ICE CREAM MAN (2018)

"Chocolate, vanilla, existential horror, drug addiction, musical fantasy there's a flavor for everyone's misery. ICE CREAM MAN is a genre-defying comic book series featuring disparate 'one-shot' tales of sorrow, wonder, and redemption. Each installment features its own cast of strange characters, dealing with their own special sundae of suffering. And on the periphery of all of them, like the twinkly music of his colorful truck, is the Ice Cream Man-a weaver of stories, a purveyor of sweet treats. Friend. Foe. God. Demon. The man who, with a snap of his fingers-lickety split!-can change the course of your life forever. Written by W. MAXWELL PRINCE (ONE WEEK IN THE LIBRARY), with art by MARTÍN MORAZZO (GREAT PACIFIC) and CHRIS O'HALLORAN (GENERATION GONE)."

"'RAINBOW SPRINKLES' The second installment of this syrupy series of singular stories! Here, the lives of two very different kinds of opioid abusers intersect. But at whose behest? (I think you know the answer .)"

"'GOOD OL' FASHIONED VANILLA' In which a washed-up musician finds a sci-fi fantasy world of living lyrics in his basement. Can he write the song that'll save Harmony City? Or has his milkshake already run dry?"

"'EVERY GOOD BOY DOES FINE': Another woeful one-shot! Here, a guy named Joel has drinks with his best friend's estranged dad. As for the best friend? Well, I suppose you could say he's in a bit of a pickle."

"'BALLAD OF A FALLING MAN'-The feel-bad series of the year continues! Here: a story that lasts a hundred stories."

"'STRANGE NEAPOLITAN': Sometimes, without a word, your life splits into three."

"'MY LITTLE POLTERGEIST' Another sullen, sequential short! Here, a little girl's best friend comes back from the dead. Or does she? It's hard to say, ghosts being an unreliable sort."

"END OF STORY ARC 'EMERGENCIES' All around town, folks are in crisis. But this ambulance ain't stoppin' for no one, baby. ICE CREAM MAN continues with another dreary confection. "

"NEW STORY ARC 'HOPSCOTCH MÉLANGE,' Part One A wild western one-shot which witnesses the way the world once was."

"'HOPSCOTCH MÉLANGE,' Part Two: En este capítulo, no existen las fronteras. El mundo está lleno de amor, pero el amor es peligroso."

"'HOPSCOTCH MÉLANGE,' Part Four A long time from now, Captain Noah Smith floats through space aboard his Archival Recivilization Capsule, searching for a fertile planet upon which to rebuild Earth. But out there in the dark vacuum, he finds something else. This is the final, sugary story of Noah's A.R.C."

"NEW STORY ARC! 'PALINDROMES'': What if you could have it both ways?"

"'DOWN AND ACROSS': Solve this crossword puzzle and you just might save a man's life."

"'COAT CHECK STORY' Lillian is wearing someone else's coat. "

"END OF STORY ARC 'TINY LIVES' Whatever you do, do NOT read your daughter's diary."

"NEW STORY ARC 'CAPE FEAR' Presented here: a handsome being from far away rockets to Earth and combats evil on our behalf. Tall fella, wears a cape. Lives in a fortress; flirts with a reporter. A suppurating, super-something story that's certain to see you lose your supper."

"'WATCH AS IT ALL RECEDES'-The lights that line the hallway of your mind will blink off one by one."

"'HAUNTING FOR BEGINNERS': Inside: step-by-step instructions to becoming a better ghost. Includes tips for more efficient apparitioning; how to invisibly observe; methods of spook-improvement. Note: see Section 6 for safety warnings."

"'FOR KIDS' One fish, two fish, red fish, blue fish. Three fish, four fish, have some more fish. Five fish, six fish-are you sickish? Seven fish, eight fish...it's getting late fish. Nine fish, ten fish, everyone you love will die and life is pointless so why even get out of bed you little worm you sick little insect with your sad flailing arms and creepy-crawly legs my god I've never seen such a pathetic specimen how sad how truly tragic...red fish, blue fish."

"'THE BIG SWEET'-A candy-coated detective yarn with a sour center-told in a style that can best be described as 'the French word for black,' or 'how I like my eggs.'"

