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Crossword Puzzle Girl
Petite, blonde hair always in a pony tail, blue-eyed, she occupied the same corner of the campus cafeteria. Whenever I saw her, her face peered down, lips pursed and eyes intently engaged in the day’s crossword puzzle. Her books and backpack would be either piled at her feet or on the table next to her, depending on the crowd of students flowing through the room.
During my attendance at TCU, the campus’s main dining hall, called The Main, served three meals a day, opening and closing for each meal. At times, it became confusing as to what the hours actually were, especially when students would camp for hours at a time, at the behest of the cafeteria’s staff. The Main’s interior looked like a Luby’s stuck in the 90s—grey walls, tables and floors, bold geometric, airbrushed artwork and booths lined with red vinyl.
This girl, whom I silently named Crossword Puzzle Girl, was a staple. She always went for the back corner and folded the campus paper, The Skiff, to reveal the crossword puzzle. Before Sudoku became the distraction of choice, the crossword puzzle had a place in the back of classrooms, communally shared in the lounges or those sitting solo, etching out the answers to the day’s clue’s.
I never asked of her name, so she never answered. The only other thing I knew about her, seems amusing. She was a baton twirler. Dressed in purple polyester, skin-tone sheer and sparkly, sparkly sequins, she would dance amongst the band during halftime shows, as her partner—the baton—twirled, swirled and curled through the air. While she worked on the puzzle, her pen would roll and somersault between her fingers.
I saw Crossword Puzzle Girl a few months ago. She’s one of those people you’d never expect to see again, and would notice them immediately if paths crossed, however distant. Instead of a 90s era cafeteria, a contemporary Starbuck’s cafe was the setting. She sat in the corner, flanked by windows, light shining off her blonde hair, pulled back into a pony tail. Instead of a bag of books by her side, a stroller stood. Instead of a bustling crowd of undergraduates moving around her, her daughter, equally blonde and blue-eyed, moved amongst the tables and chairs.
Crossword Puzzle Girl sat with a pen in her hand and looked relaxed as she appeared to answer one of the day’s clues.
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Recent non-fiction reads
[amazon_link id=”1422133443″ target=”_blank” container=”” container_class=”” ]HBR’s 10 Must Reads The Essentials[/amazon_link] – This complilation collects 10 articles that business leaders should readily consider–strategies for broad aspects of business. Â Each article is summarized in a side bar with the key points. This is handy as the articles are 20-30 pages in length. Â Drucker, Porter, Christensen are all present with topics covering leadership, innovation, strategy, analytics and more. Â Standout articles: Michael Porter’s “What is Strategy?” and John P. Kotter’s “Leading Change: Why Transformation Efforts Fail”. Â If you have access to a good library, you should be able to find these articles, and with some effort, Google Scholar can dig them up.
[amazon_link id=”0385529058″ target=”_blank” container=”” container_class=”” ]Click by Ori and Rom Brafman[/amazon_link] – Ever wonder what causes people to click? Ori and Rom divulge five factors: vulnerability, proximity, resonance, similarity and shared adversity. Also, there are individuals who can adjust their temperament to their circumstance, which they call high self monitors. The book is a quick read, under 200 pages, and illustrates each point with well told stories.
[amazon_link id=”1591843529″ target=”_blank” container=”” container_class=”” ]Personal MBA by Josh Kaufman[/amazon_link] – Ever wonder what MBAs learn? Josh Kaufman distills key, critical and essential concepts and principles across all facets of business. Â From the hard numbers of accounting, fuzziness of marketing and organizational development to fluidity of strategy, each concept is summarized and provided an example. Â It’s not meant to be read straight through, it’s meant to be read as a reference, or perhaps a means to translate business lingo into something concrete and meaningful.
[amazon_link id=”0142001104″ target=”_blank” container=”” container_class=”” ]Art of Possibility by Rosamund and Benjamin Zander[/amazon_link] – Across 12 points, uplifting and inspirational stories are used to tell the power of being inclusive, constructive, positive and seeking understanding. Â Definitely worth a reread to focus on doing good things and keeping a good mindset.
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Recent fiction reads
And by recent I mean, in the last 6 months.
[amazon_link id=”159514188X” target=”_blank” container=”” container_class=”” ]13 Reasons Why by Jay Asher[/amazon_link]Â – Clay Jensen receives a box of cassette tapes, narrating why a dead classmate killed herself. Hannah Baker tells of teenage heart break and cruelty that pushed her over the edge. The novel shows how a little empathy and compassion can mend a troubled soul.
