Scalped - Volume 01: Indian Country

The mysterious Dashiell Bad Horse returns to the South Dakota reservation where he was born, after almost 2 decades away. He gets re-entangled with corrupt reservation politics, family drama, and an old girlfriend. But he has a secret that none of them could imagine, and he's on a mission to unearth everyone else's secrets too.

As is often true with me and graphic novels, I was interested in the story that was being told but I did not at all care for how it was told. Everything was very choppy and I couldn't tell who was saying what and I did not care for the artwork at all. I picked this up from the library because a TV show is in development, so I'll probably just watch that instead of continuing the series.

Dashiell "Dash" Bad Horse returns to the Prairie Rose Indian Reservation and becomes the "law," or rather the hard man for the self-proclaimed Chief of the Rez, but he comes armed not only with nunchucks, but with a dark secret that he has to work to keep under wraps. This is very dark and very graphic and don't confuse this with anything that subscribes to the "noble savage" myth; the people on the reservation are just as corrupt and greedy and violent as any character you can find in traditional noir. In addition, Dash's history with a few of the inhabitants makes for tension on an extreme level. Beware that this is very violet and not for anyone who prefers their mysteries on the cozy side - there's nothing cozy about drug dealers show more and organized crime. The art is absolutely en pointe and mirrors the gritty subject in both style and color. This first book in the series sets up a storyline and introduces characters that are absolutely impossible not to want to know more about - I'll be continuing this series for sure. show less

Gritty. Really, really gritty. It's also dramatically overwrought in ways that only comics are dramatically overwrought. The impression is that all the characters are yelling throughout the entire comic. Scalped is no different.

But, it's a good comic. It's got some good writing. Dialog is crisp, varies in tone and sounds real. It doesn't talk down to the reader. It's also unforgiving and quite brutal in the portrayal of humanity. People are either violent predators, compulsive liars, vicious criminals/lawmen or passive sheep who allow themselves to be trampled. People can change between the two dueling natures, but they rarely lie in the middle. The question throughout the book is essentially about the permanence of making that change show more in nature and being absolved of sin.

Or maybe I'm confusing this book with the book I finished yesterday. Gah. I'm getting old.

Anyway, I enjoyed the comic. show less

Wow! This was good. It’s some bloody, gritty, reservation casino action. I liked it and I plan to read the next volume. It’s is a really good story and does well with an unlikeable protagonist. My only complaint is the Casinos. In my experience, Indian (first nations for the Canadians) casinos are sad and lame. I don’t think that is entirely the tribe's fault. They tend to be out of the way and filled with sad slot machine junkies. Vegas has plenty of those too, but Vegas has enough going on that the wheel chair bound old ladies parked at the slots are background and not the whole vibe.

I’m ashamed to admit this book had been sitting on my shelf for five months before I finally opened it. More fool me as this is one of the best trades I’ve read this year. Thoroughly gripping in a brutal sort of way. It’s also an adult book both in terms of storyline and art, but it all fits together to be a compelling work of fiction.

I have been struggling to find words to describe my thoughts on Scalped: Indian Country. I remember asking my husband if he had any western oriented graphic novels that I might recommend to a friend, and this was the closest he could fine. Of course, I had to read it first. It's not your typical western. The story is set in the present on an Indian Reservation, where corruption and greed rule the day. A hardened man with a chip on his shoulder returns to the reservation he once had run away from, gets into a bar brawl and lands on the police force of the tribal leader/crime boss.

Our anti-hero, Dashiell "Dash" Bad Horse, doesn't waste time busting meth labs, getting into a gun fight, and going after his childhood girlfriend's lovers. In show more the background is the story of his mother and her own connection with the crime boss. Both had been activists during their younger years, and Dash's mother continues in that vein today. Everyone seems to have a secret, a couple of which we learn in the first volume of this series.

The author knows how to place the punchline to get the fullest effect, while at the same time using it to build more suspense. I wanted to like Scalped, but I did not much care for it. It was dark and gritty, both characteristics I generally like. Maybe I finally met my match. Scalped was a little too dark and gritty for me. It didn't help that I sometimes had trouble figuring out who was who. I doubt I will be following up with the next volume in the series. show less

Starts out kind of rocky, and I'm not the biggest fan of the art, but as the story becomes more clear, I've become more and more interested to see where this goes. Definitely interested in looking up the second volume, but with some hesitation.