Comic Info
Comic Name: Ice Cream Man
Publisher: Image Comics
Writer: W. Maxwell Prince
Artist: Martin Morazzo
# of Issues: 4
Release Date: 2018
Ice Cream Man #1 Variant
Reprints Ice Cream Man #1-4 (January 2018-April 2018). The Ice Cream Man has sweet treats for everyone…good or bad. Whether you a kid with a favorite pet spider who might not be good around grownups or a junkie who just needs another hit, you all get a scoop. Be it a man who was a one-hit wonder always looking for his next song or those attending a funeral for a friend, everyone loves ice cream, and the Ice Cream Man has a cone for everyone!
Written by W. Maxwell Prince, The Ice Cream Man Volume 1: Rainbow Sprinkles is an Image Comics anthology book. The series features art by Martin Morazzo and was released to critical acclaim and strong sales.
I kept seeing Ice Cream Man on the shelf with great covers but passed it by knowing that trade paperbacks were the only hope for catching up on the series…but even the trade paperbacks sold out quickly. I had to order a trade (already in a fourth printing) and check out the works…with sprinkles.
The series is a kind of a Twilight Zone type story with the Ice Cream Man being the dealer of the dreams…but also a part of the story. To nail it down as a horror comic wouldn’t really do it justice, but many of the tales have a horrific twinge to them even if they aren’t horror proper. The Ice Cream Man brings darkness to the town in the form of sweets.
Ice Cream Man #2
The Ice Cream Man himself is a perplexing character. He goes by lots of names which indicates he isn’t just a figure that people pass on the street unknown, but sometimes he’s a werewolf, a magician, or a mystic. The story sets up that he’s simply an active presenter but the final issue of the collection indicates that there might be more the Ice Cream Man when he’s confronted by someone who seems to know his game…also indicating that everything happening in the collection isn’t just a weird Twilight Zone, but actually happening in the small town.
Ice Cream Man is a fun read in that you get something new each issue. It is kind of like Black Mirror minus the technology angle…an updated version of a classic storytelling device. If the reader doesn’t like one issue, he or she might like the next. It makes the series fun to pick-up and hard to put down…much like a nice creamy bowl of ice cream. Ice Cream Man 1: Rainbow Sprinkles is followed by Ice Cream Man 2: Strange Neapolitan.
Related Links:
Ice Cream Man 2: Strange Neapolitan
Ice Cream Man 3: Hopscotch Melange
