Comic Review: Ice Cream Man #5

Ice Cream Man #5

Image Comics

Writer: W. Maxwell Prince

Artist: Martin Morazzo

One of the great things about the Ice Cream Man series is that they are self-contained and each issue is a one-shot. The premier issue was extremely promising and gave us readers hope of some fascinatingly morose stories. Instead, every issue since #1 has been trying to get back to that magic that writer W. Maxwell Prince created, with one issue being an all-out flop.

Prince has shown us that he is more than capable of writing a top-notch short. He has been good with dialogue and even better with the narrative boxes which he uses as a voice-over in this series. This issue is no different. We are actually treated to a glimpse of what happens when occupants of an entire 100-story office building lose their minds. Normally, these stories focus on one character falling under the sweet spell of the Ice Cream Man. In Issue #5 we are following more than one person (and animal) as they slip into insanity. 

Prince always has limited pages to work with so we see him work quickly to show us the characters of this issue, even though most we never see again outside of their one scene. My gripe with these stories is their lack of ability to stick the landing. We are constantly led through an interesting narrative with interesting characters and then when Prince should drop the hammer on the reader, instead he drops the ball. This issue was a cropped view of what could be a much bigger story. The prelude and aftermath to this horror would be a pretty great read. I’m fine with this peak he gave us, but like always, I want more. 

Martin Morazzo (Great Pacific) has been fine with the artwork so far. He excels whenever the macabre needs to be poured on, which to me is where it counts in a series like this. This issue lets him spread his wings a little more than most of the previous issues. With Ice Cream Man being an anthology, Morazzo gets to tackle new characters and creatures in every issue, so I look forward to seeing what he brings us in the future of this series. 

In summary, Ice Cream Man hasn’t lived up to its first issue, but this issue comes closer than the others have. It seems like this issue is a few pages that were ripped out of the middle of something better. I’ll take it for now, because I’m still chasing the high from Issue #1.