So, a subliminal fae-influence demigod made of raw negativistic thought walks into a bar in Havana… Your Major Spoilers review of Ice Cream Man #41 from Image Comics awaits!

ICE CREAM MAN #41

Writer: W. Maxwell Prince
Artist: Martin Morazzo
Colorist: Chris O’Halloran
Letterer: Good Old Neon
Publisher: Image Comics
Cover Price: $3.99
Release Date: September 18, 2024

Previously in Ice Cream Man: The Ice Cream Man is Riccardus, but what Riccardus is, has only begun to become clear. He seems to be everywhere, he can do nearly anything, and everything wrong with the world is a great delight to him. Whether you’re heartbroken, sick, or just plain tired, the Ice Cream Man has a flavor for you.

And they’re probably all full of bugs.

IN THE STREETS OF HAVANA CUBA

In a beautiful outdoor cafe, “Dave Carrigan” waits for his friend “John Levinson.” Both names are aliases, as Levinson is a handler and Carrigan is a self-described specialist-with-a-certain-kind-of-finesse. His latest target is a young mechanic named Carlito, who has gotten entangled in something that might threaten to topple American democracy and/or hegemony, depending on who’s asking. When he tracks the man down, Carlito warns him that something is wrong with the cows, something that he can’t understand, but something evil nonetheless. That leads him to notice something that’s been in plain sight for several issues (which absolutely freaks me out), to find his friend Levinson dead and butchered by unknown hands, and to find out exactly what is wrong with the cows.

SOMETHING IS WRONG WITH THE HOLT CORPORATION

After the two-parter that deconstructed and decompressed a car accident into riveting two-parter, Ice Cream Man returns with an X-Files-style lore issue that pieces together a few scraps of previous issues to reveal something evil. Like so many of my favorite issues of this book, Riccardus the Ice Cream Man is barely in it, making a cameo as a taxi driver. But the sense of impending doom that Prince and Morazzo are able to generate in these pages is impressive, especially when “Mr. Carrigan” comes face-to-face with someone returning from a previous arc (in the most twisted, terrible way). Morazzo’s art often reminds me of the late Steve Dillon, but the “acting” in these pages is impressive even by his usual excellent standards. The reveal of what happened to “John” and his married lover gave me both chills and the creeps, a perfect example of the synthesis of words and pictures that sometimes makes it so hard to review comics in a meaningful way.

BOTTOM LINE: BUILDING TOWARDS SOMETHING

After the last issue’s near-perfect crescendo and Jud’s “happy” ending, Ice Cream Man #41 turns its attention towards an overarching narrative that’s been building in the shadows, reminding me that issue fifty isn’t far away, with strong art and an interesting parcel of story rating a better-than-average 4 out of 5 stars overall. As a regular mark for this book, I highly recommend it to fans of The Twilight Zone, EC Comics, Chuck Palahniuk, and the classic Tom & Jerry cartoon library.

And hey, it occurs to me that we haven’t seen Rick’s counterpart, Caleb the Cowboy, for a while.

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ICE CREAM MAN #41

80%

80%

After last issue, and the rare ICM Happy Ending, we're firmly back in the realm of magical realism, and we get the first real attempt to explain just what The Ice Cream Man is.

• Writing

  8
• Art

  8
• Coloring

  8
• User Ratings (0 Votes)
  0