Ice Cream Man from Image Comics is one of the biggest comic book hits of the past several years, so it’s not exactly an under-the-radar pick for Halloween reads. However, if you haven’t checked out the sociologically and physiologically disturbing series from W. Maxwell Prince and Martín Morazzo, now is the time.
Pretty much every issue of Ice Cream Man is its own thing, but there’s also an extremely loose plot that crops up its head, now and again. In it, Rick, the titular Ice Cream Man, peddles his sweet wares of evil throughout the multiverse, while a loose confederation of good guys battle against him.
That barely matters, though, as thanks to Morazzo’s pristine pencils and harrowing designs, each issue is its own unique thing. And thanks to Prince’s writing, the series embraces a bevy of fears, ranging from your basic fear of heights and spiders to deeper, more relevant fears like what’s currently going on in the US goverment.
In fact, Ice Cream Man is one of the rare books that has only gotten better, smarter, and more timely as its continued — despite a sporadic release schedule over the past few years. Recent issues have included a page-by-page mash-up featuring guest artists and writers trying their own hand at the Ice Cream Man style of terror, including pages ripped directly from newspapers; and even an entire issue looking at what the relevance of a comic like Ice Cream Man is when people are being ripped off the streets, and children shot to death inside schools. How can a horror book match up to real-life horror, every day?
Ice Cream Man does, though, and through the exploration of fears and trauma allows us, the reader, to better understand — or at least grapple with — the terrors in our world. And the creativity won’t stop as coming up, the team is releasing an entire issue as a deck of cards (seriously).
So if you’ve somehow missed Ice Cream Man so far, slide up to that counter and order two scoops of the most disturbing, and creatively fulfilling book on the stands.
It’s spooky season, and you know what that means: time to curl up with a comic book or graphic novel that will scare your socks off. With that in mind, we’re posting a new horror book to check out every day of October, for our 31 Days Of Halloween Comics. Awoooo! Looking for the rest of our picks? Check them out on the Halloween tag.
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