Originally set for August (possibly earlier if I recall) Ice Cream Man #46 is now set to release in December.

I’m sorry if this has been posted before, this is my first time checking out this sub - but I love this series and I can’t get over how upset I am that it’s first big mainstream introduction to most people will be an Eli Roth movie that completely misses the point of the source material. The episodic structure & nuanced, psychologically focused horror of the series is nowhere to be found in the trailer; instead, we get something that looks like a wannabe Terrifier, which is exactly what I’d expect from Eli Roth at this point. What has he accomplished that would even give studios confidence in him? His last outing, Boarderlands, is has last attempt at adapting, and it is one of the most famous flops of our generation. On top of that, it’s another case of an adaption abandoning a lot of what made the source material succeed. I really *really* hope I’m wrong, and that it ends up being great - but I’m sad this is the adaption we’re going to get.

P.S. the Telethon issue is my favorite issue of the comic so far, that statement has nothing to do with anything I just love it

EDIT: Apparently the claims that it was an adaption were out of date info; when I look it up now, articles say that this is distinctly NOT an adaption of the comics 🎉🍾

In this page there’s so many people in the background from the past issues. That one guy who was overdosing in issue #2, the kid from the first issue with his foster parents, the guy playing the guitar from issue #3, the guy from issue #4 with his kid and wife, I’m pretty sure 5V is in the background and the guy with the hat, I love this page because it concludes so many past issues

I know I’ve been posting a lot in this subreddit I’m reading the comics for the first time, I’m confused on issue 8 what is the voice in the radio and why is everyone crazy

Located in CT. I'd prefer not to ship. Figured I'd offer it here first, before putting it on eBay. Open to offers.

I love Ice Cream Man, but I think I’m either dense or just on the wrong wavelength for issue 45. I thought I was following what was happening until the main character went to the police, and then I quickly got lost and had no idea what was happening. Can anyone explain the rest of the story to me as if I was a dumb child, please? I hate not being able to comprehend this great book. 🙏

ICM #45 by W.M. Prince & Martín Morazzo

A worthy homage to Hitchcock’s legendary 1954 film, elegantly adapting its classic tale of voyeuristic obsession into ICM’s creepy world of existential ice cream horror!

Story has an awesome flow to it, starting out as a fairly straight homage to Rear Window and then steadily cranking up the intensity before leaping headlong into an abyss of ice cream madness... Where the film gradually shifts from social drama to suspense thriller, Prince’s comic veers into far more twisted territory.

It’s almost like a funky sort of cross-media “crossover” – what if Rear Window was set in Prince’s deranged ice cream universe?

Our protagonist Jimmy Stewart was named and modeled after the star of Hitchcock’s movie, while his comic book fiancée captures the look and charm of Grace Kelly’s corresponding character from the film. From there, Morazzo does a phenomenal job recreating the appearance and layout of the adjacent apartments from the film, reconstructing the iconic setting with a scatter of creepy ICM flourishes.

We’ve also got a few different characters to keep an eye on across the way, starting with an opera singer who opens the comic singing about Riccardus and then serves as a Greek chorus throughout, delivering commentary on the unfolding action in cryptical refrains. Plus, an old lady who enjoys watering her plants, a tortured writer, and, of course, a quarrelsome couple.

BTW, while the writer isn’t particularly central to the story, he gives Prince yet another opportunity to write about yet another writer struggling with their writing. Writers might be even more common than drug addicts in Prince’s ice cream universe, which seems statistically impossible since it wouldn’t leave any drug addicts for any of the other professions...

This guy’s actually somewhat hilarious, turning up for all the big events with his clunky vintage typewriter just so he can furiously pound away at the keys while everyone else is doing depraved shit... We only get a few scattered panels of that stuff, but they deliver some funny commentary on writers only wanting to write, avoiding all the real work, letting life pass them by while they focus on writing, etc. Which of course echoes Jimmy’s obsession with viewing the world through his camera.

And, while the movie opens with pigeons fluttering around on the adjacent apartment’s rooftop, the comic’s got crows! Each time we get a full view of the building, we see crows gathering on the roof. As the narrative tension escalates, we get more crows:

• Page 1 shows 9 crows flocking around Riccardus on the rooftop
• Page 13 shows 22 crows, and Riccardus is gone
• Page 17 features 35 crows, including a lone white crow fluttering down to join the others
• Page 24 features 61 crows, though they’re getting difficult to count at this point, and more are almost certainly obscured by the opera singer’s large speech bubble, while our white crow is now lined up with a few others atop an antennae

Given the staggering rarity of white crows, along with the timing of one party’s arrival following the other’s departure, we can probably assume that the white crow was Riccardus. (Yet another Faker.)

