Ice Cream Man: Sundae Edition, Vol. 1

Ice Cream Man #1-3

by W. Maxwell Prince, Martín Morazzo (Artist), Chris O'Halloran (Artist)

"I've literally never read anything like this 'genre-defying' sorta-anthology thing, but it's f*cking awesome. The writing is strange and deeply unsettling, and the artwork is gorgeous. The new comic I most look forward to reading each month." --Brian K. Vaughan, Saga

Collecting the first twelve issues of the critically acclaimed, best-selling anthology comic ICE CREAM MAN, this oversized hardcover offers a veritable super-sundae of storytelling flavors. From the haunting inaugural issue, to an exploration of opioid abuse, to a lauded three-tiered silent meditation, to even the far reaches of future outer space―there’s a sliver of suffering here for everyone. The Ice Cream Man is coming around the block...can you hear his sweet little song?

Collects ICE CREAM MAN #1-12

Genres: Comics, Horror, Graphic Novels, Fiction, Fantasy, Short Stories, Graphic Novels Comics

400 pages, Hardcover

Published August 9, 2022

About the author

W. 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.

Reviews

[A.J. · Rating 5 out of 5]

“I guess the truth is hard and sad sometimes. But that’s why we have stories...to help us forget the truth for a little while. Stories make the world a beautiful place. Even when they end...”

This will mainly be a review for the physical hardcover edition of this book, as I have full reviews for all of the issues in my reviews of the first 3 individual volumes. Those will be linked down below for anyone interested. I was able to get a copy with the Dr. Seuss parody dust jacket cover, which is beautiful along with the hardcover itself. But just be aware that most editions will have no dust jacket, and that the spine for the book is not sewn together, but glued.

The main plus for me was having Morazzo’s art all blown up in an oversized format. I said it in my Vol 1. review, but his art is the perfect mix of the best elements of Moebius, Frank Quitely, and Steve Dillon. If you are a big ICM fan, it’s worth double dipping in this OHC just for the art. Even if a story isn’t always great or misses the mark at points (cough, Hopscotch Melange, cough), Morazzo’s art is always a wonderful constant.

If you read this digitally, well sucks for you. You missed out.

There are also some nifty little bonuses in the back. We get some of Morazzo’s cover inks, a look at the pitter patterns designed by Ashley Walker for the inside and back covers of each issue, a cover gallery with all 17 variants for the first 12 issues, 6 pages of Martín Morazzo’s character and cover sketches, script samples for some of the issues including: #1 (First 4 pages), #6 (Intro and Pages 1-5, 7-8, 15, 24-25), and #9 (Intro and Pages 1-6), the English translation for the Spanish in Chapter 10 “Border Story”, a look at 26 pages from WMP’s notebooks where all his issues of ICM begin to take shape, and an afterword from WMP himself.

Those amazing extras plus the beautiful overall package itself makes this one of the best hardcover collections Image has put out recently, and I’ll definitely be collecting the series like this from here on out. I’ll probably read my friend's singles and my libraries' trades to catch up on the book, but this series’ hardcovers are going to be on my future buy list.

Recommended to any and all horror fans, even those who have already read the series before, because this hardcover is the definitive format to experience the book in. Individual reviews can be found below, as well as the links to the separate volumes, which all have full reviews for each issue individual issue:

Volume 1:

Chapter One: "Raspberry Surprise” ☆ ☆ ☆ ☆ 1/2

Chapter Two: "Rainbow Sprinkles” ☆ ☆ ☆ ☆ ☆

Chapter Three: "Good Ol’ Fashioned Vanilla” ☆ ☆ ☆ 1/2

Chapter Four: "Every Good Boy Does Fine” ☆ ☆ ☆ 1/2

Volume 2:

Chapter Five: “Ballad of a Falling Man” ☆ ☆ ☆ ☆

Chapter Six: ”Strange Neapolitan” ☆ ☆ ☆ ☆ ☆

Chapter Seven: “My Little Poltergeist” ☆ ☆ ☆ ☆ ☆

Chapter Eight: “Emergencies” ☆ ☆ ☆ ☆ 1/2

Volume 3:

Chapter Nine: “Western Story” ☆ ☆ ☆ 1/2

Chapter Ten: “Border Story” ☆ ☆

Chapter Eleven: “TV Story” ☆ ☆ ☆ ☆

Chapter Twelve: “Space Story” ☆ ☆ 1/2



I’ll finish off this review by flexing my Dr. Seuss dust jacket cover, which you can see above. Very cool!

