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Ice Cream Man
Ice Cream Man Volume 11: Horror, Horror
(Wait…I’m AFRAID? No I’m not! Although—there ARE four more of those ICE CREAM MAN stories in this 11th volume...and those things always leave me feeling a little HAUNTED, as it were. Maybe I AM afraid. I mean, there’s a Graham Greene spy story with this ghastly bovine monster; a haunted house yarn full of microfiche; a special all-star entry featuring one-page stories by writers like Grant Morrison, Patton Oswalt, Matt Fraction, Kelly Sue Decconnick, and lots more. Oh, and lest I forget: Craig’s performance review! YEESH. You know what, I take it back—I am totally, unequivocally horrified. And yeah, maybe I don’t know exactly what that means,—but just look at the hairs on my arms…they’re standing up straight!).
Enjoy!
Collects issues #40-44
Enjoy!
Collects issues #40-44
128 pages, Paperback
First published September 17, 2025
3 people are currently reading
56 people want to read
About the author
W. Maxwell Prince
108 books188 followersW. Maxwell Prince writes in Brooklyn and lives with his wife, daughter, and two cats called Mischief and Mayhem. He is the author of One Week in the Library, The Electric Sublime, and Judas: The Last Days. When not writing, he tries to render all of human experience in chart form.
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Displaying 1 - 12 of 12 reviews
September 29, 2025
Still great after all this time.
I wonder how much longer the creators will keep this anthology going?
I wonder how much longer the creators will keep this anthology going?
August 7, 2025
"Technically speaking, I'm a subliminal fae-influenced demi-god made of raw negativistic thought.
...but my friends call me Riccardus."
...but my friends call me Riccardus."
November 10, 2025
Many flavors of pain.
November 18, 2025
Ice Cream Man, Volume 11 (2025) by W. Maxwell Prince, artis Max Morazzo, and colorist Chris O’Halloran, remains one of the very best comics series out there. The bright bubble gum and popcorn and cotton candy colors belie the deep scary realities this series addresses, and in this one we face with rage and cynicism some of the worst horrors on the planet. Each of the three creator stories capture a certain level of anger and insight not quite seen before in this series.
The first one is a Graham Greene tribute spy story set in Havana, more than matching Greene’s political cynicism about the Brits (and the US) in the years before the Cuban Missile Crisis. The crisis Prince imagines involves a corporation named Holt that may be poisoning the US through
“retail terrorism” via the American dairy industry. It’s a Greene-level depiction of ugly Americans, a thriller/murder mystery, messing with these genres, the horror in the real life deregulation of safety rules we are facing here now. I love the tribute to the Greene novel I love, I love the art. it ends abruptly, goes nowhere, but the point is made. Generally top notch.
Horror Story opens with a trigger warning, ha. But these triggers are about the real life horrors he interjects that are so much scarier to him than fictional horror with jump scares and ghosts in haunted houses that you can just walk away from: Overturning Roe v. Wade and the male dominated politicians who in some states don’t even want exceptions in cases of rape and incest. THAT, Prince says, is real scary horror. Or school shootings funded by the gun lobby insisting on assault weapons as our constitutional right, or climate change and the irreversible scorching of the planet. As he says, it’s not just a formalistic horror comic experiment, it’s real and we need to be very afraid. This is not a new thing, to learn horrors in real life are always scarier than fictional stories, but it still hits hard, a good reminder. Prince joins Colbert and South Park and Saturday Night Life in taking on the present socio-political nightmare, and I’m glad for it.
Part three is a series of one-page horror stories written by Prince and some guests including the likes of Grant Morrison, Kelly Sue Deconnick, Matt Fraction, and Jeff Lemire, but none of them are as good as Prince here.
The fourth section, Prince story three, is about Craig’s nightmare Holt Corp. performance review send-up of corporate America where getting fired for anything is possible. Tapping into the continuing surrealist cosmic horror Ice Cream Man mythos.
The first one is a Graham Greene tribute spy story set in Havana, more than matching Greene’s political cynicism about the Brits (and the US) in the years before the Cuban Missile Crisis. The crisis Prince imagines involves a corporation named Holt that may be poisoning the US through
“retail terrorism” via the American dairy industry. It’s a Greene-level depiction of ugly Americans, a thriller/murder mystery, messing with these genres, the horror in the real life deregulation of safety rules we are facing here now. I love the tribute to the Greene novel I love, I love the art. it ends abruptly, goes nowhere, but the point is made. Generally top notch.
Horror Story opens with a trigger warning, ha. But these triggers are about the real life horrors he interjects that are so much scarier to him than fictional horror with jump scares and ghosts in haunted houses that you can just walk away from: Overturning Roe v. Wade and the male dominated politicians who in some states don’t even want exceptions in cases of rape and incest. THAT, Prince says, is real scary horror. Or school shootings funded by the gun lobby insisting on assault weapons as our constitutional right, or climate change and the irreversible scorching of the planet. As he says, it’s not just a formalistic horror comic experiment, it’s real and we need to be very afraid. This is not a new thing, to learn horrors in real life are always scarier than fictional stories, but it still hits hard, a good reminder. Prince joins Colbert and South Park and Saturday Night Life in taking on the present socio-political nightmare, and I’m glad for it.