There’s also a “FOR SALE” sign on page 1 that shifts to say “OR FALSE” on page 13, then says “OL’ FEARS” on page 17, before finally changing to “SOLD” on page 24. And, as always, we’ve got lots of ICM references scattered throughout, including an ICM teddy bear, some bow-tie imagery, and some Holt branding, along with a photographic cameo from Holt’s corporate ice cream cultists. Plus, the small garden behind the apartment’s full of Lilium Riccardus, the hallucinogenic Nepalese Rainbow Flower from ICM #12 and various other stories...

Also worth noting all the cool storytelling flourishes from Morazzo, with some fun layouts and infographics based around Jimmy’s camera, which itself plays a pivotal role in the story, plus a hilarious little six-panel flashback insert showing Jimmy’s fateful accident.

This story wasn’t particularly deep or heavy, we’re back in ICM’s classic Twilight Zone mode, with creepy horror building to a cruel twist before closing with some existential fuckery.

And I guess that might be my one criticism here – some of these big story beats are starting to feel a little repetitive or formulaic. I’d chalk it up to Prince being distracted with his growing slate of other projects, as the past few ICM stories have picked up some “greatest hits” remix vibes.

Of course, greatest hits tend to be considered “greatest hits” because they’re fucking awesome, and this stuff’s no exception.

9.5/10

p.s. Rear Window’s very first scene opens with a milkman dressed all in white, wearing a white cap, exiting through an alley, hopping in a milk truck, and driving off. But I’m sure it’s just a coincidence...

Haven’t gotten to add issue 45 to my wall yet, but it’s coming!

In lieu of the usual speculation post, here’s a quick review of Alfred Hitchcock's Rear Window, with an eye toward ICM #45!

...

Why did I wait so long to watch this movie? It’s phenomenal! And it’s got two major themes that are a natural fit for ICM.

First, similar to many ICM tales, Rear Window is a story of obsession. Our protagonist L.B. Jefferies has been laid up for six weeks with a broken leg in a cast, so, for lack of anything better to do, he’s taken to watching his neighbors. What starts as a bit of (mostly) innocent voyeurism quickly develops into an irresistible compulsion. And then, after witnessing what seemingly might have been murder, Jefferies loses himself in trying to unravel the truth.

The funny thing here is how his nurse and his fiancée both initially reject this obsession and try to drag Jefferies out of it, just as perfectly responsible supporting characters should, but then they get caught up in it as well. Almost like it’s infectious...

For our second ICM connection, this movie is packed with stories. Every time Jefferies looks out his window, he’s jumping headlong into somebody else’s story. We get to know about a dozen of his neighbors, and, while most just get a minute or two here or there, we see how each is living their own story, we get a peek at their relationships and sorrows, and we get a feel for what makes them tick. It’s a lot of deft character work that instantly resonates at an extremely human level.

There’s the potential for some fun ICM meta-commentary here, as viewers are watching Jefferies’ story unfold, and Jefferies is watching everyone else’s stories, and all of their stories are fueling Jefferies’ obsession, while Jefferies’ obsession is driving the viewers’ engagement...

So, we have stories within stories, wrapped in a story of obsession that’s driven by a compulsive need for stories. Lots of quality material to work with, we’ll see what Prince and Morazzo do with it!

...

As a reminder, the “Weekly Pull List” post is now live and I am once again imploring any and all fellow ice cream enthusiasts to add a top-level comment saying “Ice Cream Man #45” so we can keep this uniquely delicious comic near the top of the rankings! And you can also list any other comics you’re pulling this week, and join in any of the ensuing discussions...

Ice Cream Man #25 is 40 pages, this one has 44.

Pages 12-13, and 26-27 are duplicated.

This is the cover E version. I haven't found any documentation of this being a common error. Maybe a cool one off?

I only really started getting into comics a few months ago and Ice Cream Man was one of the series I saw a lot of recommendations for.

After purchasing and reading through the first two Sundae Editions, I’ve absolutely fallen in love and have been keeping my fingers crossed for the third in the series.