[Donovan · Rating 5 out of 5]

Horror for fans and non-horror readers alike, Ice Cream Man is surreal and existentially philosophical. Dark and horrific yes, but funny, clever, and also deeply thought-provoking. The bold, clean, eerie illustrations are the sprinkles on top!

[James · Rating 2 out of 5]

Honestly thought about not even doing a review for this book. It was just so not for me. I am definitely not the target audience for this type of story telling. These stories just don’t go anywhere. The mass majority of them end abruptly and had me feeling like “what was the point of that?”. There was some weak attempt to connect all of these one off stories but it didn’t come close to working for me. The art was cool 🤷🏾‍♂️

[Dan · Rating 4 out of 5]

The Sundae Edition collects Ice Cream Man #1-12 plus some extras. Issues #1-8 were re-reads for me but 9-12 were all new. Hell, I didn't remember a hell of a lot about the other issues.

Anyway, these start out as standalone horror tales linked by the presence of The Ice Cream Man, a creepy figure that scurries around the periphery of the tales. Bits of the Ice Cream Man's background are gradually revealed until he more or less comes to the forefront.

This is unsettling stuff and the somewhat understated art and color drive the point home. I'm not sure where this is headed in volume 2 but I'm on board. Four out of five stars.

[OmniBen · Rating 3 out of 5]

(Zero spoiler review) 2.75/5
I'm fairly sure Mr. W. Maxwell Prince wasn't hugged enough as a child. I'm also sure this wasn't exactly what I was expecting when I cracked open this rather lovely and well put together OHC. If there is one long suffering genre within the entertainment lexicon, it would have to be horror. Yes, entertainment in general is suffering circa 2022 (and for a few more years yet unfortunately). I'm not sure if there has been an original idea since 1998. Most movies are the most tiresome and tropesome of snoozefests. Either a bland and boring gorefest, with nothing approaching plot, characters or genuine suspense, or a discount retelling of something that had already been done to death anyway. I'm guessing you were expecting me to say Ice Cream Man is a breath of fresh air, pouring fresh blood into a genre on life support these last couple of decades, but I'm not going to. At least not for the most part anyway.
This certainly isn't your straight up horror, which was pretty much what I expected it to be. There's nothing even remotely atypical about this whatsoever, though the originality and ingenuity doesn't instantly equal good. More unsettling than scary, and more depressing than depraved. This is like Trainspotting, but horror, and weird. Sometimes it works, sometimes its doesn't.
There are some genuinely decent ideas here, though some average execution often lets them down at times. The art too, is hit and miss, with its very indie leanings working at times, and looking a bit amateurish at others. One thing you can credit this book for is its originality. I don't think I've ever seen such an original collection of 'horror' stories ever assembled together in one place. But again, originality doesn't always equal good. If some of these more middling issues had been better executed, even with more traditional stories and settings, I would have finished this book enjoying it more than I ultimately did.
It's certainly worth a look, although going in knowing its well different from your traditional horror fare will help you to appreciate and absorb this for what it is. Though its unpleasantness at the cost of more compelling characters and storytelling will probably prevent me ever rereading. 2.75/5


OmniBen.

[K.J. Tiller · Rating 5 out of 5]

A new instant favorite!

A contempt, cosmic parasitic being known as the Ice Cream Man takes solace in terrorizing anyone that’s around him, squirming around in the shadows like a bug under your skin, striking your reality down before you even know what’s happened.

