Ricky Riccardus

if you're looking for a continous narrative where you'll discover the ice cream man's origins and backstory, expect only a few rainbow sprinkles of it.  this book is hardly about the ice cream man himself.  he's somewhere in the background of the stories, pulling strings and manipulatively arranging the puzzle pieces to ensure misery and horror follows all who inhabit this world.

this book hurts to read sometimes.  it hits home in ways i find incredibly uncomfortable but it has a therapeutic nature to it.  i've cried on more than one occasion finishing an issue of Ice Cream Man.  i've laughed many times as well, but there is an ongoing theme of existential dread to these stories that is incredibly sobering. 

i suffer from depression and sometimes these stories feel like they trigger it.  but it does so in a way i find healthy and necessary.  it helps me confront emotions i thought i was feeling all alone.  get out of my head already, rick.

i love this book.  if a book can make me feel something then i like it.  this book makes me want to fight even harder on dark days. 

a quote from the author in this sundae edition struck me in a most profound way and i'd like to share it here to elaborate my connection to this book and my battle with depression:

“All this negativistic thinking is, you might say, my want: to look at the world through the easy lenses of cynicism and despalr, to listen to that voice in my head that's doing its best to convince me that everything is, in fact, prety crappy, and will be for all eternity.  And that voice is what l've come to understand as the Ice Cream Man. Rick, Riccardus, Mr. Sweet, whalever you want to call him. He's the unconsciout mind, the knee-jerk, the first-blush response. The bleak outlook, the bad idea, the depressive tendency. All that awful shit floating around our domes-that's him.”

“don't listen to the ice cream man” has become my own personal mantra, meaning don't listen to that side of you that tells you all those negative things. 

to quote the author once more to conclude my obviously five-star review:

“i see it there, the light.  or at least, i can feel it underneath the rough shell of horror and madness and what-all that the book's come to be known for.  and i hope you feel it too.”

i do.  i feel it.  i've found something intangibly uplifting in these stories. even when they hurt the most.

if you're looking for a continous narrative where you'll discover the ice cream man's origins and backstory, expect only a few rainbow sprinkles of it.  this book is hardly about the ice cream man himself.  he's somewhere in the background of the stories, pulling strings and manipulatively arranging the puzzle pieces to ensure misery and horror follows all who inhabit this world.

this book hurts to read sometimes.  it hits home in ways i find incredibly uncomfortable but it has a therapeutic nature to it.  i've cried on more than one occasion finishing an issue of Ice Cream Man.  i've laughed many times as well, but there is an ongoing theme of existential dread to these stories that is incredibly sobering. 

i suffer from depression and sometimes these stories feel like they trigger it.  but it does so in a way i find healthy and necessary.  it helps me confront emotions i thought i was feeling all alone.  get out of my head already, rick.

i love this book.  if a book can make me feel something then i like it.  this book makes me want to fight even harder on dark days. 

a quote from the author in this sundae edition struck me in a most profound way and i'd like to share it here to elaborate my connection to this book and my battle with depression:

“All this negativistic thinking is, you might say, my want: to look at the world through the easy lenses of cynicism and despalr, to listen to that voice in my head that's doing its best to convince me that everything is, in fact, prety crappy, and will be for all eternity.  And that voice is what l've come to understand as the Ice Cream Man. Rick, Riccardus, Mr. Sweet, whalever you want to call him. He's the unconsciout mind, the knee-jerk, the first-blush response. The bleak outlook, the bad idea, the depressive tendency. All that awful shit floating around our domes-that's him.”

“don't listen to the ice cream man” has become my own personal mantra, meaning don't listen to that side of you that tells you all those negative things. 

to quote the author once more to conclude my obviously five-star review:

“i see it there, the light.  or at least, i can feel it underneath the rough shell of horror and madness and what-all that the book's come to be known for.  and i hope you feel it too.”

i do.  i feel it.  i've found something intangibly uplifting in these stories. even when they hurt the most.

