Scalped: Indian Country TPB - A Review

Scalped: Indian Country TPB - Veritgo Comics
DC Comic’s Vertigo Imprint collects the first five issues of Jason Aaron and RM Guera’s series "Scalped". I caught sight of this TPB in a used-book store. What surprised me was that it was a very new book, published August 1st of this year, yet already rendered to the resell shop. (Clue#1, Scoob.) The cover design alone by an artist called JOCK interested me as it featured a great big Indian in a war bonnet on the cover with a silhouette of a casino sign beneath. Classy, I thought.

Every time I have picked up a comic book with Native iconography in the past, I usually end up disappointed because the stories usually have nothing to do with the Natives on the cover. Then I read the description of the story and I thought I would give it a chance, if only to write up this review. What follows, in addition to being a review, is an exercise in disappointment. Here now, Vertigo asks you pluck down $10 for this. I will save you the cash/credit and time as I have already dropped my $5 for you.

This collected trade paperback reprints the first five issues of Jason Aaron’s series "Scalped" a comic series that takes historical elements and re-writes them to suit the fiction better. After a long absence Dashiell "Dash" Bad Horse returns to the Prairie Rose Indian Reservation in South Dakota and finds the reservation has not changed. Same old, same old. But Dash Bad Horse has a secret, is he here to cause havoc, or take part in the criminal underworld that has enveloped this reservation, where, as the very first words of the series puts it, "Where the Great Sioux Nation came to die."

That’s it. What follows, from it ubiquitous Introduction from Current Comics Genius Brian K. Vaughn, which basically says Americans can hold providence over Natives if their writing evokes enough Native-ness, to its one-dimensional depiction of Native women is basically a re-working of "Thunderheart". I found nothing to encourage others to read this.

First and foremost, I am upset that a Native writer and artist could not have done this. Because the story is a list of standard reservation clichés; there is a casino being built that will "save the people", there is the usual struggle between the "Traditionalists" and the "Sell-Outs", there are sheep-like gangs, meth, there is constant talk of "The Old Times" and the dire need to get back to them, characters monologue-ing about how it used to be, giving history lessons and reciting reservation lifestyle statistics to the reader, there is an old man who talks to "The Spirits" and at the center of it all is one BIG ANGRY INDIAN MAN. All that was missing was the constant flute music.

A Native writer would have captured the nuances of reservation life. It is not always like this, hell, it is hardly like this. Conditions are deplorable yet the Native Experience tends to survive, find the good and move on however they can. Instead, with "Scalped" we get another outsider "telling it like it is", which is basically what many non-Native readers want: grief porn.

Some will say that the majority of readers are non-Native, but, to sell them grief porn, where all we hear about is how bad and evil and fucked up it is on every reservation, everywhere to allow others to "understand" how it is, is not telling a complete truth about Native life. Strange, that then the reader can simply close the book covers and move on. If it could be so easy. It is, do not pick up this book.

Readers can probably disconnect themselves from the Native baggage by deeming it a gritty crime story or a new noir fiction. But that tends to render the true problem invisible, a problem that hides in plain sight on the cover. Of course the first thing that caught my eye in researching the bio of the writer is "...he never set foot on an Indian reservation". Here we go again, yet another non-Native writer telling it like it is on "The Rez", having never set foot or interacted with Native people.

You can do all the research you want but it will never give you that "Native Experience". Once again the authorship of expertise wins out over simply letting a Native tell the story about Natives. This comic does not do that. No matter how witty, how well-reviewed, how much Vaughn touts it as "American", this series simply does not tell the tale of Native America.

Here is an interesting side note: inside the book I found a letter from DC’s Publicity Director. The letter is address to Editor, which means it is a preview copy and why I found it on the resale rack so soon. While the Director touts Aaron’s "The Other Side" he never fails to mention how Aaron and Guera have captured the "seedy side of Indian Reservations", hinting that they are all like this and this comic confirms that. He also explains the writer is available to speak about "the political and historical significance of his new series". (Emphasis, mine.) "Historical"?

The inherent contradiction is that something set on a contemporary reservation is being touted as historical. Does Expertise replace Native Experience even in the world of comics? Which begs the question, not "why can’t non-Native authors write this?" but "Why NOT let Native creators tell their stories?" Seems simple enough. But "Scalped" is more of the same, non-Natives telling it like is about the seedy reservations while the industry pats itself on the back for its enlightened presentation. Leave this one on the shelves.

COMING SOON: Harry Potter 5 & & Reviews!