To everything, turn, turn, turn, there is a season… oh, sorry. It’s just Williamson has hit the end of this season of Nailbiter. He ends on an expository note, though there is at least the nod at a subplot about some kids going to the Nailbiter’s house on Halloween. But everything else? The sheriff, the…

Is the explanation for Nailbiter’s town of serial killers going to be Nazi experiments in the forties? I think Williamson is going to go for it, meaning he’s always had an explanation in mind for the comic. He’s also getting even soapier as it (presumably) winds up. The sheriff has a big secret, which the…

Nailbiter is such a strange book. Not so much in its actual content, but in what a wide net Williamson throws over the various genres. In some ways, it feels like a “Twin Peaks” imitator. But here Williamson introduces a bit of an “X-Files” vibe. This issue has the heroes teaming up–so you have serial…

Some of this issue is the best Nailbiter in a long time. Some of it is not. The end of the comic is definitely not; Williamson even manages to reverse a good scene he did at the start of the issue. He’s too concerned with having a plot twist every issue. A constantly twisty plot…

It’s a rather good issue of Nailbiter. I’m beginning to think the problem with Williamson’s writing isn’t too many ideas (or a lack of them on the fast issues), but a pacing one. On Nailbiter, his two issues would work better as one than two. The cliffhanger aside. Or maybe muted. This issue has the…

Somehow, Williamson can turn an exciting cliffhanger resolution into a boring comic. I mean, it’s interesting. Even if Henderson doesn’t get as much good to draw as usual because there’s the cliffhanger resolution and then another scene in the same location. Then it’s a bunch of interiors–the sheriff’s house, where Williamson works on his B…

Williamson and Henderson deliver a lot more in the mood of the issue than anything else. Between Williamson’s eerie town history and Henderson’s eerier art, Nailbiter succeeds in creating a wondrous setting. It also ends up hurting the reading experience because Williamson’s writing often feels like it doesn’t take full advantage of that setting. This…

Williamson does a Powers homage, with Brian Michael Bendis guest starring as himself. I think the Warren Ellis Powers issue is number seven too (yep, thanks Google). Bendis is in town researching a book and Williamson uses him as the protagonist. It’s a way to delay a return to norm for the comic–only the epilogue…

All of a sudden, Nailbiter is something different. Williamson changes protagonists and gives the issue a narrator in Alice, the teenager (or slightly older) possible future serial killer. She teams up with the sheriff to track down some crazy woman. It feels very distinct and separate from everything else in the series so far–even though…

It’s the best issue of Nailbiter in a while as Williamson wraps up his first arc. He’s set up the series now–Finch, the visitor, isn’t just staying but now there’s new shocking new information about him. Williamson, for better or worse, seems to be positioning the series–with its variety of characters but relatively few locations–for…

Nailbiter isn’t exactly an incomplete read, it’s just three scenes. There’s the ominous prologue, there’s the main action with the two protagonists and then there’s the titular serial killer in his jail cell. Henderson is getting a little loose with the art, especially during the main action, which doesn’t help things. All in all, the…

No, really, where’s the rest of the comic? Williamson is only a few issues in with Nailbiter and he’s already losing some of the sensationalism. Instead of outrageous characters, he’s going for outrageous acts. But not even startling outrageous acts, just kind of average ones. Like there are these constant brownouts in the city and…

It’s hard to say when being self indulgent is the right movie. Even with a good writer–and Williamson is a good writer–it can go wrong. It goes wrong this issue of Nailbiter. Williamson spends way too much time on the interview with the famous serial killer and lets this guy overshadow the protagonist. The best…

The parts of Nailbiter work better, for the first issue anyway, than the whole. Writer Joshua Williamson introduces the very silly idea of an epicenter of serial killers; while the Pacific Northwest does (or did) produce the most serial killers, Williamson localizes it to one very strange town. He's able to make it work thanks…