WGN America Is Making Your Next Comic Book TV Show From Vertigo Comics’ ‘Scalped’

A TV adaptation will take place from one of Vertigo Comics' highly regarded titles. WGN America will adapt the critically acclaimed Scalped comic into a serialized drama series.

According to The Hollywood Reporter, the cable network is interested in launching Scalped as its first original scripted TV series. Doug Jung (Banshee) will write the pilot script and also serve as executive producer.

Written by Jason Aaron (Southern Bastards) and drawn by R. M. Guera (Django Unchained comic), Scalped follows Dashiell Bad Horse who returns to his Indian Reservation after a fifteen year-long absence. Owner of the Bad Horse Casino, Red Crow is responsible for the drug trades and prostitution rings that go on inside the reservation. Because of his ill temper and criminal past, Red Crow hires Bad Horse as his ruthless enforcer.  

What Red Crow doesn't realize is that Bad Horse is actually an undercover FBI agent. As he compiles evidence against the crime lord, Bad Horse is one step away from his undercover assignment being blown. The title refers to what the mob boss does when he decides to get rid of the competition.

In an interview with Comic Book Resources, Aaron describes the inspiration behind the comic book series, "The series was partly inspired by Michael Mann's Crime Story, which was a great TV show from the '80s about one cop chasing a hood on the rise. That was the original idea for Scalped. We'd have one undercover FBI agent and follow his struggle to bring down a crime boss on the rise. Once I started working on it, it pretty quickly grew and became about this diverse cast of characters on the reservation."

Read the Scalped comic, starting with Vol. 1: Indian Country, before the series makes its way to your TV screen. We will just have to wait for further announcements as the TV series comes into place at WGN America.