Welcome to guest dare! For those new to the feature, our Guest Dare is a monthly endeavor in which we invite an unsuspecting victim to read a book totally outside of their comfort zone. You can read all previous Dare posts HERE.

This month’s victim is Peter, the dude behind the hilarious (and bizarrely informative) Bitterly Books – a blog that, in his own words “takes caustic, uncomplimentary tours through ill-advised and poorly executed nonfiction.” Peter actually approached us for the Guest Dare, and we were more than happy to oblige him. When he said he was in unfamiliar waters with Graphic Novels (especially of the non-superhero variety), we came up with a list of titles for him to try…

So, without further ado, we give the stage to Peter and his experience with Scalped.

Title: Scalped Vol. 1: Indian Country

Author: Written by Jason Aaron, Art by R.M. Guéra

Genre: Crime/Thriller, Noir, Graphic Novel

Publisher: Vertigo
Publication Date: August 2007
Softcover: 126 pages

Stand alone or series: Collects issues #1-5; first graphic novel of six in an ongoing monthly series

Fifteen years ago, Dashiell “Dash” Bad Horse ran away from a life of abject poverty and utter hopelessness on the Prairie Rose Indian Reservation searching for something better. Now he’s come back home armed with nothing but a set of nunchucs, a hell-bent-for-leather attitude and one dark secret, to find nothing much has changed on “The Rez” — short of a glimmering new casino, and a once-proud people overcome by drugs and organized crime. Is he here to set things right or just get a piece of the action?

Why did we recommend this book: Scalped is good. Like, really f’ing good. Even if you’re not a fan of gritty, crime noir type stories, Scalped is one of those transcendent books that defies genre snobbery. When Peter told us that he was out of his comfort zone in graphic novels, crime/mystery, thrillers, and westerns, it all sort of…clicked.

Peter’s Review:

For my dare, I read Scalped: Indian Country, a graphic novel set on an Indian reservation. I was excited to see how it differed from both Ralph Nader’s depiction of Indians as lazy deadbeats waiting for their next welfare check and Louise Erdrich’s portrayal of them as PTSD-suffering statutory rapists. According to Jason Aaron and R.M. Guéra, Indian reservations have just as much sex, drugs, and violence as some of the classier parts of New Jersey, but the unemployment rate is a little higher (80%!).

The story begins as young Dashiel Bad Horse arrives on the Prairie Rose Reservation and starts kicking ass unrepentantly. This soon attracts the attention of Lincoln Red Crow, the reservation’s main shot-caller (president of the tribal council, sheriff of the tribal police, chairman of reservation’s planning committee, and managing director of the new casino, to be specific), who decides to use Dash for his own ends. However, it turns out that Dash both has his own agenda and is already serving as the semi-complacent pawn in someone else’s schemes. I’m not really a fan of crime dramas, but Aaron and Guéra do a good job of keeping up the tension, and the way the characters’ stories intertwine was compelling enough to hold my interest through the whole book.

I found a lot of things to like in Scalped. For example, it doesn’t waste a lot of time focusing on piddling technicalities such as due process or excessive use of force. Setting the story on an Indian reservation, which can make and enforce its own laws, means that Bad Horse gets to employ brutal vigilantism while remaining on the badge-wearing side of justice. Instead of Law-and-Order style wrangling over whether or not the defendant will later walk on a technicality, you get Roadhouse style asskicking with a side order of handcuffs. (I hold no special reverence for Colonel Custer, but if enjoying the sight of somebody beating on a filthy hippie in a “CUCK FUSTER” tee shirt is wrong, then I have no hope of ever being right.) Dashiel’s only problem is that for all the freedom he has to punish bad guys, the biggest criminal on the reservation is the one he can’t touch.

The main story is well executed. It turns out that Dash grew up on the reservation. Now he has to deal with his estranged mother, who herself has a past history with Red Crow. There is some discussion about what happened to Dash outside of the reservation, and he didn’t leave to become a Rhodes Scholar. The unsolved murder of two FBI agents on reservation soil turns out to be an important part of the story, and past history tangles with present characters to make their motivations complicated while keeping the plot simple.

