By Martijn Form  Hi Vertigolovers! Hope you had a great weekend! Mine couldn't be better. I re-read Grant Morrison's The Filth and Brian Wood's Fight for Tomorrow. Two totally different books, both by Vertigo, of course, and reading these two stories side by side was excellent food for my brain.   Some of my friends and comic colleagues don't understand why I'm always jazzed up about the last week of a month. It's because of the new Previews, baby! When a new Previews arrives in stores, it's the first thing I read when I get home, and of course the Vertigo section is the most important part. Armed with my paperblanks notebook and a pencil, I write down what I must order from Vertigo. Yes, must! It's mandatory and not because I need to keep up with this column. I'm Vertigo's biggest fan. Not in a Misery Kathy Bates tying down James Caan to the bed kind of way, but in a good way. Whatever that may be. Why a pencil and not a pen, you ask? Neatness. That way my order can be erased from the notebook to make room for new orders. I manage my comic books more seriously than my IRS forms. And that's a fact!  This week, despite his busy schedule, Jason Aaron generously allowed me to interview him about Scalped. I also managed to get my hands on some fascinating Scalped sketches by artist R.M. Guera (thanks to Jason Aaron's Messageboard).When political correctness grabbed hold, a stewardess became a flight attendant and an Indian became a Native American. Jason Aaron didn't get that memo because there is nothing politically correct about Scalped, a ruthless crime story set on a Native American reservation. Aaron knows how to build a story that has drama, sorrow and brutal action, without hitting any cliché buttons. Slowly I'm realising that we're witnessing comic book history in the making. Scalped is a milestone comic book, if you ask me. The story of Bad Horse is bone shattering and heart rendering in a psychological way, and with thousands of unstoppable bullets. Street fighting has never looked so brutal. The dialogue and plot are sophisticated and just as good as works by James Elroy or Brian DePalma. Scalped is great crime fiction, maybe the best.  Martijn Form (MF) : Scalped is one of the toughest crime stories in comics. What is the main theme you want to explore in this book? Jason Aaron (JA) : There are a lot of different themes at work in Scalped, and hopefully readers will decide for themselves what those are. But from the beginning the series was meant to be the story of Dash Bad Horse, and the biggest theme to his life is a rebellion against cultural identity and gradual self discovery. MF: Scalped's setting is quite unique. What compelled you to craft a story about Native Americans on a tormented reservation. JA: I'd always been interested in Native American history and culture, in particular the exploits of the American Indian Movements and the controversial imprisonment of Leonard Peltier.  MF: How extensive was your research before beginning the scripts for this series? Did you have any experience with Native American life beforehand?JA: Not first hand experience, no. As with my first Vertigo project, the Vietnam War drama The Other Side, I researched Scalped by reading. And the research is an ongoing process, as I continue to work on the series. Most recently I read Policing in Indian Country by Michael Barker. [NOTE: For those who haven't read The Other Side, the trade is more than worth picking up, especially because artist Cameron Stewart went to Vietnam for research, and bits from his diary are included as extras in the trade.] MF: Did you ever get any feedback about the fact that you don't portray Native Americans in the most positive light? JA: Yes, the book has its critics, though they are definitely in the minority compared to the large number of people, non-Native and Native alike, who enjoy Scalped. For my part, I don't see that I'm portraying Natives in a negative light at all. Scalped is a hard-boiled series, sure. But it's ludicrous to think I'm trying to say that all Native Americans are murderers like Red Crow. Our readers are smarter than that.   MF: Scalped is one of the best crime books in comic land. Excellent plotting and dialogues. Fast and raw like a good metal song, but is there any hope for these characters? Will you allow them to have a happy life? JA: Some of them definitely do have a good chance of eventually earning a happy ending, but I'm not about to tell you who. MF: Well, I wouldn't want you to spoil it for us readers [laughs]. You could be described as a ruthless writer; you don't prepare your readers for your story's tragedies. We never know who's going to be the next victim. Do you strive to provoke a specific reaction from your readers? JA: I just write to please myself basically. That's all I can really control. Hopefully though if I like the story, then there are going to be other readers out there who will as well.   Bad Horse sculpture by Kenneth Duhe MF: Bad Horse sometimes acts like he is above the law. Do you perceive him as tormented character? And what was your inspiration for Bad Horse? JA: Oh yes, he's most definitely a tormented character, and that's not about to end any time soon. If anything, he'll only be getting even more tormented in the next few issues. And any conversation on the inspiration for Bad Horse and Scalped should probably start with the film State of Grace. If you haven't seen it, you're missing out. MF: Hmm, yes I must have missed that one, but I will watch that movie as soon as I can track it down. Besides Leonardo Manco (Hellblazer), I can't think of any artist who can provide as dark a mood with his work as R.M. Guera. How would you characterize the manner in which he handles your scripts? JA: Masterful. I've really started to put more and more of the burden of the story on Guera's shoulders lately, it seems, what with so many scenes that are completely free of dialogue or narration. It's all about the emotion that Guera brings to the page, and he nails it each and every time.   MF: Can you elaborate on your philosophy about using violence in your stories? Quentin Tarantino once said that he views violence in his films as just another form of entertainment. Do you agree or does violence serve a higher purpose for you?  JA: Violence in stories has never bothered me, except when it's just violence for the sake of being violent. Like the torture movies that seem to be popular these days. I can't get into that. Hopefully the violence in Scalped is more grounded, more emotionally real. Hopefully it always serves the story instead of being the story in and of itself.MF: Fictional violence and "real" violence are viewed by some to be symbiotic. Do you think violence in popular media--and Scalped in particular--can provoke readers to commit violence? JA: No, not at all. I wrote off that argument long ago. MF: Scalped has a sophisticated web of plots and sub-plots. How far ahead have you plotted this book? JA: From the beginning I had the series plotted out to around issue #30, and I've stuck to that almost exactly. Now I'm getting near the end of that outline, so I guess I need to work on another one. MF: Can you describe how you start writing each issue? What's your process? JA: I start with a few sentences, a few ideas. Then I wander around the house in a daze for a few days until I can work out a page by page outline in my head. After that, it's just a matter of filling in the blanks. MF: Every one is a critic, but not many are creators. Do reviews and reader feedback affect how you write or what you present in your stories?  JA: I hope not. It goes back to what I said before about writing to please yourself. If you're chasing after an audience, trying to write to please them, you're either writing stuff that appeals to the lowest common denominator or you're heading down the road to madness.MF: Some writers claim they have to listen to a particular kind of music to get them in the right mindset to write a story. Do you use any form of input to get you in the right mindset to write an issue of Scalped? JA: I put together soundtracks of different songs to listen to in the car, but when I'm actually sitting down to write, I can't have any music or movies or anything on in the background. It has to dead quiet for me to think. MF: Final question: How many days would you survive in the harsh environment of Scalped? JA: I'd do all right, because I'd already know everybody's darkest secrets.     Well, let's give Jason Aaron a round of applause for doing this interview and for giving us a hell of a ride with Scalped. I highly recommend reading Scalped in the monthly format because it delivers every time. There hasn't been a mediocre issue so far, and that is a grand achievement by itself. See you in seven days. Back with more Vertigo goodies. |
