Scalped is a dark and gritty crime drama set in a Native American reservation in South Dakota. The main character is "Dash" Bad Horse, who has recently returned to the Reservation after a mysterious fifteen year absence. He joins the local tribal police to help clean up the increasing problems of drugs and organized crime. But Dash comes with his own agenda and his own dark secrets.

In this scene, Dash and fellow officer Falls Down are about to bust a secret meth house, unaware that they've been setup and are about to walk into a trap.

RB: Flashbacks are a big part of the overall story of Scalped. In this scene, you cut into a very tense moment in present time to show a relevant piece of Dash's childhood. Can you talk a little bit about what you hoped to show about Dash by interspersing these two moments?

JASON AARON: This is the first glimpse we get of Dash’s childhood and the root of his angst and his tense relationship with his mother, which are all themes we’re still exploring in the series, more than a year later. And I think with the flashbacks like this, it’s not just important what they show us about a character’s past, it’s also important what they tell us about the present. Why have this flashback at this particular moment? What triggers it? Here it’s the fact that he’s about to use a gun. Does that mean this flashback runs through his head every time he’s about to use a gun?

WILL DENNIS: That is mostly all jason's call. it's important in these early issues to establish that all these characters have history -- that they are not just two dimensional action movie stand ups. We made a concentrated effort early on to establish this idea -- that the sins of the past will echo down thru the lives of the characters.

Also in all the research we all did for this book -- me, Jason and Guera -- it's clear that history is such a vital part of the living native life. not just the cultural history which is so rich -- arts, dance, music, folklore, etc -- but also the tragic history that exist in relationship to the American people and government.

So not making flashbacks a big part of this would have been a real huge mistake.

RB: The visual cue for the flashbacks throughout the book is the desaturated coloring. How did the idea come about to distinguish them in this way?

LEE LOUGHRIDGE: RM had proposed the idea along with Will Dennis about the flashback treatments. I played with a couple of the ideas and we came up with the blue/grey scheme rather than the normal sepia garb.

RM GUERA: Color is reduced because it's more graphic. Making it stronger instead of richer. This way we're trying to make it stronger AND richer (if this is understandable).

RB: On page 2 we see a closeup of Dash's face but, like many of his scenes, his face is very shadowed, which seems to make him more mysterious to the reader. How do you want the readers to see Dash at this point in the book? Do you have anyone in particular in mind as inspiration for this character when you are writing and drawing him?

JASON AARON: In terms of visual inspiration, no, I leave that up to Guera, though I do always provide some notes and ideas for how different characters might look. I think this particular scene here is our first real glimpse of Dash’s deep-sided psychological scars. Couple that with the fact that he’s obviously pretty deadly with a gun, and you have yourself a very dangerous individual. Dangerous to others, sure. But mostly just a danger to himself.

RM GUERA: He still is mysterious to himself mostly, therefore I'm trying to make his appearances as such to the reader. His emotional life is almost always the issue.

As about his attitude - I'm trying to dig in what I/myself am, in the situations Jason put "me" in. It's because we both are Dash, and therefore we MUST accept "our" character as one. Luck comes into it in the actual relationship with the writer and artist - both do it gladly. It's like a happy marriage. I am laughing out loud at the sound of this. .;

RB: Will, as the editor, how do you work with Jason and RM to help shape Dash as a character?

WILL DENNIS: Most of my work really happens at the initial stages in terms of helping to shape the narrative and the overall feel of the world. Jason creates the characters -- gives them life, emotions, problems, etc. That's the really hard work and it's all his.

With Guera, he just got it. He was born to draw this book. We mostly talked about other things -- music, books, movies, actors, etc that we loved and there was like 99% agreement between the three of us on the "feel" of what we wanted. To me, it's all feel...i don't always know what I'm looking for but I know it when I see it.

We almost never talked about comics in the initial stages -- but that's true of all the books I work on. The point is to try and do something no one else has ever done, so really there should be no precedent for it, if it's this good.

RB: RM, something that I love about how you designed this scene is how, especially on pages 2 and 4, the layering of the panels creates a transition from present to past and then back to present. Is this something that you planned or an interesting result of how you designed the pages?

RM GUERA: Thank you, it's both. This is the most precise word for it I can think of. It's both - as much as possible, at the same time. What moved ("inspired") me was the idea that he has closed his eyes now because he had them open then (in the flashback). It's the way the page starts and concludes, anyway. I dunno about other artists, but thoughts like these work for me. Overtime, eh.;)

RB: Of course, Lee, without color this effect wouldn't work the same way.

LEE LOUGHRIDGE: I just read the script on this one and figured that was the best way to transition the art.

RB: The owls perched on the trees, watching over the scene below, is a striking image. And it's an image that seems to be repeated within the design of the totem pole on page 4. What do the owls represent in this scene?

JASON AARON: They are an omen of death. And they tip Dash off that something’s not right about this place.

RB: On page 3 the first thing we see is the bright red of the blood stains. Lee, was this your idea to use this bright splash of color in an otherwise monochromatic scene?

LEE LOUGHRIDGE: The red was definitely used for impact. RM and Will put that bird in my ear.

JASON AARON: You also can’t discount the input of our editors, Will Dennis and Casey Seijas. It was their idea to add the title page that you see here. The two-panel page with the big money shot. That was actually drawn after the whole issue was finished, and it was just the extra beat that the scene needed to drive it home.