Part three is a series of one-page horror stories written by Prince and some guests including the likes of Grant Morrison, Kelly Sue Deconnick, Matt Fraction, and Jeff Lemire, but none of them are as good as Prince here.
The fourth section, Prince story three, is about Craig’s nightmare Holt Corp. performance review send-up of corporate America where getting fired for anything is possible. Tapping into the continuing surrealist cosmic horror Ice Cream Man mythos.
September 21, 2025
Another volume, another four issues of Ice Cream Man to upset me.
The opening spy story is a clever way to try and tie together some of the bigger plot points that have appeared in various issues across the series, and yes, giant cow monsters can be terrifying and sad all at the same time.
The second issue is probably the standout for me this time around. Yes, telling us that the real world is the true horror isn't particularly new, but it's delivered in such a way that it's less a reminder and more of a sit-up-and-take-notice moment.
I wasn't a big fan of the jam session 1-page stories issue that followed. 26 unrelated stories, most of which don't really hit, even the ones by Prince himself. A bit of a disappointment.
And then we end on a so-scary-it's-funny performance review story, which again ties neatly into the bigger Ice Cream Man mythos, as well as hitting a bit too close to home (it's been Year End Review time for me at work).
3 outta 4 ain't bad.
The opening spy story is a clever way to try and tie together some of the bigger plot points that have appeared in various issues across the series, and yes, giant cow monsters can be terrifying and sad all at the same time.
The second issue is probably the standout for me this time around. Yes, telling us that the real world is the true horror isn't particularly new, but it's delivered in such a way that it's less a reminder and more of a sit-up-and-take-notice moment.
I wasn't a big fan of the jam session 1-page stories issue that followed. 26 unrelated stories, most of which don't really hit, even the ones by Prince himself. A bit of a disappointment.
And then we end on a so-scary-it's-funny performance review story, which again ties neatly into the bigger Ice Cream Man mythos, as well as hitting a bit too close to home (it's been Year End Review time for me at work).
3 outta 4 ain't bad.
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September 16, 2025Another installment in comics' most hit-and-(mostly) miss anthology "horror" series, delivering what we've all come to expect from Prince's series. The spy story is comparatively strong, but from there it's a steady decline through the libbed-out meta "the real horror is our world!" of issue 42 (well yes, but so what? a deadline just staring you in the face while you read the news?), the fittingly scattershot one page horror flash fictions of 43 (mostly meh, with occasional amusing moments - it turns out Prince's new thing is scanning newspaper covers into his books now), and a new formal experiment tying together 44 (performance evals) but ending once more in the who cares/surreal mythology without a point that so many of these issues do when Prince has run out of ideas. Sure I'll keep reading, but I'm not really expecting it to ever go anywhere again.
December 28, 2025
A nice spot to take a (short) break.
It was always going to be hard to top or even come close to the last volume, which I thought was the best one in the series. However, this is a good volume to stop until we get ICM back sometime in 2026.
- In Graham Greene , we get an MI6-like spy who stumbles across some dairy conspiracy in the middle of Cuba. I so want to see this character return. (good)
- Next is Horror House, where we get some classic horror mixed in with what I'm can be described by some as PoLiTiCs. Prince is letting us know, in no subtle ways, where he stands in social issues -for those who haven't noticed after 40+ issues. (pretty good)
- One-Page Horror Stories! is next, which is juuust as it sounds - one page stories. Some are okay, some are meh, some are pretty good. (okay)
- Lastly, we get Performance Review, which is the kind of messed up story we have come to love and dread from this series - there's every kind of despair thrown into the mix. (good)
It was always going to be hard to top or even come close to the last volume, which I thought was the best one in the series. However, this is a good volume to stop until we get ICM back sometime in 2026.
- In Graham Greene , we get an MI6-like spy who stumbles across some dairy conspiracy in the middle of Cuba. I so want to see this character return. (good)
- Next is Horror House, where we get some classic horror mixed in with what I'm can be described by some as PoLiTiCs. Prince is letting us know, in no subtle ways, where he stands in social issues -for those who haven't noticed after 40+ issues. (pretty good)
- One-Page Horror Stories! is next, which is juuust as it sounds - one page stories. Some are okay, some are meh, some are pretty good. (okay)
- Lastly, we get Performance Review, which is the kind of messed up story we have come to love and dread from this series - there's every kind of despair thrown into the mix. (good)
November 26, 2025
It’s another pretty good volume of the series, but something about Horror House really rubs us the wrong way. Like yeah, the real horror is the world today, but there has to be something more to say than “these things are happening and they suck”. There’s also a running theme in this volume where it seems like Prince is starting to revolt against the series being considered horror. Idk, it seems like some burnout is starting to happen and it’s leaking into the book in a way that doesn’t fully detract but it could definitely become a problem if it spirals more into “the world sucks, what’s the point?”
November 14, 2025
After the rather muddled mess that was volume 10, this one has really rebounded with some of the best stories for some time. There's a spy story set in Cuba that involves some nefarious doings at a local dairy farm. A family moves into a haunted house and discovers "real" horror. A bunch of one-page horror stories from a wide variety of authors. And then the performance review from hell. And all featuring the outstanding artwork of Martin Marazzo. More of this, please.
November 13, 2025
This had one of the better "nothing is scarier than real life" stories in a bit.
January 2, 2026
This was not good.
Displaying 1 - 12 of 12 reviews