philippos42

I finally decided to give Jason Aaron & R. M. Guéra's Scalped a try. I'm two issues in, & thinking, wow, what shit.

I like reading works set in unfamiliar cultures; I like learning something about a different place & people. I don't think I've learned anything yet. Granted, that's because I already know more than the average ign'ant Anglo about the Oglala people. But the whole thing feels inauthentic to me; not because I have enough sense of what's authentic to compare it to reality, but because it's piling on the pulp tropes to a ridiculous degree.

We have the angry loner protagonist alienated from his idealistic mother, the corrupt tribal police boss putatively overseen by an effete council, & the boss's stoner daughter who was the sixth-grade girlfriend of the angry loner protagonist. Somehow, in this tiny reservation community, which is acknowledged in text as having a low population, we have massive amounts of violence, & even a "menacingly European" firebug gang of non-Indians. And the Indians never settle for calling each other "Injun" when they can call each other "prairie nigger" or "red nigger." Top this off with the corrupt boss actually literally scalping people.

Yeah, right.

The overall approach seems a bit like someone trying to do Sin City, "now with Injuns!" Or rather, racial consciousness poured into the bastard spawn (necessarily bastard because legitimacy is unknown to these people) of Frank Miller's oeuvre & whatever shit Garth Ennis just crapped out this month, with a dollop of ridiculous racial stereotypes that are really just tough-guy movie stereotypes.

There is a fair bit of globby shadow, but the inks are more like Klaus Janson than the blocky chiaroscuro of Sin City. I mean, really, it's very much like Janson inks over better anatomy.

The characters' dialogue drips with contempt for each other in every balloon. They're constantly insulting each other in language that makes me realize how unimaginative Chris Claremont's cussing was in text. There's no love or fellow feeling in evidence anywhere, only outrageous threats & fear.

I can imagine someone getting something out of it. If you're the sort of person who constantly calls & is called by your peers things like "shitstain," & you really see the world that way--I'm talking to you, white boy--then you might like this excrement; you might even learn something.

I guess I'll finish the trade. Can't say I'm sorry I put it off this long.

The United States Constitution: a graphic adaptation
written by Jonathan Hennessey, illo'd by Aaron McConnnell
Hill and Wang, 2008.

Meh. As someone with little familiarity with the US Constitution (despite the fact that I got a copy years ago) I appreciate what I get from this volume, but I sort of feel like I wanted more context. But that's the thing. I never really have sat down & done this kind of study of the Constitution & its historical trappings, so I'm the sort of person to benefit from this kind of work. It's an overview, & a quick read. Well enough.

The conceit of representing states as birds is amusing & not immediately obvious.

One of the best things is the last bit, with the history of later amendments. In all the glorification of the Founding Fathers some us indulge in, it gets lost just how messed up the constitutional system was in this country for most of its history. For a long time the Constitution was about protecting the privileges of state institutions, and not the rights of persons; “Constitution-in-exile” types need to be reminded of that.

Something as simple as prohibiting Congress from voting compensation increases for themselves that benefit the present session, took 203 years. A work in progress, indeed.