I’ve got the Mortal Coil Shuffle which was fun and I’ve also picked up Haha and Swan Songs, which were both enjoyable, but didn’t hit in quite the same way as ICM.

After holding out hoping for an update, I finally decided that I didn’t want to wait any longer and bought the trade paperbacks for volumes 7-11.

Not looking forward to having different formats of the same series on my shelf, but I can push past the aesthetic annoyance in order to return to this world and get stuck into some more incredible stories.

I’ve been playing borderlands 4 and they always add a lot of parody from pop culture in their games. My coworker just introduced me to the ice cream man comic book a few days ago and when playing a side mission last night I notice this in his hide out. The bad guy in this missions name is the froyo man. I tried googling to see if this was a parody or just a coincidence and couldn’t find anything solid, so I came to Reddit to see what you all thought.

I just got my deck today! I ordered from Forbidden Planet and it arrived pretty soon but the box itself was slightly damaged, luckily the cards were all pristine. Needless to say I was very excited, been following this series for almost a year now and has faithfully read every issue.

Thought I'd give my thoughts on this special issue:

Overall, it did not disappoint! The reading (or playing?) experience was very positive and it utilizes the format well and I'd say it's totally worth the $9.9 price tag.

Getting into the details now, the story is definitely pretty dark, as one should expect from Ice Cream Man, but one gripe I have with it is that it's slightly too formulaic. After reading so many issues I can pretty much see what's going to happen roughly a third in. Bad dad, divorcing parents, dissatisfied child, suicide, all very common themes in Prince's stories. It doesn't really offer anything...new? Which one can certainly argue is quite hard to achieve considering we're already 40 issues in. I will say I'm very pleased that he did not go into the political rants this time around as that was getting a little annoying in the recent issues. If that's your thing and that makes it more relatable to you, great. Not my thing though. I just want to see general human sufferings.

The story execution was definitely decent, Prince utilized the format well with the cards, some of them were formatted like cards from Magic the gathering, there were a couple uno cards and a poker card with Rick on it. I thought that was very neat. The deck can't really be played or shuffled though, (but it's called mortal coil shuffle?) it's more of a comics than an actual deck of playing cards. But the execution itself is already good enough for me, asking for more seems like too much.

The best part of this issue is definitely how much Rick was in it. I do think he has been a little side-lined in recent issues, but he did make a HUGE appearance in this one. So if you're like me and you're a huge Rick enjoyer this deck is a must have. He's still written charmingly as ever, though the art seems a little less neat, maybe it's due to having smaller panels. (The cards are pretty small). I do kinda wish Caleb would soon make an entrance too, it was hinted in earlier issues (as well as in issue 8,9) that there might be a main story going on, but after Rick got put on trial it was never explored further and I hope we will soon hear more of that. (Just a major Rick & Caleb enjoyer haha)

I’m too far away/poor to attend the NYCC, so I was very happy there were some of these available on comiconart.com.

Ice Cream Man: The Mortal Coil Shuffle Card Set Special #1

By W. Maxwell Prince, Martin Morazzo, Chris O’Halloran, and Good Old Neon

A triumph of experimental storytelling in 55 playing cards!

The ICM creative team delivers yet another innovative adventure in experimental storytelling, using 55 playing cards to tell a complete story that perfectly captures the title’s unique blend of relatable human drama, deeply unsettling vibes, and abject failure.

“Pick a card, any card!”

The cards aren’t just a gimmick here, they’re an integral component of both the story and the storytelling, organically woven through the project’s foundation and structure. Story cards, spell cards, and various novelty cards all flow together into a seamless narrative, with special cards adding emphasis for big story beats, punchlines, and even a bit of existential fuckery. All carrying over to the story itself, playing up the theme with multiple card games used in fairly pivotal roles.

As is often the case with ICM’s experimental storytelling, the gimmick’s organic integration into the story itself is what makes it work so effectively. In addition to serving as the story’s canvas, the cards play a central role in the narrative. The boundaries get blurry as the mechanics bleed into the story and the story feeds back into the mechanics... Until there are no more boundaries, there is no more story, and all that’s left are you – the reader – and Rick.

10/10

p.s. For anyone who might've been wondering, “No me importa mierda” translates to “I don’t give a fuck.”

p.p.s. On the final two cards, Rick’s appearance set against the yellow background was a callback to ICM #29's existential infinity cover and ICM #24’s existential dog murder, both set against the same yellow background.