"'ADVENT CALENDAR'-Every day is a gift. HOLLYWOOD NEWS! Universal Content Productions (UCP) is developing an ICE CREAM MAN adaptation for the short-form streaming platform Quibi. According to exclusive scoop from Deadline, it is set to debut in 2021."

"LATE NIGHT SPLASHES"-Here, in writing, is our best attempt at describing the terrible incident that occurred on the set of Tonight, Tonight with Mack Benson.

"TELETHON"-We'll be up all night, trying to raise $3.99 to save this guy's life.

    CELEBRATING OUR 25th "ANNIVERSARY" ISSUE WITH A SPECIAL BONUS STORY. IT'S THE PERFECT JUMPING-ON POINT TO THE BOOK CBR CALLED "IMAGE'S MOST UNPREDICTABLE HORROR SERIES." Good afternoon, folks. This is your captain speaking. I'd like to welcome everyone aboard ICM Flight 25. We're currently cruising at an altitude of 33,000 feet, at an airspeed of about 400 miles per hour. The time is 1:25 p.m. The weather looks pretty good, and with the tailwind on our side, we're expecting to violently nosedive into the ground approximately 15 minutes ahead of schedule.

"UNFORTUNATE ANCESTRY" Some families are completely sideways.

"THE MORPHOMETASIS" This is like that famous story, but the other way around.

"'THE ETYMOLOGIST RISES' The term 'comic book' is an etymologically confusing one, as they (the comics) are most often not humorous, nor are they in the traditional sense books."

"LIVING WILL" Presenting, for no one, the last will and testament of W.M. Parsons.

"EXPERIMENTAL STORYTELLING" Who's the subject?  Every pill is a placebo.  Every group is a control.

"A SCALE (SORT OF A POEM)" A father watches his daughter grow older; a daughter watchers her father grow old.

"RECOVERY" Doug's gonna try real hard to get and stay sober.

"THE KIND OF STORY I WANT TO WRITE" There's the kind of story I want to write-and then there's this story.

"TWO TRAMPS" These two men ride the rails, sleep under bridges, scavenge for scraps, and love each other deeply.

"THE BOOK OF NECESSARY MONSTERS" Herewith a bestiary of creatures unavoidable, ineluctable, and everlasting.

"WHALE SONG" Into the belly we go...

"Flight of the Figglybumps (Death of a Cartoonist)" They're cute, they're cuddly, and they're caught up in a conflagration of candy cannons and cartoony combat!  But who are the Figglybumps? And what happened to their creator? The hit horror-adjacent anthology is back-and sadder than ever.

"ESCAPE FROM GARYLAND" There seems to be something wrong with Gary No. 38...

"Decompression In A Wreck," Part One. In this first part of a two-parter (which does not require reading of either part), we see how slow time can go when your bumper is making its way toward your trunk.

"Decompression in a Wreck," Part Two. In this second part of our story (one need not read part one), two truck drivers die in five seconds and 28-or-so pages.

"Spy Story." A who-can-you-trust thriller, both shaken and stirred!

"Horror House." Perhaps we should talk about what's really scary.

"One Page Horror Stories." It's a star-studded, make-your-jaw-drop-to-the-floor issue of Ice Cream Man! The challenge: make a comics horror story that's only one page long. And boy, did we find some amazing folks ready to take that one on! Issue 43 will feature one-page horror yarns (all drawn by Morazzo and O'Halloran) from Grant Morrison, Patton Oswalt, Geoff Johns, Kelly Sue Deconnick, Jeff Lemire, Matt Fraction, Zoe Thorogood, and and more! There will also, of course, be plenty of weird one-pagers from W. Maxwell Prince and Team ICM-we wouldn't want to miss out on all the fun!

“Performance Review” It’s Craig’s end-of-year review with his senior manager. Let’s cross our fingers for a promotion of some sort.

“Quiz Custodian Impose Custodies?” A voyeuristic, Hitchcockian homage wherein we watch as a wheelchaired watch-man watches the windows of a weary world of wahoos, wackos, and wannabes.

"Bob Will Handle It" A group of seniors hires a local tech guy to help run their state-of-the-art cryogenic anti-aging chambers. And everything goes perfectly, there's no trouble at all, what a lovely ending for everyone.

"AD TO SUBTRACT" A story told through vintage medicinal ads! (A spoon full of sugar makes the medicine go down.)