Ice Cream Man #42 – Perhaps We Should Talk About What’s REALLY Scary

For most, comic books are a form of escapism from the real world and a chance to forget about the ills of society. Ice Cream Man #42 is not one of those books, but it uses issues pulled from the news headlines as a storytelling device that works well in this instance.

The issue, for the most part, is the usual setup that this series has become known for, an absurd situation featuring the constant Ice Cream Man up to something that is both horrifying, yet what regular readers would expect from the series as the Rod Sterling-esque narrator, sets the scene for the larger story to be told. This issue from the beginning, through the narrator, reminds readers that this is a horror story, but then zigzags as the narrator digresses and contemplates that assigning a single genre to a work, specifically this issue, is a constricting concept, even personifying the issue of this comic as it is being handed to the writer, who is signing at a convention. It’s a nice touch that in this scene Prince depicts a scene that he has probably experienced personally or as an observer multiple times at a comic convention.

Before getting into the main story, the reader is returned to the opening scene, a woman having her face removed by the Ice Cream Man and his dog and cat assistants, as the narrator comments that while this scene is scary, real life is scarier, as a real-world operating room scene is deftly worked into the visual narrative, before refocusing on the main story, restating that this is a horror comic book and that it is time to get to the illustrated story.

The main story is what one would expect and many have come to love about this series, a typical family, down on their luck and by all means not perfect, arriving at a house that was given to them by a family member. As the story unfolds, Prince and Morazzo expertly fill in the pertinent details needed to establish the framework of the story. The crux of the story revolves around three doors in the basement that they discover, after being told not to go down there. It is these three doors and what is behind them that are the real horrors, specifically chosen for the daughter, mother, and father.

Against their will, the three individually go through their doors and experience real life situations that they may personally face, for the daughter it is a school shooting, for the mother the loss of abortion rights, and the father climate change. In each of these scenarios, newspaper headlines are sourced as Prince takes the opportunity to expound on these hot-button issues and how they are the real horrors. Prince is quick and to the point keeping things to a two-page segment, but doing so in a concise and poignant manner.

Kudos to the creative team and Image for placing a warning at the front of the issue that these issues are covered in the book and that this issue might not be for every reader of the series given the nature of the topics. The subjects of school shootings and abortion rights for the daughter and mother( respectively) seem like they are more targeted to those characters, and the father, who is the cause of the family’s woe’s and current situation, gets an issue that doesn’t affect him directly, but makes sense as he is the embodiment of the privlaged white male, but it still provides Prince a way to bring the issue to light.

The art by Morazzo and colors by O’Halloran continue to be stellar and add another level to the stories and ideas being told.

The issue ends in a less than cathartic manner as the aunt, sans face tries to get her family to stay with her, which they don’t but this only completes the picture that life and the horrors never give one the ending that one wants or expects.