THE OTHER SIDE #5 and SCALPED #2 in stores this week

New interviews and reviews and whatnot this week, as the second issue of SCALPED and final issue of THE OTHER SIDE both hit stores.

Interview with Publishers Weekly:
Jason Aaron, your average 33-year-old American, turns the axiom "write what you know" on its head, instead crafting stories about North Vietnamese soldiers and life on a corrupt Indian reservation.

Interview with Argus Leader (Sioux Falls, South Dakota):
While its plot is a mafia-like conspiracy story complete with an undercover FBI agent returning to his homeland to spread justice, the story feels too real. It reads like a bloodier version of the reservation corruption stories I heard while growing up next to the Fort Berthold Reservation in North Dakota. That's what makes this comic so good.

Reviews of both books from WizardUniverse.com:
THE OTHER SIDE #5
"You won’t find a horror comic on the racks that will jar your bone marrow the way Jason Aaron can in The Other Side. The way he and artist Cameron Stewart delicately balance the typhoon of carnage and shaded morality that warfare renders irrelevant for this series’ characters is absolutely masterful. Don’t pick this issue up without preparing yourself for a sobering experience that offers no answers and a splattered mess of questions about demands and sacrifices imposed on Vietnamese and American soldiers. The puddle of vomit at the end of issue #5 speaks volumes for the horrors of war Aaron grapples with."

SCALPED #2
"If anything, you’ll find all sorts of new ways to use cuss words from this book, but fans of crime fiction are in for a nice follow-up to the debut issue. There’s an engaging use of flashbacks, counting down the days of Chief Red Crow’s growing suspicion of Bad Horse toward a big ambush/gunfight that will probably take place in the next issue. The art is still in the ever-capable Vertigo style, with a little dirtier 100 Bullets feel, but it definitely doesn’t feel like a rip-off, story- or art-wise. The use of the Native American element is a fresh twist on the crime concept, filling up the book with colorful, intriguing characters."

A review of THE OTHER SIDE from last month at The Wire:
"With the war in Iraq escalating and the specter of other wars looming on the horizon, we may be seeing more war comics—and war movies and war books, not to mention actual war footage—than we’d care for. If we’re lucky, a scant few might be as good as THE OTHER SIDE."

From comedian Patton Oswalt's blog on MySpace:
I JUST GOT COMICS
How can I un-break my habit -- having to plunk down and blaze through my pile in front of coffee, eggs and bacon before I do anything else today? I actually have shit to finish. I should focus on...oh shit, a new issue of SCALPED!