‘Ice Cream Man’ #44 Cometh This July From Image Comics
by Olly MacNamee
Just in time for summer, W. Maxwell Prince, Martín Morazzo, Chris O’Halloran, and Good Old Neon return with a tasty new tale of terror with Ice Cream Man #44, coming this July and the Ice Cream Man Vol. 11 trade paperback collected edition in September from Image Comics.
And here’s what to expect from this new issue:
“This tantalizing tale will center around a job performance review gone wrong. Additional upcoming issues of the anthology will feature a twisted Hitchcockian Rear Window homage, a completely creepy tale of cryogenic anti-aging chambers, and a series of vintage medical ads that downplay some pretty shocking side effects.“
Speaking of the longevity of the series, Prince states:
“Golly. I can’t believe we’ve been putting this book out for 7.5 years,. In comic time, I think that makes us officially geriatric. And so, speaking as a veritable sequential grandpa, I’ll tell you this: I still don’t quite understand how and why we have made it this far. I mean, I am so proud of the corpus of tales we’ve assembled; Ice Cream Man is the defining artistic project of my life. (And I think I can probably say the same for my co-creators).
It’s an absolute privilege to spin yarns about Rick the Ice Cream Man, his jingly-jangly truck, and, most importantly, everyday people fighting their way through the morass of adult life: grief, regret, addiction, divorce, overdue bills, sick family, sick self, the fall of democracy…it’s never-ending, that list. But I can still see that sliver of light breaking through… We somehow managed to make a ‘horror’ book that is, in fact, about human suffering, with slivers of light and hope streaked through the center of everything. Plus, we’ve gotten to perform some very wild comic-specific formal experiments: a silent, three-reality, and three-color issue; a story that’s an actual palindrome; a crossword puzzle; an instruction manual; a dark recreation of beloved children’s books; an advent calendar; a telethon; an issue that is one continuous image when read in landscape orientation.”
O’Halloran added:
“Ice Cream Man is the fulfilling, creative, challenging, cool, and ultimately fun series one can only dream of being a part of when having a comics career. Having a front row seat to the inventiveness of my collaborators’ hard work for almost 50 issues manages to keep me motivated and inspired with this art form, and just feel very lucky to have my name on this book and be its colorist.”
Morazzo concluded:
“Not sure what I can add to what Will and Chris already said, ’cause I feel exactly the same way they do, but I wanted to thank our readers, our fans! It wouldn’t have been possible without you guys, and I’m sure I can speak for the rest of the team now, we’re forever grateful!”
Ice Cream Man #44 is out on Wednesday, July 23rd from image Comics (Final Order Cutoff deadline for retailers is June 30):
- Cover A by Martín Morazzo, Chris O’Halloran
- Cover B by Declan Shalvey
Ice Cream Man #45 is out on Wednesday, September 10th (Final Order Cutoff deadline for retailers is August 18):
- Cover A by Martín Morazzo, Chris O’Halloran
- Cover B by Alison Sampson
Ice Cream Man #46 is out on Wednesday, October 8th (Final Order Cutoff deadline for retailers is September 15th):
- Cover A by Martín Morazzo, Chris O’Halloran
- Cover B by Juni Ba (to be revealed)