WILL DENNIS: This was a vital moment. You don't always know something is missing until it's all together though (with letters and all). I was bothered by not having a really good shot of this dead body and Dash, but the art as it existed seemed so strong that I was letting it ride -- sometimes you can really over-manage these things. but in this case I felt strongly that we needed something really dramatic so I went and asked "The Powers That Be" if we could get an extra page for this and they said YES.

This was the defining moment of Dash’s youth and his relationship with his mother — which is really the core of this book to me — and it needed some space. I remember being at Irish wakes as a kid and going up to the body in the coffin and being dared to touch it — it’s just one of those experiences that stays with you and we wanted that same thing for the readers.

And I knew that Guera was going to make it the perfect page and it is. it’s so sadly beautiful and captures so much of this book — Gina(Dash's mother)’s commitment to her beliefs, the squalor of the "Rez", the senselessness of the violence, the toll that alcohol has taken on native life and just the weight of it all, the gravitas — everything that gives this book it’s soul is on that page. somethings are worth fighting for.

RB: There are a lot of objects and background elements in this scene - from the broken down truck on page 3 to the junk both inside and outside the meth house. Every object seems to contain its own sad history. How much do you think about the history of the setting you are creating here? Jason and RM - do you guys discuss little details like these when you are creating a scene like this?

JASON AARON: I used to throw in several details about the different settings, and then Guera would take that and just go wild with it and give me back far more than I ever imagined. These days, I pretty much know what I’m going to get from him, so I don’t usually bother with as many details. I know he’s already got the idea down. He feels the setting. He doesn’t need me to describe it to him.

RM GUERA: I just think we're trying to help each other's part.

Maybe at first yes, but right now - no, not too much comments, but when they do appear, they're abundant, solid, serious - however you want it and depending on a case - all in order to be as clear (honest) as possible towards the subject we're creating together.

It's fondness of other ones work. I like the fact that we're friends right now, but we admired each others work first. NOT the other way around, y'know?

RB: Will, do you ever need to inspect these kind of details for accuracy or narrative continuity?

WILL DENNIS: Do I check to see if a particular beer bottle is in the same place on every panel? Hell no. That would be soul-killing to an artist and have a chilling effect. Plus I don’t have time for that level of minutae. If that’s something that bothers a reader then I’d say they’re reading the wrong book. We keep important things consistent — colors, hair, clothes, etc — but I’m not going to break Guera’s flow with something that nit picky. I’ve never been in a meth lab but I imagine this is what it looks like!

RB: In general, Scalped is a very dark book, with lots of heavy inking. Lee, does this make your job more challenging?

LEE LOUGHRIDGE: Scalped is a very difficult book to color for the fact that it is so black. If i had it my way it would be far more monochromatic over all. I think that would be the most visually successful way to handle RM's art.

RB: When the shootout begins, this is one of the most chaotic scenes of the comic. How do you plan a scene like this? How do you guys work together to stay in control of everything that is happening and yet still make it look out of control to the reader?

WILL DENNIS: Jason describes the scene in loose terms and Guera just went to town on it. My feeling is that it NEEDS to be somewhat confusing and unclear. It was one of the only fight scenes like this I’ve ever seen that wasn’t really choreographed feeling — it gave me what I imagine to be is the feeling that Dash had...just lots of guns, flashes, chaos. But we also wanted to show that Dash is BAD ASS. That he’s got the training and skills of a professional.

I definitely did some directing on the colors to help separate inside and outside but that’s about it. I’m not in the business of telling my writer or artist to make it 10% more “actiony”.

JASON AARON: I wrote a pretty specific shoot-out and then Guera took that and stuck to the general idea, but still very much made it his own. That’s the great thing about collaborating with someone. In those best moments, you may end up with something that’s not like what you wrote and it’s not like what the person would’ve drawn given free reign, but it’s what you create together. This is my favorite scene from that first story arc of SCALPED, and I think it’s where Guera and I first started to really hit it off.

RM GUERA: Visual equilibrium. Never too much time spent on this. Amplify one thing, reduce the other, but all in order to tell what (in this case) the chaos of a shoot-out is like.

Besides, situations like this MUST be chaotic, it wouldn't be real the other way. It's the clear head inside the chaos - but it must be intuitive. Simple. Impossible to re-think it while it's happening. One must be instinctively aimed, BUT intuitively clever (clear so far? It's complicated to talk about simplicity, ha, ha).

So this is the risk I'm also taking. Like him. Like Dash.

RB: How do you lead the reader through the shootout, panel to panel? How do you handle the rhythm of this scene as opposed to how you handle the quieter flashbacks? Lee, what tricks do you use to draw the reader to certain elements or guide them through the action?

LEE LOUGHRIDGE: Heat would be the best word for it. Heat up the center of the action and push everything else to the foreground/background.

RM GUERA: I literally try to explain to someone how I (myself) survived by this close. As clear as I can, but NOT making a movie about it. I try to be real. All the rest are doubts about it and work. There's NO system to it. If there is, I'm against it, anyway. The same goes for calmed sequences (or flashbacks). Jason gives me a lot of freedom, BUT - he's the responsible one, eh. He does some really inspiring writing first, so this quality gives me the necessary frame to apply my freedom to.

With less words: there's a script I believe in, and I act and direct according to it.

I try to, anyway.

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I want to thank everyone on the Scalped team who took the time to answer these questions and to DC Comics for helping make this interview possible.

The latest issue of Scalped (#17) comes out on May 21st. This scene can be found in the first of two trade paperbacks that are currently available at your local comics shop.