Jesse Blaze Snider

Originally Reviewed At: Mother/Gamer/Writer
Rating: 4 out of 5 Controllers
Review Source: NetGalley
Reviewer: Me


Evil Ernie is a sadistically beautiful masterpiece. I’m sure I wasn’t supposed to go “Eww“, “Oh Sh*t“, “For real?“, “Did that just happen?“, and “OMG” after every page I read. Nevertheless, that pretty much sums up my reactions. I couldn’t even formulate one complete sentence because my mind had become nothing but one word phrases. What the heck is going on? And why do I – crazy as this may sound – LOVE it? I grabbed Evil Ernie because I was looking for a cool quick read to get my comic book fix. However, I had no idea that I’d be sucked into a devilish world or murder and mayhem, good and evil. And by golly, I loved every minute of it – every kill, every gush of blood, every redeeming factor in Ernie as we learned about his past and his evil foster father. So maybe Evil Ernie is not so bad, really. In the grand scheme of things, maybe Evil Ernie is just seeking his place in the world whatever that might be. Is he an angle of death, or is he just a psycho with an evil clown button from the devil that gives him advice and eats people? Yeah, sounds crazy right?

Evil Ernie Volume 1 is a complete six-issue comic book from compiling Evil Ernie Issues #1-6. From the very beginning, I was hooked.

After death, moral souls rise to Heaven and join the ranks of God’s armies.
Immoral souls sink below and join the fight from the other side.
As everyone knows…
The good die young. –pg. 7 eARC

A young Ernest Fairchild walks a really, really long way to visit his incarcerated foster father, Buford King. Once there, “Evil Ernie” after appearing all sweet and innocent to the guards, goes bananas on Buford, stabbing him repeatedly in an attempt to end his life to complete a demonic rite of passage. Next, we jump ahead and see Ernie sitting in the electric chair. The youngest person in the USA to be executed in sixty years. By this point if your jaw isn’t dangling somewhere around your feet, you might as well stop reading. Because after this intense scene, the story takes another turn and there is nothing but death and destruction waiting for you until the very end. Blood. Gore. Violence. Lots of violence.

Now, I have to admit. This is an absolutely INSANE storyline. You see a battered kid who tries to do right, prays every night and then one day, just gives up. I felt sorry for Ernie. Especially in Issues #3 and #4 when he meets someone who tries to explain why his life is the way it is. You can see a tender side to him – despite all the crazy – and when the evil yellow smiley face kills said person, you can almost feel Ernie’s pain. He’s conflicted. Struggling with not only his internal demons but also the demon button (yea this sounds nuts right?). And his foster father is just an outright scumbag. But he’s an awesome villain…

Overall, I recommend this comic/graphic novel to those of you who don’t mind something a little unconventional. The artwork is decent but it’s the creepy characters who will keep you reading. Just make sure your stomach can handle what your eyes are about to see. Don’t say I didn’t warn you though…

… (mais)