey Spillane to Quentin Tarantino — they even have the good sense to name their protagonist Dashiell Bad Horse.

No cultural stereotypes and no pulled punches — just an unflinching look at what one character calls “a third world nation in the heart of America.”

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