SCALPED: THE GRAVEL IN YOUR GUTS
Jason Aaron
2009
Vertigo
Crime fiction in comics has come a long way since the days of the procedurals of the fifties. One of the best of this new generation that is embracing crime fiction in the graphic form is Jason Aaron. While Jason writes a number of different titles my favorite work of his is hands down SCALPED.
This latest collection (Volume 4 collecting issues 19-24) THE GRAVEL IN YOUR GUTS sees the main character, Dash Bad Horse, felling deeper into the world of the reservation’s underbelly. The man he is supposed to be after for the FBI, Chief Red Crow has warned him away from his only daughter. But Dash can’t keep away from Carol, and her bad habits start to have a bit too much influence on Dash.
Following the murder of Dash’s mother Gina, Red Crow is in a different place than he was, conflicted by a spiritual side too long ignored and plagued by his silent partners he needs to make some decisions. The consequences are violent and lasting. And some of them surprising while other feel inevitable.
Aaron just will not let up, there is no such thing as an issue off where we get a breather from the story. He just keeps pushing and pushing until as a reader you have no choice but to give yourself over completely and let him take you where he wants you to go. In a series where no character is without flaws or secrets, Scalped is without a doubt one of the best crime fiction comics being done today. And while I am fascinated and absorbed by the book to the point of obsession when I finish reading I have an urge to scrub with boiling water, only you can’t scrub your brain can you? I sometimes wish Mr. Aaron would just give us a break for one issue, but I am grateful he doesn’t.
GRAVEL IN YOUR GUTS is another perfect chapter in this ongoing tale.
Jon Jordan
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