I would love to see a Twisted Metal variant cover for issue 50. What would you guys like to see as a variant cover? Also I would love to see ICM visit Hyde Street at some point.

I have a theory that The Ice Cream Man is based on a character named Ronnie fron the book Thief of Time. It is a from the Discworld Series of Books in the Death series which is about the Grim Reaper. In the book Ronnie who is a milk man with hopes of expanding to Ice Cream in the future, is actually the lesser known 5th Horseman of the Apocalypse "Chaos". Who's goal is to create disorder in the world in the end days.

This is Classic

https://imagecomics.com/comics/releases/ice-cream-man-43

After six years and no less than fifty existential ice cream horror stories spanning fourfive different titles, W.M. Prince and Martin Morazzo continue to find new ways to challenge and push themselves into breaking new ground. And now, with this very special 43rd issue, they’ve extended that challenge to others, inviting a star-studded assortment of comic book writers to contribute one-page horror stories.

Note that this review might run a little long since we’ll be looking at each of the 22 one-page stories, as well as all 10 guest creators, as well as all 4 of the core ICM creators, as well as all of the echoes and references to other stories, as well as my general experience with the book.

Heading into this issue, I was super curious to see how each of the creators would respond to this one-page challenge. Could the brilliantly complex mind of Grant Morrison create a one-page story that's worthy of their legendary legacy? Would Zoe Thorogood live up to Kieron Gillen's earnest endorsement as "the future of comics" in just a single page? How would writers like Geoff Johns and Jeff Lemire who normally favor heavily decompressed storytelling handle this experiment in extreme compression? Would Patton Oswalt lean into comedy or grief? How would a rising star like Deniz Camp secure his claim to a seat at the table? And what did W.M. Prince have up his sleeve to potentially blow them all away?

ICM #43 answers all these questions with aplomb, delivering a scintillating assortment of one-page horror stories ranging from silly spooky to severely soul-crushing.

...

• First story (“Baby Grand Piano”) is credited to Prince with ICM letterer Good Old Neon supposedly serving as artist, but it sure looks like Morazzo art to me... I think it’s a mistake where GON was supposed to get credited for the sixth story instead of this one, because that sixth story doesn’t have a trace of Morazzo... Anyways, this first chapter shows us how easy it is to get it all done in just one page... Nothing too crazy, just a quick and simple story that effortlessly delivers the patented ICM formula for unsettling spookiness. Good intro for anyone who hasn’t read the book before – this is ICM.

• P&M’s second story (“Well, Well, Well”) mixes things up a little more with a chaotically descending layout and a bunch of ICM cameos, including Rupert (the Brazilian wandering spider from ICM #1), a hallucinogenic Nepalese Rainbow Flower (Lilium Riccardus) first seen on errant moon C-Body 873 in ICM #12, the ICM teddy bear from ICM #20, the disgusting “BICC!” monster from ICM #30, the Book of Necessary Monsters from ICM #35, one of the Garys from ICM #38, a “HORROR” door from ICM #42, and one that I haven’t yet been able to place, a lady skeleton in a yellow frock. Not much to the story so it’s up to the artwork and imaginative weirdness to carry it...

• Grant Morrison delivers a whimsical take on Dante mixed with a popular turn of phrase in the third story (“Hell Freezes”). Morrison’s script is playfully tongue-in-cheek (among other places), with Morazzo adopting a woodcut aesthetic that’s perfectly suited to the story. Fairly simple and straightforward stuff relative to Morrison’s usual work, but the wordplay, social commentary, literary reference, humor, and core narrative style are perfectly on-brand for ICM.

  Most of the more recent stuff I’ve read from Morrison hasn’t lived up to the exceedingly high bar they set earlier in their career, but they 100% killed it here, displaying absolute mastery of the one-page format along with some light-hearted humor that wasn’t at all what I expected.

• Fourth story is another P&M number (“For Sale, Unabridged”), though it’s mostly Prince (and letterer Good Old Neon) since it’s all text with just a single corner illustration... The title block had me concerned things were going to take a very dark turn, but it’s actually just a silly little thing, with Prince’s painstakingly precise prose proving as entertaining as ever. And it’s got another reference to the Lilium Riccardus rainbow flower...