On top of the immaculate splash pages, comedic satire, and thought-out panels, we get an overriding sense of virtue whilst reading. Topics focused in this graphic novel range from addiction to familial loss, regret, shame, sorrow, and existential dread, but leave you hooked for the next page every time with eerie, yet mesmerizing sequential art and rooting for Caleb, the space cowboy to stop his cousin from destroying anything more.

This is truly one of a kind. Childhood horrors meet adult scenarios and trepidations, encouraging you to fix what you can now before it’s all gone. A major theme in this is that all life ends at the same exact place. All paths are bound for the same destination.

Wonderfully horrific, hilariously divine dark comedy. I devoured all 403 pages in two hours!

[Organic Alien Tech · Rating 4 out of 5]

This series was hyped up for me for about 2 years before I actually got around to it. This book collects the first 12 issues and is essentially an anthology. However there does seem to be an underlying story being told in the background.

I gotta say. This was a bit underwhelming. I had pretty high expectations going in (which is partially my fault) so I don’t want to blame the book entirely but .. yeah. I am a sucker for anthologies and some of the horror is fun. Lot of neat concepts. It just didn’t delve far into a lot of these ideas. The story would introduce them and then not expand on them. 3.8-4 out of 5 for me.

[Rumi Bossche · Rating 4 out of 5]

Ice Cream Man Sunday Edition 🍦

I wanted to read this title for a very long time, It gets high praise and the covers always look incredible,  glad to have waited for this hardcover, because i am a sucker for those. And its a very well made one. I have read many comics, but this sure was something very original and unlike anything i ever read. It gave me vibes of the Stephen King novel Needfull Things,  where a evil man comes to town and opens a store, and all kinds of intertwining stories emerge and madness. Lots of madness. Here it is a ice cream truck and its owner that wreack havoc.  In 12 genre bending stories that intertwine in some ways. W. Maxwell Prince really nails his scripts and story telling, and goes all out in weirdness. There is a silent issue, a issue in Spanish, in space, a western and multiple fantasy ones, the stories are really hard to explain, but believe me they are incredible. The artwork by Martín Morazzo is incredible aswell and so is the coloring. This really is an amazing book all around, wild and weird with heartfelt stories,  satire, straight up horror it is not but this looks like a couple of Twilight Zone episodes mixed together with huge splashes of King. Also uncluded are a afterword, variant covers and a couple scripts and sketches. This hardcover is the reall deal and a read hard to put down. I blasted through this and had lots of fun.

⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ stars.

[Wendopolis · Rating 4 out of 5]

Weird. Disturbing.

[Cozyblanketandabook · Rating 4 out of 5]

The Sundae Edition is worth the money. Gorgeous full color pages and lots of extras including character sketches and script drafts.

As for the story I enjoyed the universe created and look forward to see how things play out between Caleb and Rick. I was disappointed the book left off where it did and look forward to volume 2.

[Aby Jo · Rating 2 out of 5]

There were a few things that didn't work for me.

1. I felt like the artist only knew how to draw a handful of faces. Scared was the same, resting was the same, and talking with the mouth open was the same. I just got a repetitive feeling that I wanted more expression from the characters.

2. With each story (issue) covering one story, it was hard to find any connection to a character that had something sinister going on.

3. I felt like it was written like a show or movie storyboard. At the end, it does show the thought process of each panel. I think a more creative thought process needs to be dug deeper.

I feel like it has potential. No means is the storytelling NOT interesting, but there needs to be more something added at the editing table.

I just felt like I read an outline for a future pitch of a comic book or show, and it needed more.

[DROCK STEADY REVIEWS · Rating 5 out of 5]

Demented and absolutely delightful. Take a ride with Rick your friendly neighborhood Ice Cream Man and it may be your last. The themes in this book aren’t vanilla… it’s some real dark bug infested chocolate.

[Ivan · Rating 4 out of 5]

At a first glance, these are simple and entertaining stories that are thinly connected to one another. However, when one dives deeper, there is much to be enjoyed and thought about when reading them.