[amazon_link id=”1594744769″ target=”_blank” container=”” container_class=”” ]Miss Peregrine’s Home for Peculiar Children by Ransom Riggs[/amazon_link] – Jacob’s grandfather always told stories, colorful stories of life during World War II. Dismissed as a way to deal with the horrors of war, his grandfather was never taken seriously until he is abruptly murdered. A note left for Jacob directs him to Wales, where his grandfather grew up. In trying to figure out the mystery of his grandfather, Jacob discovers his grandfather’s colorful stories were very real, and in the process discovers himself in World War II. Unique characters throughout with an interesting take on time travel and good and evil. The ending is a bit of a cliff hanger, alluding to a sequel and where the story will ultimately go.
[amazon_link id=”0385534639″ target=”_blank” container=”” container_class=”” ]The Night Circus by Erin Morgenstern[/amazon_link] – A magical, beautifully crafted novel where every word adds to the story. A mysterious circus that arrives without warning tells the story of a competition between two illusionists, their love and their passions. Strong and developed characters, Celia and Marco create feats of magic for the circus not knowing when the competition will end. *Highly recommended*
[amazon_link id=”1439132852″ target=”_blank” container=”” container_class=”” ]Monster Hunter International by Larry Correia[/amazon_link] – Monsters are real, and in this pulp, sci-fi, horror mashup, a team of monster hunters collect bounties for killing monsters. Â Owen Pitt finds this out the hard way after being attacked by a werewolf , surviving and being recruited by Monster Hunters International. Owen learns everything in the horror movies is real, and learns of a much broader plot of the Cursed One, to take over the world in the name of the Old Ones. Â It’s a mindless story full of action and gore with some developed characters. Â If you like guns, knowledge of various arms is fairly extensive.
[amazon_link id=”1439133913″ target=”_blank” container=”” container_class=”” ]Monster Hunter Vendetta by Larry Correia[/amazon_link] – Owen Pitt lived to see another book. Â A death cult led by the Shadow Man intends to take over the world. Â Same stuff different book.
[amazon_link id=”B003LL2Z1W” target=”_blank” container=”” container_class=”” ]Brains by Robin Becker[/amazon_link] – What if a zombie retained its greatest personal ability. For Jack Barnes, it’s the ability to think. Â In this zombiefied riff on Frankenstein, Barnes retains an acid wit and lucid tells of his life as a zombie. Â A short, quick read, and at times overwritten. Â Amusing if you’re into zombies.
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Twitter Stories
Twitter splendidly presents stories of tweets or clever uses of its service in Twitter Stories. A guy who saved his mother’s book store. Fishermen who sell the day’s catch while still on the boat. Complete recipes in 140 characters. Twitter is finding a singular purpose–enabling people to communicate uniquely and directly to the entire world, no filter needed.
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Art begets art
Art begets art.  One creative act should be free to inspire another creative act.  To say that one creation, once delivered to the world, remains tethered to its creator, unable to inspire, evolve or grow into something new, restricts the life of the original creation.  As much as one may try to control the perception of the work they created, it’s impossible.  Once you let the light, the art, the work, whatever, out—it’s no longer yours.  Maybe for a time it’s your’s.  But at some point it belongs to someone else. And that person may be inspired by your work to let loose another creative work.
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How to have a whiskey tasting
Whiskey bottles in my collection on display for a whiskey tasting. How to host a whiskey tasting
1. Know the difference between the types of whiskey.
2. Decide which whiskies you wish to share.
3. Be able to talk about a) whiskey in general, b) each individual whiskey.
4. Serve food.Recently, I held a whiskey tasting for a small group of friends. Over the past several months, I’ve amassed a small collection of whiskies, and decided to share them. I announced a date far enough in advance to make sure enough could plan and attend. Prior, I asked around, casually, if people would be interested. There were, with several admitting their lack of whiskey knowledge.
In between the booking of the date and the tasting, I did research. In order to get a history of the drink, I ordered a copy of Kate Hopkins’ [easyazon-link asin=”B00375LMUM”]99 Drams of Whiskey: The Accidental Hedonist’s Quest for the Perfect Shot and the History of the Drink[/easyazon-link]. 99 Drams tells of Kate and her friend in search of what would make someone spend $10,000 on a rare bottle of whiskey. As they search, Kate tells of how whiskey and the various types—scotch, scotch whisky, Irish whisky, bourbon and other variants came to be. Like all alcohol, sordid political games influenced the making and evolution of the drink. The book provided enough insight and clarity to cover the distinction between the different kinds. It’s like a travelogue for whiskey.