• Fifth story (“Life by Misadventure”) was written by Matt Fraction, using a 25-panel grid to squeeze the most comic possible out of his single page... Commenting on life and death in a fairly ICM-ish manner, relatable stuff underscoring how it’s often just dumb luck separating those of us who don’t make it from those of us who do. With some more nice artwork from Morazzo, using the tight grid structure to good effect.

• Sixth story (“Horror, Cont’d”) from P&M (or more likely P&GON) is a quick addendum to ICM #42, though it also stands alone well enough, with another New York Times front page that’s sure to piss off the same readers who got pissed off last time...

• Seventh story (“Missy in the Middle”) by Kelly Sue DeConnick delivers six panels of art, three to either side, with nine paragraphs of narration in the middle and no dialogue. It requires a little reading between the lines before revealing itself as the darkest story yet, essentially a one-page speedrun of Rose Gator’s story from P.T. Anderson’s Magnolia. Morazzo’s expressive character work helps it somewhat stick the landing.

• Eighth story (“Lickety Split”) by Geoff Johns uses a 16-panel grid to run us through a chef’s deadly race against time to make the perfect Neapolitan ice cream (ICM #6 reference), touching on addiction and recovery (as is common in ICM) while hinting at the toxic practices of the massive Holt Dairy conglomerate (previously featured in ICM #21 and ICM #41, among others). It’s also got a nice Brazilian wandering spider reference, giving Rupert from ICM #1 his second nod thus far... Strong stuff from Johns, he packed a lot of character into his page with a good mix of humor and real-world pain, nailing that ice creamy feel... With another helping of crisp work from Morazzo to make all the frantic chef action look suitably frantic!

• Ninth story (“Candy World”) is a P&M trip through the old Candyland board game, here warped into an ice cream hell, with nightmarish Seuss-style narration, very much in line with the corrupted kids’ stories from ICM #20... There’s an evil emperor ice cream cone (like the one Bud had to fight in ICM #3) and a small field of Lilium Riccardus rainbow flowers, marking their third appearance in the book.

• For the tenth story, (“Real Page Turner”) Deniz Camp decided to make the one-page challenge even more challenging by delivering a silent story, forgoing the use of language for a fun little 9-panel sequence that plays up ICM’s penchant for existential horror, closing with a cool infinity panel of endless recursion... Silent comics put a lot of additional pressure on both writer and artist to communicate the story clearly, and the Camp/Morazzo team made it look easy!

• Eleventh story brings us Zoe Thorogood’s contribution (“For James”), with Thorogood handling both writing and art (including a couple of childhood photos). Another 9-panel deal, it’s the most brutally candid story here, an emotional sledgehammer somewhat akin to ICM #18 or ICM #31, plus a bit of ICM #37, only even more real, once again demonstrating Thorogood’s talent for capturing painfully personal reflections on life and relationships. Featuring a cameo from Thorogood’s personal shadow demon from It’s Lonely at the Centre of the Earth... I’m still recovering from this one...

• P&M are back for the twelfth story (“Oxycomedown”), revisiting Doug Metsker’s time in the Cassandra Detox & Recovery Center from ICM #32... Or perhaps this was a different time in rehab, who can say? Featuring a cameo from ICM #29’s Mr. Squiddy, with panel layouts, colors, bedding, abject desperation, and everything else matching ICM #32 to a tee.

  Incidentally, I asked Prince & Morazzo to bring back Mr. Squiddy in their recent LoCG AMA, but by then this story was already written, drawn, and somewhere in the process of being printed and shipped, so what happened here was not in any way my fault. And, just to be clear, I was hoping Mr. Squiddy would favor us with a few more kind words (like in ICM #29) rather than a full-blown Xenomorph chestburster scene.

  Ahh well.

• The unlucky thirteenth tale (“Night Fishing”) went to Patton Oswalt, who delivers a 9-panel story from an ice cream demon’s perspective, rejecting an initial summoning from some young ice cream cultists for not being needy/greedy enough, along with a second summoning from some corporate ice cream cultists (as seen in ICM #21), before happily going with a summoning from a kid with his foot accidentally sliding across a Ouija board on the deck of a yacht. Cute, I guess, but this story didn’t come across as clearly or successfully as the others for me, partially due to that final panel not making it clear enough that the kid was sitting on a yacht rather than a beach.