Compared to most comics - where the meat and complexity is in the plot, here we find symbolism and thought provoking philosophical tidbits as the hidden jewel behind this gem of a collection.

This is a unique comic in two subtle ways.

First are the connections inbetween the stories that are often not obvious. The creators want you to think and to raise questions while reading. There were plenty of "aha" moments here, when parts of older stories pop up in new ones and when new ones answer questions that the previous stories left hanging in the air.

The second thing are the philosophical themes. This can be an emotionally heavy and thought provoking book. Despair, hope or just thoughts about life are the vehicle behind the stories. Often it felt that the real "story" wasn't the content of the chapter, but the message that it conveyed.

The only reason I didn't rate this 5 stars is because some of these stories could have been better or longer. In some of them, the creators had a specific lesson or message in mind. In others, they wanted to make the reader to think for themselves. In this, they 100% delivered!
However, some plots weren't always home runs. This is a thought provoking book and one that you must experience and read... But, not all stories were equally well written as their narrations and lessons.

P.S. This is a disturbing and a horror book, it is not for kids. Only for people with an open mind.

[Marc · Rating 4 out of 5]

I went into this not knowing an iota about it beyond liking the cover when I stumbled upon it in the library. Wow. Prince takes the darkest parts of that internal voice in your head, combines it with general negativity/hopelessness, and gives it form in this kind of quasi-mythical figure who takes on multiple names and predatory forms (the central one of them being a creepy ice cream man). He is offset by a cousin who plays the yin to his yang, although far less central and usually late to the party. This hard volume is a collection of the first 12 issues of the series and each takes on its own feel and approach, separate stories almost trying on genres like modeling different hats. A crime drama, a western, a surreal take on reality TV (which was one of my favorites). It's pretty stunning visually with some wonderful coloring and inventive layouts that often feel cinematic. Some genres/issues worked much better than others but it was consistently interesting, dark but often comical, and surprising with each turn of the page. This collection also throws in a bunch of delightful extras (a gallery of cover art, excerpts from the author's notebook, a partial script for one of the chapters, all of the patterns used for the inside front and back covers, etc.).

[Peyton]

"Here's a secret about life, which I'll tell you for free: We're all being devoured by bugs. Slowly but surely, our little internal insects -- boredom, loneliness, regret, etcetera -- are eating us whole, nibbling away from the inside out. The process only lasts for as long as you're alive."

This book was a pleasant surprise! And that's about the only thing pleasant about it. It was quite graphic and shocking at times, but it feels balanced enough when every issue doesn't go in the same direction.

The story tells you exactly what it is in the first issue (maybe a little too on the nose, but eh, it worked for me). It lost me a little in the end with Hopscotch Mélange, but I am curious to see where the story goes next.

[Vicente Ribes · Rating 4 out of 5]

Un cómic de horror muy divertido. Ice cream man trata de una entidad con forma de vendedor de helados que aterroriza a un pequeño pueblo americano.
A través de diferentes historias se nos cuenta como esta criatura se va adueñando del pueblo y cargandose a la gente.
Las historias son muy entretenidas y con un toque que me recordo a series como La dimensión desconocida o American horror story. El dibujo entre naif y creepy también está muy logrado.

[Rahul Nadella · Rating 3 out of 5]

While the ending for first arc isn't satisfying, the writing is solid and the art is beautiful. Ice Cream Man isn't perfect, but its worth a read. There is enough mystery that will keep you coming back wanting to see just what will happen with the next story. One step back and two steps in some potentially cosmic direction nobody saw coming with some slight tweaks, this would easily be a great horror series, but as is the comic falls short in story and scares.

[Aaron Mays · Rating 3 out of 5]

I loved the art and the presentation of the book itself. However I found some of the stories a bit hard to follow. The story telling wasn’t awful but this was in my opinion a bit overrated. The art is brilliant and I still love having this edition in my collection. I will read volume 2 when it releases.

