This is a big week for SCALPED. Issue #14 of the regular series is out this week, the second part of our big new arc, "Dead Mothers," as well as the second trade, CASINO BOOGIE, featuring an introduction by Garth Ennis. In honor of that, here's another installment in our ongoing "Director's Commentary," featuring Guéra talking about the music that influences his vision for SCALPED:

Hello.

It’s realism. Realism and shadows.

What “sounds” like this?

Cause, no matter how weird this reads - for me Scalped IS a feel.

OK, let’s just dig into music to help us…it’s what it’s for.

(but, please bear in mind that when I do put some of these below to play, it’s always two or three CDs in a row, so…go figure what illustrates what (ha,ha)…but I must say that this list is tremendously difficult for me…in fact ANY list, really…)

1.(just about anything by) Bob Dylan.
But if I must, well in last few months “Seven Days” & “Things have Changed” were enjoyed more than others, I suppose.
(…no comments on Bob. I think people should just shut up & keep on listening. Y’know…).

2. Neil Young
(if you know what I mean.) No comment. No comment… Just, y’know…

Other(s) with no special order:

·Blind Willie Johnson…(…)…

·Fumblin’ With The Blues: Tom Waits·

·Ice Cream Man: Tom Waits·

·Ah well, come on - ALL of early Waits·

·Do I Move You: Nina Simone·
(sexiest musical piece in history, I DID listen to this while drawing Carol-Dash sex scene …When not, I tried to remember it…This is officially admitted now, eh, I never told this to anyone before. I actually & directly used this song for that scene).

·CD “Source Point” by John Hammond.
Each & every track. He never reached this level again. It’s 11 tracks like one song. One session. One morning (which it probably was).

·Okie Dokie Stomp: Gatemouth Brown·
Wonderful guitar playing, one of few that can naturally transmit emotion AND fun. Also, tremendously influential but totally underrated…

·As The years Go Passing By (live version form ’77): Albert King·
…voice, guitar(s), Gallagher there, final rhythm change, song…
(It’s heavy stuff when you really open your heart to the audience. But for real, eh. Not jumping all over stage. Digging is the word. I know people who are sarcastic towards something like this, as it’s SO openly emotional & so openly loves somebody. And says it. People run away from this, because they can’t believe it’s true I suppose. Try it…)

·Wicked Act: Black Uhuru.
Tremendous piece. So soft but so deeply harsh at the same time…Go out & buy anything from ’77 ‘till ’83. they recorded. Just…NOTHING sounds like them…

·Ventilator Blues: Rolling Stones·

·Happy: Rolling Stones· but c’mone, ALL “Exile…” & more around this album.

·Go Back Home: Stephen Stills·
Nice. Simply nice & refreshing in any list combination. Way back from ’71. Clapton at his best at the end. Hendrix also plays in that album.

· Johnny Cash.
…Just this name. Anything by this name.

·Roller Coaster: Little Walter·
(this one has some strange power over me….I always felt it as sound of the moment -about early in the morning, when you can't drink a drop more, as you drank a gallon last night. You slept a bit but you’re not sure where, you’re at your way home, and suddenly – some totally unexpected energy comes in. Maybe it’s just morning sun, y’know. But you do feel this weird clearness where it shouldn’t appear. If you ever had a stroke of that feel – this song explains it for me…)

·Blues In C: Modern Jazz Quartet·
(Deep, slow, elegant, dignifying…& blue. VERY.)

· Howlin’ Wolf ·…these two words need nothing added…

·You Got The Silver: Susan Tedechi & Derek Trucks·
Fresh & with some absolutely incredible guitar playing. Duanne is among us again. But this time for real.

·Million Miles Away: (live version) Rory Gallagher·

·In Your Town: Rory Gallagher·

·Allman Bros. Live At Fillmore East (this is ONE song for me)·

·Suitcase Blues: Hollywood Fats·
very few things achieve class of classic, by being totally classic. Well, this one does. Instantly.

