Ice Cream Man is a fairly innocent looking book with a dark evil secret. Is the ice cream man a good man? This town has a dark secret, and so does it’s distributor of cold frozen treats to delight young and old alike!
Title: Ice Cream Man #1
Writer: W. Maxwell Prince
Art: Martin Morazzo
Colors: Chris O’halloran
Publisher: Image Comics
Publication Date: 1/17/18
What You’ll Find Out:
This is the premier issue of Image’s new series, which definitely seems to be in the horror wheelhouse despite its whimsical title and cover.
“ICE CREAM MAN is a genre-defying comic book series featuring disparate “one-shot” tales of sorrow, wonder, and redemption. Each installment features its own cast of strange characters, dealing with their own special sundae of suffering. And on the periphery of all of them, like the twinkly music of his colorful truck is the Ice Cream Man—a weaver of stories, a purveyor of sweet treats. Friend. Foe. God. Demon. The man who, with a snap of his fingers—lickety split!—can change the course of your life forever.”
-Image Comics
What You’ll Find Out:
We open on a sunny day in a small town, near dusk, music rings through the empty streets, we see a corner with a small crowd, lined up at a truck. The proprietor of the business greets his first customer warmly, asking the young girl what kind of ice cream she likes when she answers he fills her order with delight!
His next customer is a young boy, alone. He asks where the boy’s parents are and the boy answers he’s alone, the ice cream man lauds his independence and fills the boy’s order, telling him to get home safe and sound.
As he walks away were given a little bit of background info, on the Brazilian Wandering Spider, known to many around the world as the most venomous on Earth. As he unlocks the door he puts a clothespin on his nose for the smell, the bite of the Brazilian Wandering Spider can result in paralysis, loss of muscle control, contortions and other, even less flattering side effects (seriously, don’t look up priapism. Ever. Especially not right after you’re done reading this article) as he walks in he kicks the ever-growing stack of mail aside, and says hello to his special friend, Rupert.
Holy crap the end of this book is 10 steps past nuts, it’s rare that a book gets me like this one does, I’m gonna go spider proof my house now. Pick up a copy this Wednesday.
What Just Happened?
Plot:
I seriously didn’t know what to expect with this book, teased as existential horror concealed within a sweet exterior (not unlike childhood obesity) and boy did it deliver. Switching from wholesome small town living to a couple corpses and a monster in no time flat.
The two police officers that get called out to check on the boy are played well and are appropriately incredulous to the information presented to them, as with any good horror story they go in blind and suffer for it. They are basically warned early on almost exactly what they eventually deal with.
I can say without a doubt I will be buying this book come Wednesday now that I read it, and look forward to future releases.
Art:
The art is pretty dead on, and I mean dead (ha pun) the bodies look good and the 8 legged friend is pretty perfect looking, spiders aren’t easy to draw, try it sometime. There is also a mystery villain that I have to say I really enjoyed the look of, and the final reveal on the last couple pages was pretty cool.
Rating: 8/10
Final Thought:
This book has been officially added to my pull list following this review. From the solicits it sounds almost like an anthology series, which I tend to love if they keep going like this one I’ll be reading this for as long as they make them!
If anyone ever wants to contact me, look me up in my group for the love of comic books , I also have several comic pages dedicated to my various true loves, Batman, Spider-man, Marvel, Oldie Goldies and Hats! (Long story on that last one haha) or on Twitter @johnbatusijack
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