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In my town there are two comic book shops of note. One, I have been a customer of for many years, and it is where I get my pull books held. But for the longest time it wasn't the best shop to browse for new books or even back issues.
The OTHER shop in my town is GREAT for browsing back issues, and always has a TON of new books and random issues. The problem is that I already get the books I want held at the other shop- so when I stop in this shop I never have a distinct idea of what I want to find. And I also hate leaving a comic shop empty handed, so there's that.
On this one occasion, finding little to buy that day, I happened upon issue #2 of Ice Cream Man on the new comic shelves. I was immediately drawn to the cover by Martin Morazzo, and was surprised to flip through the issue and find a story about addiction featured. Being a fan of Image comics, horror, and anthology books, this was an instant grab. But what about issue #1? Luckily, the shop happened to have one slightly dinged up copy of the second print of issue 1 filed dutifully behind the handful of copies of issue 2, so I scooped that up too.
And thus began a love affair with one of the best comic series of the modern era in my opinion. A series that pushes the envelope of creativity and existential angst and anxiety in every single issue, while slowly building out a creepy world full of easily understood metaphors, symbolism, and callbacks to sadder times.
But anyway, back to issue 1. This was NOT the issue that officially sold me on this series.
First issues are always a bit like pilot episodes to tv shows. They need to give you enough to want more, but often carry the weight of the pressure of a first impression. For a book like Ice Cream Man, where the newest issue can tell a self contained story with the benefit of tiny callbacks to previous stories, issue 1 has to carry the load all on it's own.
What we get is a rather basic story with many of the concepts present, but little emotional weight. This story is actually a strange outlier in the series, where multiple characters are focused on in an overarching storyline.
A young boy is continuing on with his life, deluding himself that his parents are not dead in his kitchen. He tells himself he is a big boy now, and must take on the grown up task of going to the ice cream truck all by himself. He ignores the danger of his new pet, and treats it like a replacement family member.
We get the Ice Cream Man himself, a character that at first seems to be pleasant enough. We find that he can become a beast at times, and this gives him a potential duality- until we realize he is capable of turning anything into something else- making him a a godlike agent of chaos who seems to relish in the misery around him.
And we get detective Hwan- who arguably gets the MOST character development in this issue, though strangely seems to escape the focus of the narrative and the Ice Cream Man altogether. I think this character makes this issue a bit of an outlier in the series, and frankly had me thinking she would be a main character in future issues. For the record, she has not reappeared in the series over 40 issues in.
The artwork by Martin Morazzo is fantastic and often jaw dropping in my opinion. His ability to capture nuance on faces, depict creepy imagery with grotesque lighting and mundane setting with an air of sadness to them is just perfect. Morazzo's artwork is easily identifiable and the visual language he creates part of what adds a sense of discovery to each successive issue of this series. This is the best writer artist duo on an ongoing independent book since Fiona Staples and BK Vaughn on Saga in my opinion.
Ice Cream Man tropes we do get?
1. First time The Ice Cream Man says "In a jiffy!" and "Lickety Split!"
2. Creepy voice over narration, likely from the Ice Cream Man.
3. The Brazilian Wandering Spider. This spider WILL show up again in future issues. Generally an omen and likely chosen because it not only can kill you with a bite, but it will paralyze you, and perhaps most importantly- humiliate as well- by causing death by priapism. The randomness of its attack, and early presentation as an ally of the young boy also add layers of weight that might strike the reader in later issues when it appears in various stories.
4. We get possession for the first time here too, or simply a character seeing the underbelly of societies niceities- in a brief panel where Detective Hwan's partner speaks in a broken speech balloon and tells her that he as cockaroaches crawling on him telling him to cheat on his wife. This is presented in a manner similar to the film "They Live" where we have a feeling the other detective didn't actually say this, but what Hwan is hearing is the actual SUBTEXT of those words. The fact that her partner then suggests a scenario where he might be able to have her over his house immediately following this thought cements that idea. Hwan also seems to get a direct message from the Ice Cream Man through the television commercial where he suggests that by giving in to the sweetness of Ice Cream you allow "something sweet for the bugs to eat." Following the former panel about cockroaches, this seems to imply that when you allow yourself the pleasure of eating an inherently unhealthy food such as ice cream, you are allowing in other hurtful thoughts and feelings, perhaps guilt, shame, regret etc, that will eat away at you from the inside. It's presented so plainly here- but it's the ultimate metaphor for the entire series. Love it.
The strangest part about this issue is that the spider attacks the Ice Cream Man. (Which SEEMS to be giving him a painful erection- at least that's the way I read those panels by Morazzo lol) It would seem to indicate the spider did not originate from the Ice Cream Man himself, but was incorporated into his arsenal by the end of the issue. Proving he might have some weaknesses after all.
This issue was fine on its own, but I'd be lying if I said I loved it. There is little here to emotionally connect with, though there are a few touches with Detective Hwan that come close.
Will I read the next issue? It's the one that hooked me on the series, so absolutely.
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