Nailbiter #1

History

Writer Joshua Williamson has traced the creative seed of Nailbiter to a real conversation he had while working as an art director, in which a coworker ended a relationship because her boyfriend's uncle turned out to be a serial killer — prompting Williamson to think about the families and communities left behind by killers, an angle he felt had been underexplored in horror fiction. The series was announced and pitched at Image Expo, where Henderson's cover art for the debut issue was described by Williamson as 'the cover that put our book on the map.' Williamson also cited the Pacific Northwest setting as deliberate, noting that he was living in a small, creepy rural town outside Portland when he first developed the concept, and that the Northwest already carried a real cultural history with serial killers that made Buckaroo feel plausible. Adam Guzowski served as colorist and John J. Hill handled lettering, rounding out the core creative team that remained consistent across the monthly run.

Trivia · 8 facts

• First appearance of Edward Charles Warren ('Nailbiter'), the series' morally ambiguous protagonist — a convicted-but-acquitted serial killer who bites off his victims' fingernails — as well as every other major series character introduced in a single debut issue.
• First appearance of NSA agent Nicholas Finch, the narrative's driving investigator, who arrives in Buckaroo after FBI profiler Eliot Carroll (also first appearing here) goes missing while investigating why the town produced sixteen serial killers.
• First appearance of Sheriff Shannon Crane, Officer Link, teenager Alice (later revealed to be the daughter of Warren and Crane), Raleigh Woods (proprietor of the 'Murder Store' and grandson of the Book Burner), and the townspeople Hank and Robby.
• First appearance of the Book Burner (Norman Woods), identified in this issue as the first and oldest of the Buckaroo Butchers — a masked killer whose replica mask Finch encounters in the Murder Store — with Raleigh Woods established as his grandson.
• Published May 7, 2014 by Image Comics; written by Joshua Williamson, with art, covers, and co-creation credit by Mike Henderson; colors by Adam Guzowski.
• The debut issue shipped with six distinct covers: the standard Henderson cover, a Chip Zdarsky variant exclusive to Third Eye Comics, a Wes Craig variant for Beach Ball Comics and Laughing Ogre Comics, a Charlie Adlard variant for Infinity and Beyond Comics (UK), a Mike Henderson homage variant for the Phantom Variant group, and a Mike Rooth variant for the EH! Variant group.
• The issue was later reprinted as part of the Image Firsts program (December 2014), making it available at a reduced entry-level price to expand the series' readership.
• The series spawned a crossover one-shot with Tim Seeley's Hack/Slash (March 2015), a sequel series Nailbiter Returns (2020–2021), and the deluxe Murder Edition hardcovers collecting issues #1–10, #11–20, and #21–30 respectively — the first of which includes Williamson and Henderson's original pitch document and script pages.

Cast · 12 characters

Full credits

Key issues in Nailbiter

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#2 1st appearance — Morty

Variants (5)