[Annie · Rating 3 out of 5]

I have to admit I wasn’t much into it at the beginning. It felt too lofty in its messaging, which seemed to be a basic cynicism of human nature and how doomsday is coming. Once the nature of the Ice Cream Man began taking shape though, I started really getting into it. When layers peeled back, piece by piece like shedding skin. The Hopscotch Mèlange in particular was really great. I will for certain be reading the second volume.

[Sarah · Rating 2 out of 5]

I don't know I just couldn't get into it. There were several stories with concepts I thought were really interesting and well done but then they'd cut away to bizarre and wacky scenes that conflicted with the tone that was already established.

[Damian · Rating 5 out of 5]

Ice Cream Man is a fun dip into anthology thriller/horror/wild shit. Get you this book if you like cool spooky

[K · Rating 4 out of 5]

This shit was insane but I couldn’t look away. It was so messy and grotesque. A good interesting horror graphic novel. I can see why it blew up online

[Steele Burnand · Rating 5 out of 5]

Wonderfully bizarre and and really fun horror comic. Each issue varies so wildly to the next, changing theme, genre and style, making each new chapter and cool surprise.

[Rob Marney · Rating 2 out of 5]

Conceptually interesting, with great colors and lettering and a stippled, hangdog art style that's just expressive enough to be creepy. This anthology does cool, interesting things with the comics form.

Unfortunately, Ice Cream Man is so unremitting and bleak and jaded that it stops being aesthetic and just becomes poisonous. All this talent goes to waste in displays of pointless cruelty, with a fig leaf of overarching plot. They rescue the victim of the week just enough to keep you guessing. Instead of the creeping revelation of great horror stories there's a slow, eye-rolling realization that there are no rules.

Imagine Chris Ware as a Netflix series. Imagine Mark Millar as a feminist. Imagine Grant Morrison without hope. If you recoil in disgust from the first issue, put the book down, because it doesn't get better enough to justify pushing through.

[Doug Levandowski · Rating 3 out of 5]

Anthology series are tough for me to rate. Like, The Twilight Zone has some brilliant episodes and some awful clunkers. This collection strikes me as the same, though the thread that runs through it is...I honestly don't know. I can't tell from 12 issues if it's a brilliant way to unify the series or a bad attempt to unify the series.

If someone told me that it continues to come together and is amazing, I'd believe them. If someone told me that it keeps hinting at a grand mythology without coming to fruition, I'd believe them, too.

One thing that's kind of putting me off from the series is that it seems to be trying hard to be nihilistic when the best moments are when there's genuine emotion and hope rather than hyperbolic awfulness.

But, I'm hoping to check the next big collection out of the library to see how it goes.

[Andrew A · Rating 5 out of 5]

The best sort of weird.


A magical trip through dozens of dark, twisted, often heartfelt and funny, but always delightfully weird vignettes.

Creepy twilight zone esque tales with the recurring theme of the suspicious ice cream man rick. And occasionally the dark cowboy.

Characterful art and some wonderful experimental steps (strange neopolitan a experimental delight)

All with a deep mysterious underbelly.

Very keen to see where this goes

[Benjamin Pritchard · Rating 4 out of 5]

Well that was an absolute trip. The Ice Cream Man is....well is a nightmare I'm a good way. Not sure what else to say. It was fun it was scary it was gory it was a nightmare.

[Theediscerning · Rating 2 out of 5]

Meet the Sundae Edition, then – a chance to reprint the first twelve episodes, ie the first three books, in this series of semi-linked short stories. I gave the first book three and a half stars, and wished how the arc of the whole series had not been introduced to what seemed like a perfectly reasonable bundle of dark, Twilight Zone-styled one-shots. But let's face it, a story where a failed has-been has a fantasia in his mind about using a second hit single to save the world from splodges of brightly-coloured goop is not exactly going to get us far, is it? And the fourth story was seemingly going nowhere until a protagonist turned up and alerted us to what might be a-coming.