I also picked up two coffee table books, which were basically the same. [easyazon-link asin=”0756654432″]World Whiskey[/easyazon-link] and [easyazon-link asin=”0789497107″]Whiskey: The Definitive World Guide[/easyazon-link]. Both contain many of the same pictures and same basic facts. World Whiskey is newer, and I feel, better organized. Lastly, I purchased a whiskey tasting guide, [easyazon-link asin=”0955472954″]Jim Murray’s Whisky Bible[/easyazon-link], an odd, legal envelope shaped book with a plethora of tasting notes for thousands of whiskies. It’s hard to read but interesting guide.
All books were purchased used on Amazon for a total of less than $20. Wikipedia helped with some minor details and pictures. I browsed whiskey maker websites to learn their story. One thing Kate Hopkins talks about in 99 Drams is, how much a maker’s story is true, or marketing embellishment. A good story doesn’t affect taste.
For the tasting, I chose a sampling of the 3 main types—an Irish, a scotch (whisky) and 2 bourbons, for a total of 4 tastings. They could then have a drink of any of the 4 they tasted or venture into my whiskey collection. Before deciding on the four tastings plus one drink menu, I debated how many to serve. With everything at least 80 proof, I was going to have to minimize the serving size, number of servings and be up front with everyone showing up having eaten a hearty meal.
To serve the tasting to a large group, I ordered two ounce plastic cups. They’re large enough to be held easily, distributed quickly and to pour small amounts evenly in. Given that you’re supposed to wait one hour per alcoholic drink consumed, I wasn’t going to serve full shots of whiskey. Each two ounce cup would contain about a half an ounce. The half ounce would suffice to see the color of the whiskey, smell it, and taste it and its finish.
To finish out the tasting, I researched food pairings. Dark chocolates go with most scotches, pecans go with most bourbons, gouda, brie and water crackers go with most Irishes. I filled out the party plate with deli meat and pretzels. Several whiskey sites suggested fried chicken and bourbon (or American whiskey). Perhaps next time, I’ll get some Babe’s Fried Chicken to go and share an assortment of bourbons.
Lastly, I made a slide deck in Keynote, transferred it to the iPad and used my iPhone to control the presentation. I made the deck to keep everyone on the same footing, and with a noisy room of drinks being passed, the slides would set a bearing to what was being said. Plus, the pictures or words would trigger what I needed or wanted to say. Afterwards, I made notes in my head about how to rearrange the slides if I were to do this again.
People arrived, and I offered water to everyone. We began.
All the tasting articles suggested to start with the lightest whiskey first. This is akin to wine tasting. Similarly to wine tasting, you use four senses to fully taste the whiskey—sight, smell, touch (with your tongue, is the whiskey thick, thin, oily) and taste (for flavors and the finish which can leave different flavor notes). Dissimilarly to wine tasting, you add water to whiskey for a tasting. Debates rage about this practice and about how to drink whiskey in general. The water opens up various compounds from the alcohol and lessens the bite of the alcohol. High proof whiskies should be watered down to get their full flavor. For a drink, a splash of water will do. For a tasting, a few drops will work.
We started with the Powers Gold Label Irish whisky.
(Trivia: typically, Scotch and Irish whiskey varieties spell whiskey without the e, and the US does. There are exceptions but it’s a general point.)
Then we moved to a bourbon, Basil Hayden’s.
Third, Maker’s Mark.
Lastly, Johnnie Walker Black.
In between tastings I would go through a few slides about the history or the process of making the drink. Whiskey is just as diverse as wine or beer, but with most spirits containing at least 40% alcohol, the barrier to entry is higher. Personally, I’d like to see smaller bottles to lower the risk of trying a new whiskey, however, for most distillers, such a practice isn’t viable. I’ve surmised that to find what you like, take risks, ask the folks at the liquor stores, research whiskey. A devoted contingent of whiskey bloggers and tasting sites and magazines do exist. Have friends pick a bottle for a party. Different bars serve different spirits, especially four or five star hotel bars in different parts of the country. Like all subcultures, there are passionate people of all types. What’s exciting, is that Fort Worth will soon have a distillery, Firestone and Robertson.