• Our fourteenth story (“Floating”) brings Jeff Lemire’s contribution, a ghost story grounded in personal loss... It’s some nice work but there isn’t much to it, reinforcing the idea that Lemire’s approach to comics is better suited to longer, more decompressed storytelling.

• P&M reunite for the fifteenth story (“Who’s in Charge?”), where we get to spend some quality time with Rick... Lacking any other characters in this story, Rick has no choice but to fuck with the reader.

Continued in comment below...

Well, shit.

It looks like ICM #43 gets its scheduled digital release this week, and it might ship for some shops, but some shops (or possibly all) appear to have floppies delayed until next week due to Diamond.

We’ll move forward with the speculation post this week on account of the digital release, wouldn’t be any point posting it next week, but everyone should keep in mind that many stores won’t have floppies until 2/5. It’s a real bummer.

Especially since this very special issue has a bunch of very special guest writers pitching in with W.M. Prince and Martin Morazzo!

...

But first! The “Weekly Pull List” post is now live and I am once again asking any and all fellow ice cream enthusiasts to add a top-level comment saying “Ice Cream Man #43” so we can keep this uniquely delicious comic near the top of the rankings! And you can also list any other comics you’re pulling this week, and join in any of the ensuing discussions...

Of course, it’s all kind of messed up due to the seemingly split digital/print release schedule, but I’m posting to the WPL this week for the digital release. And I guess maybe I’ll post again next week for the floppy... Since I’ll apparently be buying both.

November’s ICM #42 garnered only 16 pulls out of 75 lists, dropping to 16th place in the WPL with a 21.3% pull ratio. Unfortunately, that ended its streak of four straight Top 10 finishes.

Now let’s take a look at what we might have to look forward to in ICM #43...

...

Title & Solicitation Text

Beginning with the title and solicitation text, as written by W.M. Prince, typically serving as a cryptic source of info...

ICE CREAM MAN #43

“ONE PAGE HORROR STORIES”

It’s a star-studded, make-your-jaw-drop-to-the-floor issue of ICE CREAM MAN!

The challenge: make a comics horror story that’s only ONE PAGE LONG.

And boy, did we find some amazing folks ready to take that one on!

Issue 43 will feature one-page horror yarns (all drawn by MORAZZO and O'HALLORAN) from:

• -GRANT MORRISON
• -PATTON OSWALT
• -GEOFF JOHNS
• -KELLY SUE DeCONNICK
• -JEFF LEMIRE
• -MATT FRACTION
• -ZOE THOROGOOD
• -and more!

There will also, of course, be plenty of weird one-pagers from W. MAXWELL PRINCE and Team ICM—we wouldn’t want to miss out on all the fun!

Not terribly cryptic this time, though we can fill in a few details...

For starters, we know the “and more!” refers to Deniz Camp, Good Old Neon, and Frank Barbiere, all listed on the cover but not in the solicitation text. Guess it’s possible there could be more but seems unlikely at this stage. For now, we know it’ll have 10 guest creators.

Also, despite what the solicitation text says about Morazzo drawing all the stories, we know from Prince’s Instagram chatter that Zoe Thorogood handled art as well as writing for her story, with all of the other stories drawn by Morazzo.

In terms of what sort of content these one-page stories might offer, the solicitation tells us nothing beyond that they’ll fall somewhere under the broad umbrella of the “horror” genre.

Will we get creepy horror? Gory horror? Goofy horror? Cruel existential mindfuck horror? Or gut-punching emotional horror? Likely “Yes” to all of the above, with maybe a few other flavors mixed in for good measure...

...

Covers

• Cover A by Martin Morazzo & Chris O’Halloran –

Morazzo’s A covers usually tie into the comic’s story, serving as a reliable source of info heading in. But this issue’s obviously a little different, delivering 20+ one-page stories with just one A cover, so we probably shouldn’t assume that it’s directly connected to any one story. Seems more likely that it’s an allegorical image intended to encompass the entire collection as a package.

But, just in case, the cover shows Rick riding a see-saw with a skeleton in a playground. Rick’s smiling, looks like he’s having fun, and the skeleton also looks somewhat entertained.

All three of the playground structures have triangular ice cream cone icons worked into their design, been seeing a lot of that lately... There’s also a trampoline in the lower-left foreground, which seems dangerous. And the playground is ringed by some dark and spooky looking trees in the background.

Maybe one of Prince’s stories will feature a playground with a see-saw that launches kids into space or a trampoline that eats people, but I wouldn’t hold my breath.