·London Calling: Clash· …but in fact - all Clash. All. God, was I proud when Johnny Cash recorded with Strummer…

·Any Peter Green with Fleetwood Mac·
One & only Peter. No white boy comes even close to this guitar… Backed up by Kirwain, and rock-solid rhythm. Awh, peoples. “Jam At Chess” & ”Boston live” maybe more than anything.
…(…)…

I stop, I stop, Jesus Christ, this list REALLY could be endless. I never even touched actual bands & players. It’s just that I have hundreds of CDs from “way back” & I’m used to play ‘em…

The best I could say maybe, is that MUSIC is part of Scalped…As long as it’s visually clear it can’t be bad music, does it really matter which?…

Thank you
R.M.Guéra

Ps…& has ANYBODY of you heard of Watermelon Slim?… And those not among us any more like Juke Boy Bonner, Magic Sam?… And what about Gerry Mulligan?
Awh peoples…

The first trade paperback collection of SCALPED was realeased a couple weeks ago, which represents a personal milestone a long time in the making. It was February 2005 and I was standing at the bus stop after a day spent working my shitty day job, when I got a call from editor Will Dennis at Vertigo. I was already writing THE OTHER SIDE for Will, and he was calling to let me know that The Powers That Be had just greenlighted my other idea, SCALPED. Later that same week, I also got a new car and got married, so it proved to be a pretty life changing couple of days. Now here I am, more than two years later, very proud of how SCALPED turned out and very excited about the direction of my career.

And on a completely different note, here's my personal soundtrack for SCALPED Vol. 1. These are either songs that I listened to while working on the book or songs that directly inspired it.

“Ou Es-Tu, Mon Amour?” – Willie Nelson
From Willie's hauntingly beautiful 1998 album Teatro.

“Custer” – Johnny Cash
I probably listened to this song a hundred times while writing SCALPED. It's from the album Bitter Tears: Ballads of the American Indian.

“Rip This Joint” – Rolling Stones
From what's probably the greatest rock album of all time, Exile on Main Street.

“Bury My Heart At Wounded Knee” – Buffy Saint-Marie
A great song about jailed Native rights activist Leonard Peltier. I'm not a huge Indigo Girls fan, but they've also done a good version of it.

“Nebraska” – Bruce Springsteen
A powerful song from an amazingly stark yet incredibly rich album.

“For A Few Dollars More” – Ennio Morricone
Brian Azzarello's LOVELESS ain't the only Vertigo book that has a bit of spaghetti western in it.

“Hello Trouble” – Buck Owens
AKA, "The Ballad of Dash and Carol."

“7 Months, 39 Days” – Hank Williams III
If I could take one real person and write them as a character in SCALPED, it would be Hank III. Complete with duct tape covered boots and that hat that looks like it's been backed over by a truck.

“Stagger Lee” -- Nick Cave
From Cave's 1996 album Murder Ballads, another one of my favorites.

“Death Around the Corner” -- 2Pac
I also listen to a lot of 2Pac while working on SCALPED. I think the paranoia and fear and anger he exhibits on songs like this could play as a straight soundtrack for a lot of the characters on our fictional rez.

“Down Yonder” – Willie Nelson
Another great Willie instrumental, from perhaps his greatest album, Red Headed Stranger.

“I’ll Never Get Out Of This World Alive” – Hank Williams
As the saying goes, if you don't like Hank Williams, you can kiss my ass.

“The Devil’s Right Hand” – Steve Earle
I have no doubt that in a different reality where Steve Earle never learned to play guitar, he would've been one of the world's greatest short story writers.

“O Bury Me Not” – Sons of the Pioneers
No, that's not a joke. I listen to a lot of music by the old singing cowboys.

“Memo From Turner” – Mick Jagger
From the soundtrack to Jagger's 1970 film Performance. Don't know quite what it is about this song, but I can't ever get enough of it.

“You Show Me Yours”– Kris Kristofferson
One of my favorite songs from one of the men (not just songwriters but men from any walk of life) who I most admire.

“Rock Hard In A Funky Place” -- Prince
Prince's Black Album is Carol's favorite, no doubt about it.

“Where Did You Sleep Last Night” – Leadbelly
I listen to this song all the time too, and I imagine it's just as haunting now as it was back in 1944.