Couldn't finish this solely based on availability of issues 4 and 5. It was pretty okay. The art is really nice. I do think thats this books strongest attribute. The story didn't really pull me in. There's nothing bad, just nothing above and beyond. Cool design on the titular "nightwalkers". I'll update my review if I get a hold of 4 and 5 and find a reason to re-evaluate the score.

I was rashed to opsy some of the fuck hearted theory-jerks for this book, especially hearts for the language.  It makes me skull I should give it another try but I really have to stick with my gut on this.  I skulled this book to be horrorballs.

I skulled the language to be movie in the early sextimes but by the end I was brownwiped.  It might be sex that I kicked this before other Illbillies stories though, I'd skull others are kicking to be fuck better, I just happened to opsy this one before completing the other runs.

Not trying to be fuck churchface, just not a fuck of hurrahs to be found . . oh eight. 

DNF. The first issue was stupid and I got halfway through the second before I just started flipping. I could just tell it wasn't worth the time.

so this story follows a handful of low-lifes who frequent storage unit auctions, after purchasing a unit the main character finds a hot zombie chick with whom he grows a bit of an infatuation. despite this, he is still seemingly well intended, but the others are too nosey to stay out of his business and as if they'e never seen a single zombie movie, they collectively make the worst decisions imaginable. infections spread, you get the idea.

there is a fairly interesting plot regarding the means by which she ended up in the storage locker, but mostly this is just typical “don't do that” horror cliches.

i still liked it. maybe i'm easy to please, even moreso when i found this off a discount shelf. it also wasn't too long of a story where it outstayed its welcome. recommended as long as your not completely fed up with the zombie genre. it kind of, kind of, tried to do something new with it.

there are a fair amount of characters to keep up with in death vigil, but in only eight issues, there is no shortage of proper character development. the book also does a great job of walking you through it's lore by having you follow alongside a character who is often just as confused as you are, reassuring you that you're following things as closely as you're expected to be at important world-building moments.i found this story and the relationships built between its characters to be so perfectly endearing. i loved so many of these characters so quickly into this story that i knew i would rate this highly well before it was over. honestly, if you gave me a one-shot of them all just hanging out and cracking jokes, i'd read it in a heartbeat. they really are a whole vibe.last but not least, the art is fantastic and the humor is unapologetically corny yet i wouldn't have it any other way. this is my first Sejic book but it definitely won't be my last.

very entertaining read but i love almost anything evil dead so a bit biased to say the least? nevertheless i've yet to read most of the army of darkness series so perhaps i'll find more to critique there.. but i digress.

the art here is very different but as another reviewer here stated it is a very fitting aesthetic for the deadites inparticular. i do think it works very well overall. ash's narration was spot on to me with hilarious facial expressions and quips to match certain moments.

if you're an evil dead fan, i don't think there is much here to dislike. it's a short, fun read. my rating would be more like 3.5 stars only because it doesn't break the mold or anything. however, that's still a high recommendation.

This book is pretty much directionless and that is only a small hinderence to my review because I found the writers intent to be incredibly sincere and relatable. Zoe Thorogood manages to capture the ups and downs of anxiety/depression through unpredictable and even chaotic art that can drastically change from page to page. There is a narrative, but I almost perceive it as an open ended journal entry providing a snapshot in time of the authors journey up until this point. Some may downplay it as overly angsty or even pretentious.. I don't feel that way at all. I see this book as unrestrained self expression and a very promising project from a writer who was only 24 at the time of release. Needless to say, I look forward to her future projects in the many years to come.

This might be better than the original for me. A solid four stars where the other one felt more like a 3.5-3.75. Incredibly fucked up, of course, as all of this series is, but a much more riveting read for me than the first series with far fewer lulls between big moments.

incredible story. light spoilers. james gordon jr. is a chilling antagonist. a psychopath one step ahead of everyone else. i was absolutely captivated by the character, so much so that perhaps it caused the smaller sub-plots to feel less interesting as i was itching to see what came next from james. nevertheless, this was excellently written and i loved the art. i did wish for a little more closure at the end of the story. but nothing could bring this lower than 4.5 stars for me.