Comics
Comic Book Review: “Nailbiter” #10 – Marks A Weak Point For The Series
Reviewed By Torin Chambers. “Nailbiter” #10 shows the title has finally stumbled and produced a comparatively weak issue. 9 out of 10 isn’t a bad batting average, in fact it’s stellar, but not all stories are created equal. When stacked up against the incredibly high quality of previous issues this one stands out like a sore thumb. It’s a cramped and entirely too convenient tale that feels completely disconnected from the Nailbiter we’ve come to love. It’s muddled at best and incomprehensible at worst.
WRITTEN BY: Joshua Williamson
ART BY: Mike Henderson
PUBLISHER: Image Comics
PRICE: $2.99
RELEASE: February 4th, 2015
Picking up relatively soon after last issues infinitely unsettling cliffhanger. The children’s bus driver, Mister Crowe, has gone mad and intends to kill all of the kids with the twisted logic that he’s saving their souls, so then they can’t grow up to be serial killers. Sheriff Crane tries to calm the parents who’ve all gathered at the children’s school demanding answers and justice, and rightfully so.
Crane is soon joined by Finch and Agent Barker looking to help in any way they can. This is where the issue goes off the rails. The local priest is going off again as he always does which leads Crane to pressuring him into helping them. He says he might know a place where Crowe liked to pray. Then the next page they’re just there, the hunt for this guy took all of two pages and really one sentence. It’s all much too convenient, not to mention what was Crowe doing that whole time? Was he just patiently sitting there with a bus full of crying kids waiting for the cavalry to show up and try to stop him?
The location must be somewhere out of the way which means it can’t be a hop and a skip away from the school or people would’ve seen the bus. So now that the good guys are perfectly positioned to save the kids Crowe drives them into the lake. Obviously Crane and Finch dive in after to save the bus full of kids, but as they do so Agent Barker does absolutely nothing. This is an entire bus full of kids that just plunged into a lake so Crane and Finch could definitely use help, or not. Somehow they manage to save all of the kids in what seems like an incredibly short amount of time.
Then Crowe somehow manages to save himself but they leave one of the kids out there with him, why? Crane is clearly shown swimming away from the child, who’s out in the water about 5 feet from the psycho who just tried to drown all the kids. It doesn’t make any sense to me. This whole scene is a mess, a tangled mess.
The issue does pick up a bit after this and the ending is totally rad, but not good enough to save the issue. It’s a rare misstep from Williamson but one I’m sure he’ll bounce back from going forward. Nailbiter fans will still find some nuggets of fun here but this is will definitely be remembered as a black sheep.
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Torin Chambers is a rad dude from the nineties who does film stuff or something. Thomas the Tank Engine is his favorite transformer. Find him on Twitter @TorinsChambers
Comics
‘Curse of the Where Wolf’ Bites Into August Release With Trio of Werewolf Theatrical Screenings [Exclusive Preview]
Larry Chaney‘s hairy misadventures are continuing in the sequel graphic novel Curse of the Where Wolf from creative team Rob Saucedo, Debora Lancianese, and Jack Morelli, and its author is celebrating with a trio of horror’s greatest werewolf films.
The Curse of the Where Wolf hits shelves on August 7 from Encyclopocalypse Publications.
That coincides with the launch of a theatrical screening event in Houston, Texas, featuring a trio of seminal werewolf flicks turning 45 this year: The Howling on August 7, Wolfen on August 14, and An American Werewolf in London on August 21.
Each screening features a “werewolf in film” presentation as well as a book signing from Where Wolf author and River Oaks Theatre artistic director Rob Saucedo.
In the new graphic novel, “Being a werewolf sucks. Reporter Larry Chaney wanted to be a hero. Instead, he became a werewolf. Now, caught between incredible new powers and a desire to eat everything (and everyone) in sight, Larry must find a cure for his curse. Or die trying.”
“With Where Wolf, I wanted to tell a whodunit set in a furry convention, so the story was pretty contained within a very specific setting and genre. With Curse of the Where Wolf, I wanted to celebrate everything I love about the possibility of comic books. Curse of the Where Wolf is a funny book, in every sense of the phrase, but it’s also an earnest look at a person’s struggle to become a better version of themselves, especially when the alternative is to become a literal monster,” Saucedo says of Curse.
The original graphic novel was previously serialized as the first webcomic hosted on Fangoria before being collected by Encyclopocalypse Publications in 2023 and has already been optioned for film, podcast, and television development ahead of launch by producers James Fino (“The Freak Brothers” for Tubi, “Rick and Morty” for Adult Swim) and Charles Horak (First Date for Magnolia Pictures).
Expect Larry to find himself in even weirder situations in the 362-page full color sequel; Saucedo has provided Bloody Disgusting with exclusive art pages from the upcoming graphic novel that showcase lupine humor.
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