Complicated motivations help explain Dash’s attraction to Carol, the love interest (she’s a little too much of a skank for me to call her a femme fatale in good conscience). She and Dash grew up together, so she evokes his nostalgia for a time when everything was more innocent. She’s also the daughter of Red Crow, an overprotective father who makes it dangerous to be seen with her, so she is an alluring forbidden fruit. And she’s a walking train wreck that no sensible person would go near with a 40-foot pole. Seriously, she’s got major daddy issues, is a heavy drug user, has sex with multiple partners in the course of a single day, trades sex for drugs, and generally makes poor lifestyle choices throughout the book. Bad Horse can’t get enough of her.

I had some problems with Scalped, but they were mostly with the artwork—probably a personal failing of mine for not being able to recognize or appreciate techniques beyond the Dogs Playing Poker school of American Realism. The book does a good job of setting the tone with the visuals, letting the reader know when the characters are being sarcastic and adding subtle details to underscore hypocrisy, but there were a few times when the visuals raised questions that distracted me from the story.

Six pages in, there’s a scalped corpse lying on the floor. In a story called Scalped, I give them points for getting right to business, but didn’t recognize it right away because it was unexpected. I don’t think it’s normal to see a mutilated body in the manager’s office at a high end casino—I would assume that they have parking garages and irregularly lit supply closets for that sort of thing. Red Crow, the scalper, has it there to illustrate a point. Had the scalping been done there? Because Red Crow is later shown to be pretty concerned about keeping his carpets clean. Who was that guy? We never find out. Does Red Crow just casually scalp people, or had this dude done something seriously wrong? Void of any context, it’s just a prop to intimidate Bad Horse. I would be pretty pissed if someone killed me and carved off bits just to make a point in a conversation with somebody else. The scalped body is never mentioned again.

There is also a gang of deformed psychopaths that is introduced and killed off over the space of a few pages, for the apparent purpose of showing that Bad Horse is one tough hombre. The reader knows that the gang is bad because they use big words, dress well, and all have hideous burn scars. Why are they burned? Were they a gang before they were burn victims, or a bunch of burn victims who found each other and decided that a life of crime was where it’s at? The text hints that maybe they were all caught in the same fire during their last job, but it looks like a lazy shortcut to show they are evil. Too much effort is put into making this gang stand out as a bunch of specially skilled, verbose fancypantses before they get thrown away like expendable foot soldiers with very few lines.

Unfortunately, the whole book is just an introduction to the larger series. After introducing the characters, describing their pasts and motivations, and showing them relating to each other for a little bit, everything ends on a cliffhanger. (Thanks for spoiling it for me, Wikipedia!)

It was nice to read something other than nonfiction, and I haven’t read a graphic novel in a very long time. I appreciated the way that Aaron and Guéra were able to use text and images together to tell a complex story in a tight format that would have been much longer in a text-only format. I don’t think I’m hooked on either crime dramas or graphic novels now, but I appreciated the experience.

On the Book Smugglers rating scale, I give it a solid six, “Good, recommend with reservations.” This is so I can gratuitiously use the word reservations.

Thank you, Peter! And we’re glad you found Scalped to be a good read, even if it wasn’t exactly your cup o’ tea.

Next on the Guest Dare, it’s none other than Sam Sykes – debut author of the highly anticipated Tome of the Undergates. And, because Ana is SO obsessed with it, Sam will be reading (take one guess):

Until April!

Title: Madame Xanadu – Volume 1 Disenchanted

Author: Matt Wagner
Art: Amy Reeder Hadley

Genre: Graphic Novel/ Fantasy

Publisher: Vertigo
Publishing Date: July 2009
Paperback: 240 pages

Stand Alone or series: This is a self contained collection with the first 10 issues of the new Madame Xanadu series . It can be read as a stand alone story.

Why did I read the book: Kaz Mahoney told me it was good.

How did I get the book: Borrowed from Kaz Mahoney

Summary: Legendary creator Matt Wagner (MAGE, GRENDEL, SUPERMAN/BATMAN/WONDER WOMAN: TRINITY) and rising star artist Amy Reeder Hadley, present Vertigo’s newest ongoing fantasy epic MADAM XANADU.

Centuries long and around the far reaches of the globe, her tale winds before the ageless fortuneteller, whose powers of sight can change the course of human events.