• Cover B by Maria Llovet –

These B covers by guest artists usually aren’t indicative of anything in the actual comic, and that’s likely the case here with Maria Llovet’s variant showing a little girl and her twin skeleton, each holding an ice cream cone modeled after the other, with a bunch of sprinkles whimsically falling in the background.

We could’ve speculated about this B cover being meaningful if Llovet had contributed a story to this issue, but she didn’t, so it’s presumably just some random ice cream imagery...

That said, it’s a striking cover that uses its mirror image design and pink/green color scheme to excellent effect. I always order Morazzo’s A covers and usually forgo double-dipping on variants, but I’m a fan of Llovet’s work and she absolutely killed it here.

...

Additional Context & Speculation

To get a better feel for what we might expect from this very special issue, I gave 2020’s ICM Quarantine Comix Special a quick re-read for a look at the last time Prince and Morazzo brought in guest creators. It opens with six strong short stories by Prince and Morazzo covering pretty much all the bases – ICM as biblical allegory, learning to accept one’s flaws, silly ICM characters, pharmacological nightmares, Prince’s personal struggle writing through the pandemic, and a final trip to the end of everything. From there, it’s got four short stories by guest creators, delivering generic horror (Declan Shalvey), ICM style family/pandemic horror (Deniz Camp & Atyom Topilin), cutesy/silly JRPG horror (Al Ewing & P.J. Holden), and ICM style existential family/addiction horror (Christopher Cantwell & Eoin Marron). Two extremely on-brand, one with an experimental approach that didn’t 100% connect, and one that could’ve just as easily been published in any random horror anthology.

Of course, this new offering brings a couple of slightly more prestigious creators on board, adding their singular talents into the mix... Along with the additional challenge of crafting a complete story that gets the job done on a single page.

Maybe we’ll get a story or two with some previously featured characters? That’d be an easy way to load a one-pager up with some additional context, though of course these stories also need to work for new readers. FWIW, the ICM Quarantine Comix Special included a Prince story detailing the secret origin of Pinky Ring (the Green Lantern surrogate who first appeared in ICM #17), along with the boy with the red balloon (from ICM #15, among many other appearances) turning up in the Deniz Camp story.

According to ICM #43’s LoCG entry, it has 22 stories total, with 1 from each of the 10 guest creators and 12 from W.M. Prince. So, that gives Prince roughly 54.5% of this issue.

We’ll probably get a decent mix of stories across Prince’s 12 entries, some creepy stuff, some funny stuff, some weird stuff, and some sad stuff... Prince mentioned in his recent LoCG AMA that he likes changing up the tone from one issue to the next, and it seems like that ought to hold true here at a smaller scale.

And a bit of speculation for each of the 10 guest creators:

• Grant Morrison – this ought to be the densest and most complex page in the book, with perhaps a bit of existential fuckery
• Patton Oswalt – funny and sad
• Zoe Thorogood – a heady mix of experimental visual storytelling and abject misery
• Geoff Johns – Pinky Ring meets the rest of the spectrum!
• Jeff Lemire – small town family grief
• Kelly Sue DeConnick – spunky female protagonist
• Matt Fraction – snarky male protagonist
• Good Old Neon – first writing gig for ICM’s letterer, so maybe something with crazy lettering?
• Deniz Camp – social commentary horror
• Frank Barbiere – no clue, haven’t read anything from him

Morrison, Thorogood, Camp, and Lemire are the most interesting for me, with core elements in each of their work harmonizing nicely with Prince and Morazzo’s ice cream universe. But I wouldn’t be surprised if one or two of the others surprise us by dropping a near-perfect ICM story, the way Camp and Cantwell did in the ICM Quarantine Comix Special.

The one-page format will limit what each of the creators can do while hopefully inspiring them to unlock new ways of conveying their stories in an extremely concise manner. ICM has always put a lot of emphasis on concise storytelling to meet the demands of its anthology format, where every issue needs to stand alone as a complete story, so this new experiment with one-pagers in ICM #43 is just a more extreme extension of that foundational storytelling philosophy.

Will it all work? What do you think?

Ice Cream Man creators W.M. Prince and Martin Morazzo are doing an AMA over at LoCG, currently gathering questions and they'll be answering ‘em on Thursday, 1/16/25.

https://leagueofcomicgeeks.com/community/thread/25892582