Ricky Riccardus

i enjoyed this. naturally i was reading harvey dent's dialogue in billy dee williams voice the entire time. i only wish i watched the movie to have it fresh in my mind before reading this. some portions of the story did feel a bit dull admittedly and i often felt some of catwomans parts weren't super integral to the overall story. i enjoyed this take on robin though. overall, an enjoyable read with room for improvement.

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.

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.

i found this to be overall a good read with very good art. it's just a little hit and miss with some issues being better than others.

when reading several issues consecutively the whole “let me tell you a story about ...” thing became a little cliche and repetitive which they seemed to dial back in volume 2, opting to cut right to a story.

the endings of stories were also sometimes rapidly concluded as if someone realized “crap, last page, alright uhh, this happens”.

nevertheless, i like horror and i like variety. if you want some fun horror stories to read, give this a try. i have the physical copies but its on hoopla, too. maybe just don't expect anything super deep. it's surface level stuff but all of my critiques are not to say i didn't find a lot to enjoy here.

i enjoyed this but fully sympathize with those criticizing it. it gave me pagemaster vibes and i just found it to be fun, even if the ending was a bit cheesy. i'd call it bias being a fan of HaHa and ICM, but I've also disliked some of his works (King of Nowhere, Art Brut). This falls somewhere in the middle for me and that's okay.

this book is not for the weak stomached or faint of heart. luana vecchio brings you the most twisted, vile side of the dark web where being the victim in a snuff film is the ultimate fantasy of many “lovesick club” patrons. domino, the main character, the host and “mother demon”, has a corrupted understanding of affection herself.

there is no shortage of shock value but i don't find any of it to be for the sheer sake of shock value because honestly, for all we know, alot of what is depicted here really is taking place somewhere. it seems that vecchio did her share of research on the matter, but let's not focus on that.

this book is more than just gore and sex. it's about toxic relationships, loneliness, and psychological deterioration. the art is gorgeous. like seriously, it's as beautiful as can be. i have nothing negative to say about this book and i believe a new volume may be underway which i highly anticipate reading along with anything else from this creator.

felt a bit disjointed. an okay read but i'd have preferred a single consistent narrative through each issue/chapter rather than jumping around the way it did.