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Published by: Image Comics
Released on: Nov. 5, 2014
Writer: Joshua Williamson
Artist: Mike Henderson
Cover artist: Mike Henderson
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Comic book creator and Marvel Comics heavyweight Brian Michael Bendis guest stars in this issue, and by guest star we mean he is actually in the comic book as himself. Not sure whatever wall that is that a writer breaks when putting actual living people in a comic book story, but it rarely ever equals much to get excited over. When current figures, like an actual president of the U.S. for example, show up in a comic book story it tends to bung it all up. It takes someone like this reader totally out of the story. This issue falls into that category.
Bendis makes the trek to lonely Buckaroo, Oregon to research the mysterious serial killer manufacturing town for a story he is researching, aiming to make a comic book on the subject of serial murder. Once there he meets the sheriff, gets the bum's rush from her, and sets out to eaves drop on people, listening for some good lines. He interviews townsfolk looking for info, and a trip to a kid's playground puts him right in the sight Edward C. Warren, the Nailbiter. Turns out Warren is a huge fan of Bendis and comic books, and wants some signed, but instead feeds Bendis with a lot of talk about how they are both killers. He also slips in that there is a serial killer graveyard, knowing Bendis won't be able to stay away.
Last issue was about Alice, the purple-haired young lady with an interest in the serial killers that have spawned from Buckaroo, Oregon. Is she the town's next psycho? Mayhap, but we don't know any more than we did last issue concerning her, or concerning much of the main story. Instead, a yarn about a well-known comic book creator looking for material for his latest project is what we get. Joshua Williamson gives the reader a little bit of something here, introducing another absurd killer from town, The Whistler. He whistled while he tortured people to death, and Bendis hears that very whistling while nosing around a certain location in town. And the last page or two has Finch and the sheriff creating more mystery for the reader, so there're certainly some pieces of information to be had in the issue, just not much. Like like last issue, most of the content this month feels like fluff.
Mike Henderson delivers a handsome issue as always, and with the story being disappointing at least the artwork is interesting. He uses some neat tricks with panel layouts and his rendition of Bendis is amusing. Missing is the action and violence that has filled so many pages in the first five issues, so the man really didn't have a lot of fun-packed material to draw. One could suppose he had to entertain himself somehow putting this one out, so panel creativity seems the answer. This book needs to get back on track and dispense with the throwaway issues. And let's face it, that's what this issue is: a throwaway.