As the mysterious past of Madam Xanadu is slowly unraveled, Wagner takes us on a journey throughout her history, from a medieval kingdom beset by foul sorcery to the court of Kublai Khan. Eventually Madam Xanadu returns to Europe as mystic advisor to Marie Antoinette, and as political tensions begin to boil, the Phantom Stranger makes his return. This time he seeks to kick-start the revolution and ensures that Paris’s streets run red – a blood sacrifice that will keep certain demonic forces at bay.

Review:

Confession: I had no idea who Madame Xanadu was before reading this Graphic Novel as I am not a DC connoisseur ( I am a Marvel Girl – ha – all the way; except you know, for Batman) ; I only decided to read it for two reasons: the recommendation from Karen Mahoney and the fact that Death from The Sandman makes an appearance. I did do a bit of homework (read: Wikipedia-ed) , in order to get my bearings and learnt that she is a minor, supporting character in the DC universe who use magic Tarot Cards to predict the future and help other characters with their supernatural problems playing a role of advisor without ever directly interfering. She is immortal and has some magical powers of her own.

In this new series by Vertigo, she is given a revamp and put in a central role. This first volume covers the first 10 issues in what can be described as an Origin story; it provides more information about the character throughout the ages and you can read only this first volume, as it has a definite ending in a self-contained story.

The volume is divided into 5 stories, each set in a different era, following Madame Xanadu in critical moments of her life. Starting with her true identify as the nymph Nimue (Yep, THE sorceress Nimue), in Arthurian times, sister to Vivienne and Morgana and the person that has a major role to play in the fall of King Arthur by being the one to take Merlin out of the equation. In this retelling, she has good reasons (which portray Merlin as a *gasp* villain) for doing so but her meddling has serious consequences. In this first story, she also encounters for the first time (at least from her point of view) The Phantom Stranger, a powerful time-traveller, observer of events who will make appearances in all stories at key moments.

The other stories follow Madame Xanadu as she spends time an advisor in the court Kubla Khan (in Xanadu hence her name), during the French Revolution where she befriends the Queen and will meet –and beat – Death, in London when Jack the Ripper is doing his worst and finally in America in the early twenties and her role in the appearance of The Spectre .

It is in this last story that all becomes clear, the story comes full circle ,showing just how Matt Wagner played his hand (ha, I am full of the intended puns today) with intention and design from the start making it all connect including that A-Ha Moment I tend to love. For that, for the interesting story (or history?) , I just loved this collection.

The insight into Madame Xanadu’s past is also an examination of history, of destiny and of will as with each encounter with the Phantom Stranger raises all of these issues. His fatalistic, inflexible attitude is in direct contrast to Xanadu’s indignation and frustration with they should or should not, do. Inaction vs. Action, Observing vs. Interfering , these are very intriguing concepts that interest me as a reader, and which pulled me right into the story. I also loved their tragic relationship: starting with a lot possibility and turning into antagonism over the centuries.

With regards to the artwork – I thought it was absolutely brilliant. It definitely has a slightly Manga-inspired feel (look at her eyes!) and since I am a fan, I thought it worked quite well. The background colours, the richness of the details were stunning:

Not bad. Not bad at all!

Notable Quotes/ Parts

Ah, as a total Sandman and the Endless fangirl, I obviously LOVED the encounter between Death and Madame Xanadu.

Additional Thoughts:

This collection, following Xanadu through the ages reminded me a lot of another collection of stories: Fables and Reflections, volume 6th of The Sandman which also has Morpheus through the ages. Funny enough, there is a story set during the French Revolution as well.

Also, speaking of Manga and of an Immortal who reads Tarot to help supernatural beings, if you like this combination, I highly recommend The Tarot Café by Park Sang-Sun.

The Tarot Café is a series with 7 volumes (all already published ) that follow Pamela, the Tarot reader in question. I really liked reading it.

Verdict: All in all, I really liked this volume: I liked learning about the character, like this specific story, loved the character’s interactions with the Phantom Stranger and LOVED the artwork. Highly recommended.

Rating: 8 – Excellent

Reading Next: Deep Kiss of Winter by Kresley Cole