At No. 3 on our paperback graphic books best-seller list this week is volume 10 of “Scalped,†written by Jason Aaron and illustrated by R.M. Guera. It is the final volume of the series that chronicled trials and tribulations at the fictional Prairie Rose Indian Reservation in South Dakota. It was part of the Veritgo imprint from DC Comics. At the heart of the story are Dashiell Bad Horse, who grew up on the reservation and became an undercover agent for the F.B.I., and Lincoln Red Crow, the corrupt casino owner. The series has been on our paperback list several times before, including back in March and August this year.
The series is brutally violent, bleak and engrossing. I only read it in collected edition form, which i s the equivalent of watching a season's worth of a television series in one sitting instead of consuming them in intervals as single episodes (or, in the case of comics, single issues). It's sad to see “Scalped†end, but the plus side is that Mr. Aaron was able to complete his story. There are no hanging threads from the series being abruptly cancelled. There's another pro, at least for me: The more I read comics, the more I crave a complete story, rather than a never-ending adventure with a status quo that seems constantly reset to zero. The characters in “Scalped†changed (or died real deaths, unlike those in superhero comics, where the afterlife has a revolving door). I'm happy to have the 10 volumes in my library alongside finite series like “Preacher†and “Y the Last Man.â€
As always, the complete best-seller lists can be found here, along with an explanation of how they were assembled.