And so the rest of this was entirely unknown to me, courtesy the whims of the book reviewing gods, the mobile frozen produce vendors and so on. 9/11 iconography is invoked now a potential saviour for some characters is around, but we're soon back to a triptych of negative stories – "Sliding Doors" meets "Outer Limits". A girl struggles with her friend's death, before the entire town this is all set in just goes ape, and we see bleakness and misery and violence, and it all just washes over us to little effect.

Book Three here is even worse. It wants to giveth of the big lesson, but portentous, pretentious and just plain pathetic are far too close. Something trying for a mythos with the two Main Men is of very little use in the great scheme of things; a story that starts in fluent Spanish only makes you think the creators said "hey, you know 'Buffy' got away with odd-ball one-offs that were both curve-balls, and great – d'you think we can do the first, knowing we'll never manage the second?". A lesson in how bad reality TV is just seems childish, for all its evisceration. And some kind of sci-fi story ends my time with this franchise. Collectively, all four show the series is nothing without the town, but prove it's not much more than nothing full stop.

I'd long thought there was little quality control about this, but the final four stories just showed there was no quality. It's not fair to say anything about duff ones, when all of them are equally duff. Fans will like the extras here – and to repeat I have no idea what they were originally – for we not only get a gallery, but character design drafts, bits of script – and the pre-Buffyfied Spanish in the original English – AND a new postscript. And people who like this kind of thing are welcome to it all. I love them all, as people, sure, but who can really love this? None of the stories go anywhere except into emo gloom, they're not particularly distinctive, and they're certainly not that well written. This is a much-loved franchise, but as with many such instances the appeal is very hard to locate.

[Colin Post · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is an enchanting book, drawing the reader in like the tune coming from an ice cream truck and then continuing to disturb, unsettle, tickle and taunt. This is kind of like The Sandman if it were steeped in Camus and the Scream filmography in equal parts. There are certain ideas, certain stories, that shape our lives, mostly steering them toward depravity and emptiness. While most issues dwell in existential dread, they do so with the twinkly smile of an ice cream man. In most issues, I find myself laughing at some darkly comic moment and then unsettled by the fact that I’m laughing.

In some cases, the moral of the story is a bit too on-the-nose, but even when it’s expected it’s told very effectively. Morazzo and O’Halloran’s art is a big part of that. Morazzo draws seemingly simplistic, organic scenes that allow the truly horrific and truly funny scenes to break through the lull he’s established. O’Halloran’s colors set the mood, swinging from mundane to surreal in a heartbeat.

The underlying mythos of competing forces—Rick and Caleb—starts to get developed as the issues progress. Prince is walking a fine line between distinct issues in an anthology series that nonetheless add up to a bigger whole, and is mostly succeeding at that. Most of the issues succeed as standalone stories but that can be a detriment to the overarching narrative. We are slowly learning more about Rick and Caleb, but sometimes it feels that we’re learning too slowly and the bigger narrative comes off feeling shallow.

[Aaron · Rating 3 out of 5]

Some extremely creepy imagery and a few interesting premises for issues, but overall I just found this to have too many ideas all melted together like a Neapolitan that's been left out in the sun (hey, this book never stops using ice cream terms, so neither will I). Feels a bit like a season of American Horror Story to me: a million individual good ideas, but when you stack them all on top of each other it causes none of them to land. I think it's interesting that Prince decided to build all of these one-off horror stories into a greater universe, connecting them via the titular Ice Cream Man, and then building out the mythology of who or what he actually is, but... it also kind of doesn't do that? By the end of this 12-issue tome I had no idea what was actually going on or being represented by these deity-level monsters, and the individual issues didn't feel like they were much clearer. I'm all for world building, but IMO if you're gonna do that, the world needs to actually build. Instead I'm just kind of confused.

Not totally sure I'll keep going with this. It's a quick, breezy read with some decent shock value here or there, but I just don't think it feels like it really knows where it's going.