And, did you know, that if you distill beer, you get whiskey?
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Ten years on, he still stands
Ten years on, new stories find a way to be told about that day. Everyone owns a part of history, however far removed they were from the events that occurred. September 11, 2001 horrifically created a common experience.
My experience became real, running late to a business law class and arrived to a visibly upset professor. Upon hearing the news from his students he said, in a broken voice, “I can’t do this today, class dismissed.â€
Everyone left in search of news, finding nothing to make sense of the morning.
The morning after, September 12, I woke up early to seek out a New York Times. By 8 am there were no copies left in the student union, the grocery store across from campus, nor the convenience store a block away. You Tube, Facebook and social media as we know it today, let alone the scale of internet news didn’t exist. A physical newspaper still retained meaning, as if to say, “yes, yesterday did happen.â€
Twice a week, I submitted political cartoons to the campus newspaper, the TCU Daily Skiff. The cartoon for September 12 was already published. I called an editor and told them I’d have a cartoon for them by mid afternoon.
I sat at my desk, in my dorm, with my sketchpad and wrote down a few words. What did I want the cartoon to say? A good political cartoon evokes an idea with minimal need for words. The Skiff’s cartoon for the 12th was that of a dark grey bust of the Statue of Liberty, torch held high, and a white, contrasting tear falling down her cheek.
Powerful, somber, resonant.
Somber.
I couldn’t do that the next day. I had to go a different direction. Horror? Anger? Defiance? Resilience? Depressing? Ashes? Smoke? Flags? Firefighters? Police? Uncle Sam…
Uncle Sam, ashes, smoke…
There’s a Pearl Jam song, Given to Fly, where the line at the climax of the song, Eddie Vedder sings, “At first he was stripped, then he was stabbed by faceless men, well fuckers, he still stands.â€
“He still stands.â€
Uncle Sam still stands amidst all the ashes and rubble and smoke.
The song continues on, “He still gives his love, he just gives it away.â€
I’ve got the image in my head and quickly sketch it out. I then draw on the paper I use to submit the cartoon and pencil the basic image and finish with the inks. I turned the cartoon in that day, and it ran September 13th.
I chose resilience.
= = =
I’ve since lost the original inked version. Moving tends to misplace pieces of paper. Below is the only remnant of that cartoon.
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Review of the Star Telegram iPad app
Summary: The Star Telegram app is functional app that delivers content well, but restricts and undervalues the content. Pros: great value, photos look great, environmentally friendly, solid delivery of content. Cons: You’re reading a PDF at first, inconsistent browsing behaviors, the power of the iPad is underutilized, download times vary.
Price: The app is free, with $2/month for print subscribers, $7.99/month, $75/year. This seems like a fair value, or an outright deal if you crunch the numbers compared to buying a paper a day or even subscribing to the print edition. Upon opening the app, you’ll need to sign in to download editions. If you have a Star Telegram Account, you can do this, and add subscriptions to your account, or you can purchase a one month subscription from within the app.
The physical layout is the paper layout–familiar but outdated. The iPad can richly deliver text, images and video, with unique behavioral interactions, yet the content remains constrained to a print layout. You cannot select text in this “paper” format. Pictures are vibrant and crisp and benefit the most from the app–no more misaligned color plates or inconsistent coloring ruining photos. Personally, I’d like to see a behavior to zoom in on images or make them full screen. Text is crisp similar to a well formatted PDF, but has to rejigger itself every time you zoom in and out. This is a disadvantage of constraining a print format within a digital format.
Depending on the amount of content in the paper for the day will determine how long it takes to download the day’s edition. Mondays take about 2 minutes, while Sundays take nearly 10 minutes over a high speed internet connection. [This was done at home over a Uverse broadband connection, with the iPad connected wirelessly.] Ads remain prominent, and in Sunday editions, most advertising inserts are not included–very limited set of coupons, no store inserts such as Best Buy ad, etc. Yet the Parade insert is included.
Navigation/Interaction
Initial navigation is to read the paper, a PDF-like image of the paper
- Swipe or touch translucent blue tabs to change pages
- Pinch and expand to zoom out/zoom in, respectively
- Single click on an article to zoom in on it
- Double clicking on an article will bring up a native text format article, where text size can be changed larger or smaller for readability and copied. You can browse to other text articles via the up and down arrows on the menu. Can also share via email, Facebook or Twitter. The email sharing crashed the app for me, and the Facebook and Twitter sharing worked as expected, where you sign in, or authorize, the ST app to use the respective service to share the app.
