Nailbiter #1

5/8/2019

Nailbiter #1 (see below for preview images)

Story by Joshua Williamson
Art by Mike Henderson
Colors by Adam Guzowski
Letters & Book Design by John J. Hill
Edited by Rob Levin

Okay, so, yes this series has been out for quite a while and yes, I didn’t know about it until my wonderful guys at my comic book store said, “Hey, this has serial killers, blood and death, do you-?” and I interrupted them and said, “YES!”. And so, here we are…

So far, this story centers around a few things…

A town named Buckaroo in Oregon where an unprecedented number of serial killers have been born
A guy named Eliot Carroll, an FBI profiler who is investigating Buckaroo trying to figure out why so many serial killers come from this town (it’s not just something in the water okay people?)
Another guy named Nicholas Finch, an NSA Intelligence officer that’s on suspended leave pending investigation because he went off the rails while interrogating a suspect during a case
One of the many serial killers from Buckaroo, a group aptly named “The Buckaroo Butchers”, they call him The Nailbiter. Buckaroo Butcher #16. His name is Edward Charles Warren. His big thing was to kidnap men and women who bit their nails, hold them captive until their nails grew back and then bite them off himself, along with their fingers down to the bone, before killing them. Approximately 46 victims in California.
Sherriff Crane, she dated Warren The Nailbiter in high school. The town won’t seem to let her forget that. She’s been working with Carroll on the serial killer mystery aspect of the town.
Teen rebel Alice, always talking smack, can take care of herself for the most part but, definitely going to end up in the wrong place at the wrong time.

Now, Carroll is obsessed with figuring out why all these serial killers keep being born and raised in this particular town.  No one can explain it.  They are born, they grow up, they leave and move to other states and then become one in a long line of new age Ted Bundys.  He wants to figure out why.  And he thinks he has.  So, he calls his old pal Finch.

Finch is suspended, so Carroll figures he’s got nothing but time, and tells him to get to Buckaroo on the double.  But, when Finch gets there, Carroll is missing.  He can’t find Eliot anywhere.  So, now he starts trying to quietly look around but, that plan is quickly squashed when he runs into Alice.

Alice seems to have gotten into a spot of trouble with two meatheads from the local football team and Finch steps in to help, not that she even needed it.  By this time, Sherriff Crane shows up to find Alice bitching about Finch taking away her thunder, two football players groaning and bloody and Finch, well, saying it’s a misunderstanding and that the girl was in trouble.

After the smoke clears, Crane and Finch quickly figure out they are looking for the same person, Eliot Carroll.  And they decide there’s only one person to go talk to since Finch is under the impression Carroll figured out the secret to the serial killer town.  So, they go see Warren.  And when Warren answers the door, the first thing they see is a smile on his face and blood all over his clothes.

THE END

So far, I’m loving this series.  There’s action and suspense and blood almost everywhere.  Warren is a creepy character and every single time his image appears on the page he gives me the willies, so major props to the artists because yeah, he definitely looks like a sicko.

The whole idea of a bunch of serial killers being from one town is super cool.  I am convinced it’s NOT the water and I’m am very curious to see what happens. I have this series in volumes of trade papers, not in individual issues so I might tie a few issues together here and there, I’m not sure yet.  There are A LOT of volumes, people.  So, this might take a while to cover the whole story.

But, so far, Warren is the star.  He’s definitely what you are waiting for on every page turn.  So, while we are waiting to find Carroll, who seems like quite a nut by the way, waiting to see if Finch is going to unleash some kind of homicidal rage on someone or something because the look on his face is always like “I’m gonna rip your head off!” or like “FINISH HIM!” from MortalKombat, we get the entertaining antics of an annoying but mouthy teen with anger issues and a serial killer with a sense of humor and a bit of a bite. (See what I did there?)  We’ll see what happens in issue two.  Well, I already know what happens.  But I’ll be letting YOU know soon enough.

RATINGS
Overall 5/5
Artwork 5/5
Story 5/5