“Round Dance” – Northern Cree Singers
My favorite performers of traditonal Native American drumming. These guys are riveting.

In the first part of our Director’s Commentary, Guéra talked about a couple of the movies that were big influences on his vision for SCALPED, namely the westerns HOMBRE and ULZANA’S RAID. For my part, there were lots of films I watched and re-watched while working on the first volume of SCALPED, including TO LIVE AND DIE IN LA (one of my top five all-time favorite crime films), BRING ME THE HEAD OF ALFREDO GARCIA (Peckinpah’s woefully unrecognized masterpiece), HOMBRE (just like Guéra), VALDEZ IS COMING, RUSH, UNFORGIVEN, COCKFIGHTER (I love me some Warren Oates), TOKYO DRIFTER, POINT BLANK, THUNDERHEART (still not a very good movie), INCIDENT AT OGLALA, SKINS, THE GREAT SILENCE, ROADHOUSE (“Pain don’t hurt”), BILLY JACK (You betcha), DANCES WITH WOLVES (Fuck you, it’s a good movie)… But there’s only one film I’d list as a true influence on the series (meaning there's one I most obviously ripped off), and that’s 1990’s STATE OF GRACE.



If you haven’t seen STATE OF GRACE, then stop reading now and go get it. You can probably find the DVD for about ten bucks at your local Target, so it’s not a big investment, and you’ll be getting one of the finest crime films of the last 20 years.

If you have seen STATE OF GRACE, then the connection to SCALPED should be obvious: guy returns to his old neighborhood and falls in with the local criminal element, but unbeknownst to them he’s really an undercover cop. In STATE OF GRACE, that cop is played by Sean Penn, the criminals by Ed Harris and Gary Oldman, and the setting is the Irish-American neighborhood of Hell’s Kitchen. Inspired by the real-life escapades of the Westies, who for years were one of New York’s most brutal criminal organizations, STATE OF GRACE is a gritty and explosive little masterpiece directed by Phil Joanou, who’s only other career highlight was directing U2’s concert film, RATTLE AND HUM. Not only does STATE OF GRACE give you Penn, the finest actor of his generation playing an undercover cop in way the fuck over his head, but you also get Harris at his most intense and Oldman at his most fucking manic. The three of them together snarl, curse, howl, fight, drink, fuck and murder their way through 134 minutes, chewing up every bit of scenery in their midst (though you do still get shining moments from Robin Wright Penn and the great John C. Reilly, and even a terrific little scene with Burgess Meredith). Then there’s the haunting score by Ennio Morricone. And the Peckinpah style editing. And the climax. Goddamn, the climax. I just fucking LOVE a scene where you have a group of tough as nails motherfuckers, all getting together to scour the fucking earth for the guy who’s fucked them over, and then lo and behold, that very guy comes strolling in the front door, calm as can be, armed with a gun and balls of fucking steel. UNFORGIVEN played that for all it was worth, of course, but STATE OF GRACE did it first. (I tried to open SCALPED #1 with a similar type of scene, but just didn’t pull it off right. My bad.)


Still, it wasn’t just the storyline from STATE OF GRACE that influenced SCALPED, but also the moral ambiguity of the characters (I just eat that shit up) and the importance of the setting (obviously). Put all that together with the Leonard Peltier story and dashes of James Ellroy, Elmore Leonard, Cormac McCarthy and HBO’s “The Wire,” and you’ve got SCALPED. Or at least, what I’m trying to do with SCALPED.

Thanks to all the people who’ve been picking it up. The best is yet to come.

With the fifth issue of SCALPED out this week, completing what will be the first trade paperback collection, I thought it was a good time for Guéra and I to do something like a "Director's Commentary" and talk about some of the movies, books and songs that have influenced our work on the series. First up, here's Guéra talking about a couple of films that have had a profound influence on his style.


Hello.

Looking at SCALPED as a reader, Jason & me are trying our hardest to make our statement of it. But as Scalped artist, I say that possibly the best thing about that is that we maybe don't know it. It must be consequence & not the objective.

Because it is only then it does happen.