Re: Facebook sharing. Why, WHY, does the Star Telegram app need “my name, profile picture, gender, networks, list of friends and any other information I’ve shared with anyone?” I could very easily go to the site, copy the equivalent link for the story and then paste it into Facebook. I refused.
Re: Twitter sharing. Very straight forward, The tweet turns into something like, “Check out this article: (headline) (Bitly shortlink),” which you can edit before posting.
There is no print capability. If you’d like to print out a recipe, or blurb, it might be best to go to the Star Telegram site and print it. (Or email it to yourself, if the email function works for you.)
Menu
- Can browse 7 days of back issues
- Can bookmark articles for later reading
- Can search the current paper
- Three ways to browse sections
A. Drop down menu of sections, includes a count of news stories within that section. Touch a section and a list of stories will appear. Touch a headline, and the behavior of the app will take you to the “paper” view of the story, not the readable, full text of the story. If you click on a front page article, or a column that jumps to another page, you then have to click again to get to the rest of the article. Why not go to the full article?
B. A series of tabs can be overlaid for each section, and remain there until you go to a text article or choose to make them go away.
C. The River of Digital Paper. Take each flat of 2 pages, line them all up in a row, and make them scroll left or right, depending on where you’d like to browse. It’s an interesting way browse, to get a sense of scale and general idea to hop to a section. You can pinch and expand as you would the rest of the paper, however, It’s not very readable. Quite frankly, you can see all the ads and determine how much content there’s in the paper, which seems sad when put in this perspective.
Misc.
Blue highlighted text is clickable–email, websites, phone numbers, in both the paper and text versions of the articles.
If app is minimized, or closed, and reopened, it will take you back to where you were. If a day passes, the app will take you to the front page for that day.
Other tests
Out of curiosity, I did an airplane test, or what can I do without an internet connection test. It appears, if you’d like to read the Star Telegram iPad app without a connection, you must first connect and download the edition you’d like. That makes sense. However, you’re limited to the “paper” version. You cannot double click to get a text formatted article. Not horrible, but slightly disappointing.
Also, I did a Mom test. I handed the iPad to my mother, and asked her to browse the paper. For the most part, she figured it out, but there were two hang ups. The Search icon is a magnifying glass, which to her meant to zoom in. She wanted to zoom but didn’t get it. Perhaps a different icon would help? Secondly, once she found the text version of the article, she tried to swipe left and right to the next articles. This is inconsistent with what you’d do in the paper version. Why make the behaviors different?
Potential and final thoughts
I’ve lived in Fort Worth for nearly 12 years, and remember the Star Telegram as a content rich paper, with numerous features and news articles. In those 12 years, it’s devolved into a shell for sparse local coverage and wire service articles. Have you picked up a Monday paper in a while? It’s sad, kind of like seeing a loved one lose too much weight to the point they look unhealthy.
The iPad app is a healthy boost for the content, but I can’t help feel it’s restricting the content they wish to provide. Here’s a device that 12 years ago existed in the fantasy of science fiction, yet, is being treated as a digital microfiche viewer, you know, those bulky boxes where you’d put a film slide of newspaper over a light and you could view it. At the time, that was a great way to share archives of newspapers. Today, treating your content as microfiche film undervalues it.
Make it rich, make it interactive, get out of the grid of a print layout. Why can’t advertising go to the sponsor’s website (business opportunity!)? Why can’t Amazon affiliate links go into content (business opportunity!)? Why can’t trailers (or Galloway and Hate videos) be included for movies, books and whatever else (business opportunity!)? Why can’t classifieds be structured differently, ala a Craig’s List, instead of squinty little boxes, a holdover from the 19th century (business opportunity!)? Why can’t daily deals, the Star Telegram equivalent of Groupon (business opportunity!), be integrated? The photos look great, why not add photo stories, ala The Big Picture to focus on the vivid and diverse settings and people of the Metroplex.
Granted, this is a 1.0 app, and with first versions, you want to get the core feature set right, which, for the most part, they did. The app is functional, and the content is there, and feels much better than the Star Telegram website.
