Welcome to Buckaroo, Oregon, a small town that has the most unique of distinctions: it's a birthplace of world's worst serial killers - all sixteen of them! It's a world full of small-towners, all of who either went to high school together or dated each other. After an FBI agent Eliot Carrol who's investigating series of murders there goes missing, his friend Nicholas Finch is called upon to help.
Among the various characters we meet in the isolated Buckaroo, there is also the female town police officer, Sheriff Crane, who helps Finch (and who was in a relationship years ago with the town's latest serial killing product, Edward "Nailbiter" Warren) in his investigation; a teenage girl, Alice, who seems to have problems with the local high school bullies (and these fellas may also be involved in something ELSE); Raleigh Woods is an owner of a memorabilia store, a cowboy looking to make a quick buck and cash in on the town's doomed fortune of being a serial killer breeding ground.
Some have already compared this serial to Twin Peaks and Se7en, and I for one can see the comparisons. Unfortunately, what does not work for me is the writing: it feels far too sophomoric, especially when compared to other contemporary graphic novels on the market currenty (most notably Sex Criminals, Saga and Chew, to name just a few).
The killers we see in this first Trade Paperback are the classic Hollywood boogeymen: they have bag over their heads, or are wearing strange masks; in other words, they are hiding their mugs from their pursuers and from us. A few murderers in particular remind me of the killer in movie The Town that Dreaded Sundown (both the 1976 and the 2014 versions) and also of the famous miner-maniac in My Bloody Valentine (also both the 1980s and the more recent 2009 one). And a scene where "a killer" sneaks into the morgue and attempts to murder Finch and Crane is reminiscent of ghost face from Wes Craven's Scream franchise.
My biggest problem with this first issue are incredibly lame and childish lines. Characters often say things that are equivalent to George Lucas' dialogue in the Star Wars prequels. "Because they know I'm going to kick their asses!", "I'm really getting sick of this town of yours, Sheriff!", "This is really getting on my nerves!, "I've got some other news to add to the list of bullshit around here" sound like lines written by a hack film student for a 50 cent short thesis film that is completely talentless on both sides of the camera. I just hope that such cheesy dialogue is improved in the episodes to come.
Nailbiter: There Will Be Blood isn't necessarily a bad or even a boring graphic novel, but it does suffer in comparison with other current series in the American landscape, as I've already mentioned. Joshua Williamson clearly isn't Brian K. Vaughan, nor Rick Remender, and to a spoiled reader who's seen and read better material this will come as disappointment. Mike Henderson does a good job illustrating the dark and creepy atmosphere of Buckaroo, but his style of wide-jawed characters, who are mostly of the annoying or the villainous kind, has been exhausted in this first volume. Here's hoping that both the writer and the artist stretch themselves just a tiny bit for the upcoming issues.
C
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