If they decide to give out an award for “Most Depressing Single Issue” at the Eisner’s next year Scalped #20 is a goddamn shoe in. This issue wraps up the two issue arc centered around Red Crow’s daughter Carol and her relationship with our favorite undercover reservation police officer Bad Horse. We get to see how the cliffhanger from last issue finishes out. Depressing. Then we catch a glimpse of the start of one of Carol’s many dangerous habits. Depressing. Meanwhile in the present Dash has to deal with even more aftermath from the tragic death of Shelton. Depressing. Sense a pattern yet?

Kudos to Jason Aaron for making me care this much about his characters. In addition to that “Most Depressing Single Issue” award which may or may not come to pass, Scalped has got to be at the top of the list for “Best Ongoing Title”. I have noticed a lot of people lump DMZ and Scalped together when they talk about the current Vertigo titles, but Scalped is truly in a league of its own leaps and bounds above DMZ and the rest of Vertigo’s roster.

The sketchy art style of this issue is fine with me aside from a few close ups of characters’ faces which just looked weird. However, at other times, thankfully in the more important panels, the same person looks a hundred times better. Regardless of how one feels about the sketchy art style of Furno and the few miscues mentioned above I hope all can agree that he perfectly captured the emotions Aaron was trying to get across with this issue. Many of the more poignant scenes in the issue feature almost no text leaving Furno all on his own, and he knocked them out of the park especially in the last few pages.