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Review: Creative Black & White Photography by Harold Davis
[easyazon-image-link asin=”0470597755″ alt=”Creative Black and White: Digital Photography Tips and Techniques” src=”http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/41%2BUp%2BR-BSL._SL160_.jpg” align=”left” width=”128″ height=”160″] [easyazon-link asin=”0470597755″]Creative Black and White: Digital Photography Tips and Techniques[/easyazon-link] by Harold Davis is an excellent starting point for beginning photographers or a good reference for advanced photographers looking to learn new techniques.
Most valuable to beginners is the first section, The Monochromatic Vision. Davis clearly and concisely discusses basic photographic concepts to make a good picture. These concepts extend well beyond black and white pictures. He gives examples and considerations to take into account for each concept. Also, photographs are provided to illustrate the concept with a detailed caption of how the photo applies and technical information about it, as well.
The second section, Black and White in the Digital Era, introduces the tools and basic processing techniques for black and white photos. The tools are Adobe-centric, detailing Adobe Camera Raw conversion, Lightroom and Photoshop. These processing techniques can be found in other tools, only implemented differently. Davis emphasizes the power of RAW files and how best to work with them to get black and white images that have contrast, tones and impact.
The third section, Creative Black and White Opportunities, builds on the previous section to provide steps for effects and tricks like sepia coloring, duotones, soft focus and more. This is where Davis really shows the art in the process of processing an image. There are numerous ways to go, and it depends on the photo to create the desired effect.
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Recent comics reads
[easyazon-link asin=”1401229697″]Daytripper[/easyazon-link] – Gabriel Ba and Fabio Moon: A lush, moving and beautifully illustrated graphic novel tells the story of obituary writer Brás de Oliva Domingos and his life. Themes of love, redemption, friendship, fatherhood, work and the purpose of life intertwine with each chapter. At first, Daytripper’s gimmick seems abrupt, but as it progresses, the narrative builds as time jumps back and forth within Domingo’s life. The supporting cast of characters serve their purpose with purpose as part of the story. Ba has written a meaningful story and Moon colorfully illustrates each page with artwork that feels alive.
[easyazon-link asin=”1607061597″]Chew Volume 1: Taster’s Choice[/easyazon-link] – John Layman and Rob Guillory: Tony Chu is a cibopath, able to discern an entire history of an object by eating it. He’s also a cop, who after a botched arrest, is hired by the Food and Drug Administration, where in the world of Chew, is the most powerful government agency in the U.S., due to an ongoing bird flu pandemic. He is teamed with a fellow cibopath, Savoy to solve a case of a missing FDA inspector. Chew is a bizarre concept, surreal at best, playful but serious in the story its telling. This is not for the squeamish. Guillory’s artwork is colorful and lively and brings an animated feel to Layman’s story. Definitely work checking into other trade paperbacks.
[easyazon-link asin=”1401229654″]iZombie Vol. 1: Dead to the World[/easyazon-link] – Chris Roberson and Mike Allred: Gwen is a zombie, but not a conventional zombie. She needs to eat a brain once a month to stay functional or else she starts to go crazy. Her two friends are Stacy a ghost who died in the 60s and a wereterrier (like a werewolf but not quite as vicious) named Spot. Add a mysterious man with connections to the past, a covert monster hunting group, and various factions of undead, you’ve got the concept. The characters are simple, the conflict pretty generic and the artwork, while well drawn, doesn’t add life to the story. In this first trade, the story doesn’t get interesting until the last chapter.
[easyazon-link asin=”1607060906″]Dead@17: Ultimate Edition[/easyazon-link] – Josh Howard: This collects the first four trade paperbacks of the Dead at 17 series, which features Nara Kilday fighting the undead and evil spirits. The art is light, animated and clean, and gets better as the series progresses. The story rarely veers from the pattern of conspiracy of the undead controlling some power that needs to be stopped. There are some unique twists, and depending on your patience, decent subplots. At times, the narrative feels rushed and overly wordy at times. Surprisingly, there are strong Christian undertones of life and redemption.
[easyazon-link asin=”1401213170″]Scalped Vol. 1: Indian Country[/easyazon-link] – Jason Aaron and R.M. Guerra: A gritty, modern noir set on an indian reservation in the Dakotas. Dash Bad Horse ran away from the reservation at 15 to make a life for himself, and now enforces law for Lincoln Red Crow on the Prairie Rose Indian Reservation. The characters and interactions are complex and violent. Definitely worth following and reading additional trade paperbacks.