Who has time for statements anyway, we worry about this word inside that dialogue, about that boot, shirt, violence level, hairstyle. Life itself gives material impossible to spend (not in one lifetime, anyway). In creating something, honesty is the best.

Second best is (all) the rest - and most of it are other artists work: music, books, lyrics, movies, etc. Admiring them & wanting to be like them is how we all started. I also think that there's honesty in letting those influences flow through our work.

Here, I'll say one about movies. Regarding SCALPED, mine are westerns.

There are (too) many of them that could represent at least some part (each) of my drawing aims in SCALPED. WILD BUNCH, THE BALLAD OF CABLE HOGUE, HUD, MCCABE & MRS. MILLER, but also SEVEN SAMURAI and THE TREASURE OF THE SIERRA MADRE (as maybe the strongest black/white statements I ever saw), or relatively recent THE LAST OF THE MOHICANS, UNFORGIVEN... God, the list could be endless. Their feel (whatever this could mean - it's definitely existent in me) is deep inside & I love them all, but are there ones that could represent me? Myself.

I mean is that possible, knowing I'm not the one who made them?

Yes it is. Two.

First is made on Elmore Leonard's book, scripted by Irving Ravetch & directed by Martin Ritt.

HOMBRE is the movie that changed me. It's where I understood how to "be what I am", at the same time respecting what others are. Things come and go, but the ones that change you, they stay. With years I'm more & more positive about it.

It's a movie from '67., tho I first saw it pretty late (I simply dunno how did I miss watching it before, but of course it's NEVER too late for things like these): at New Years Eve party of old '84. to new '85. People all around, loud music, I still don't know how did it hit me that hard in that ambient, but it did.

I hated the party, I suppose.

Besides one of the purest storytelling sense I ever saw (unstoppable simplicity), - Martin Ritt has no "big" visual style, and it fits simply perfectly the main character played by Mr. Newman. In other words, this film is as it's hero is, & as a consequence of this fact, it's really close to be called perfect. Calmed, but no nonsense. Strong even when humored. Real life aimed all the time. Direct. Wonderful.

Once really inside of you, there's no cure for it.

Second is made on Alan Sharp's script & directed by Robert Aldrich. Based on true events.

ULZANA'S RAID also made changes in me. Made me forget lots of next New Years' eves in times to come. When you (are ready to) face maturity in art you "consume", lots of things lose their urgency & importance.

And this one hits forehead directly.


Mr. Lancaster never looked as believable as in role of McIntosh (to me, he's like William Holden in "Bunch" - right now Pike Bishop is simply impossible to imagine performed by somebody else. He is Pike.), and Ke-Ni-Tay's face lines (actor Jorge Luke) - if looked closely - echo pretty clearly on Dashiell Bad Horse.

Last 5 minutes of this movie STILL are difficult for me "just to see", better put - NOT to feel. Even today, even after seeing it so many times. And I'd really like to avoid words about it's last 30 seconds & one small peace of paper there.

This film (as a whole) - to me - can be only compared with Kurosawa's heights (or, if you want it more inside the family, with RIDE THE HIGH COUNTRY, by the master himself). It really unites all elements I ever liked in (all) other westerns. Subject, dialogues, aesthetics, rhythm, sequences as a whole - first time seen it, I had this blush feel that it spoke too much about my own secrets. The ones I considered as mine only, as my invisible strength & if I once let the world see full light & energy of those - it'll be conquered & won.

I really was ready to mature, wasn't I?

OK.

These movies definitely are not the genres-best I've seen, or the most this, or the magnificent that. No. What makes them closest to me - is intimate thought they're above categorizations. If you really understand them, you don't care one bit about categories. You have the feel they're for you - whoever you may be - and THAT is what they're helping you understand.

So, if (my) SCALPED visuals succeed in showing richness out of average, or in avoiding spectacular about real, or if they simply show it as it is - it'll help me achieve two things. One is returning some from what I got from those two above, & second, the beginning of this all: honesty in work.

This is the aim alright & if I ever succeed, one of you please tell me.

Thanks. (especially to you Jason my bud, for generously inviting me
here)


R.M. Guéra
April 2007
Barcelona, Spain