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Ricky Sprague

Goodreads Author

Born

The United States

Website

https://www.rickysprague.com/

Twitter

bonsomme

Genre

Mystery, Humor, Horror

Influences

Al Capp, Gilbert Shelton, Craig Rice, Norbert Davis, Charles Willeford ...more

Member Since

October 2011

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Ricky Sprague’s work has appeared in a wide range of publications including Mad, Cracked, Nickelodeon Magazine, Mystery Weekly, and Ellery Queen’s Mystery Magazine. He’s written comics for publishers such as Short Scary Tales, Moonstone Books, and Platinum Studios. His short animated films have screened at festivals worldwide, from Spike & Mike’s Sick & Twisted Festival of Animation to Sydney Underground to Dragon*Con.

Ricky, who is actually writing this right now in the third person, has a fascination with the strange and bizarre. His work reflects a perverse obsession with complication, and his stories and books always have a "hidden" aspect. Usually this is meant to underline the overt themes and ideas of his work, but very often it prov Ricky Sprague’s work has appeared in a wide range of publications including Mad, Cracked, Nickelodeon Magazine, Mystery Weekly, and Ellery Queen’s Mystery Magazine. He’s written comics for publishers such as Short Scary Tales, Moonstone Books, and Platinum Studios. His short animated films have screened at festivals worldwide, from Spike & Mike’s Sick & Twisted Festival of Animation to Sydney Underground to Dragon*Con.

Ricky, who is actually writing this right now in the third person, has a fascination with the strange and bizarre. His work reflects a perverse obsession with complication, and his stories and books always have a "hidden" aspect. Usually this is meant to underline the overt themes and ideas of his work, but very often it provides an ironic, subverting element.

For example: His first attempt at a novel, Whimsical Doctor Shoe (largely written in Los Angeles libraries and buses), is ostensibly about conjoined twins who are so desperate to be separated that they'll do anything to satisfy the doctor who has agreed to undertake the procedure. The humiliations that he inflicts on them (which are very funny, trust me!) are in fact part of an occult ritual based on their own horrifying and largely unknown past. Most of this you need to "read between the lines" to fully understand.

It's funny that when you click the "See a sample biography" in Amazon's "Edit biography" window, into which I'm now typing, it takes you to Frank McCourt's Author Page. Are you kidding me? How am I supposed to compete with HIM? He wrote Angela's Ashes, and I wrote a novel about a serial killer who murders by enema (Arsole Fantüme: Gentleman Immoralist).

My most recent publishing endeavor is a collection of comics called Shartboom. You can see that the cover features me sitting in a sort of meditative pose, making a silly "occult" hand gesture, while hovering above me is my spirit animal, dubbed the Flying Robot Tickle Poodle in the book. Flying Robot Tickle Poodle appears to be making the same hand gesture, but inverted, and between the two of us we're doing a parody of the "As Above, So Below" concept. I'm not sure why I did that, except that I thought it was really funny at the time, just like I thought the word "Shartboom" was funny. Anyway, the point is, sometimes I write and draw things and I'm not entirely sure of what the actual meaning is supposed to be, and it's not until long after I've finished and published it that I figure it out.

If you buy and read my stuff, maybe you can help me with that!

Above Shartboom's title is the legend, "Unlock the secrets of wholehearted intelligence!" This is in part because I've been reading a lot of Brené Brown lately. So, if you like Brené Brown and Aleister Crowley, Shartboom is the book for you!

I think that the biggest problem that we face as a species is lack of empathy. The world seems to be engineered to build walls between people, to short circuit our ability to understand others. For now I've got kind of a bug up my ass about that, and I've decided that my work is going to reflect my desire to increase empathy instead of contributing to all the vituperation and hate that I see growing all around me, like leaf mold (that's a Shartboom reference). We'll see how long that lasts.

I feel like if you've read this far I should thank you. I really do appreciate it. It's nice to have someone to talk to.

Two of my biggest selling books were my Hunger Games parody The Hungry Game and my Fifty Shades of Gray parody Filthy Shames of Lame. When I was a kid, circa 5th-6th grade, my favorite book of all time was a Mad Magazine mass market paperback called Mad Clobbers the Classics. It featured prose parodies of classic literary works like Moby Dick, The Scarlet Letter, and War and Peace. I'm mentioning this book because (a) it's a big influence on why I wrote those parodies and (b) it allowed me to work Moby Dick, The Scarlet Letter, and War and Peace into my own Author's Biograp ...more

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Ricky Sprague’s books

Average rating: 3.91 · 96 ratings · 13 reviews · 25 distinct works

	The Hungry Game: A Spoof 3.64 avg rating — 36 ratings — published 2012 — 2 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	Filthy Shames of Lame 2.80 avg rating — 5 ratings — published 2013	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	The Misadventure of Dreama and the Rednecks (Mandy and the Dutchess #1) it was amazing 5.00 avg rating — 1 rating — 2 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	The Misadventure of the Busted Reboot (Mandy and the Dutchess #2) it was amazing 5.00 avg rating — 1 rating — 2 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	Melee Child: A Jock Scratcher Thriller it was amazing 5.00 avg rating — 1 rating — 2 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	Shartboom Volume 1 it was amazing 5.00 avg rating — 1 rating — 2 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	Whimsical Doctor Shoe 0.00 avg rating — 0 ratings — published 2011 — 2 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	Gene Simmons' KISS 4K #3 by Ricky Sprague (Goodreads Author), Daniel Campos (Illustrator) 0.00 avg rating — 0 ratings	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	Shartboom volume 3 0.00 avg rating — 0 ratings	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	KISS 4K #1 Destroyer Edition by Ricky Sprague (Goodreads Author), Daniel Campos (Illustrator), Kevin Crossley (Illustrator) 0.00 avg rating — 0 ratings	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars

More books by Ricky Sprague…

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Ricky Sprague's Blog

SHARTBOOM No 1

Available now from Amazon and other places is the first volume of my (probably) ongoing comics series, questionably titled SHARTBOOM. It has some funny stuff. Here is the front and back cover:

The cover depicts me and my imaginary friend/spirit companion/possibly real manifestation of all that is good in the universe, the Flying Robot Tickle Poodle, who makes at least one appearance in

Ricky is Currently Reading

Ricky Sprague is currently reading

Fools Die on Friday

by A.A. Fair

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Jun 19, 2020 12:47PM

Ricky Sprague is currently reading

Untouched by Human Hands

by Robert Sheckley

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Jun 11, 2020 01:06PM

Quotes by Ricky Sprague (?)

“A kitten is almost too easy, I think, as I quickly pull out its fur and separate and de-bone it, and put the pieces in the blast cooker for three of the remaining four minutes, then add them to my gumbo, just as Chef Reamsy calls time. “Ladies first,” he says, as I present him with a plate. “What have we here?” “Chef, this is a Slim Jim, Chee-Tos, and kitten gumbo in a spicy Pepsi sauce,” I say. “Bon appetite.” He picks through it. “It certainly looks visually stunning,” he says. “What’d you use in the sauce?” “Pepsi, and a little K-C Masterpiece barbecue sauce. I put that in a pan and let it reduce down.” He takes a bite. “Flavorful. The meat is moist and tender, the sauce has just the right amount of spice, and I love the way you incorporated the stray kitten into the dish. Well done indeed.”
― Ricky Sprague, The Hungry Game: A Spoof

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“was so distraught over his death that I was barely able to eat any of him.”
― Ricky Sprague, The Hungry Game: A Spoof

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