REVIEW: Ice Cream Man #23

Rating if the Book Were a Movie: R

Writer: W. Maxwell Prince
Artist: Martin Morazzo 
Colors: Chris O’Halloran
Letters: Good Old Neon 
Cover: Valentin De Landro
Publisher: Image Comics 

With some of the characters from the “big two” there is so much backstory that a reader is expected to be familiar with that it can be daunting. Superman and Batman each have thousands of issues full of their stories. Spider-Man is closing in on 2,000 issues as well. That’s a lot of information that has to be retained.

One of the best things about indie comics is that everything is relatively new. “Ice Cream Man” from Image Comics takes a completely different approach. So far each story I’ve read has been a maximum of one issue long. With the exception of the Ice Cream Man’s cameos there haven’t been any recurring characters.

“Ice Cream Man” #23 tells the tale of Mack Benson. Mr. Benson is the king of late night television, hosting a talk show akin to what we’ve seen over the years from David Letterman, Johnny Carson, Jay Leno, etc. Mack’s world gets turned upside down when a zoology guest brings an animal onto the show that attacks him. Along the way we get to see a glimpse of what life is like for the king of late night television when the cameras aren’t rolling.

Artwork: .75 Stars 

The way this book is written roughly half of the pages are in the format of a traditional book. What we’re left with is a series of full page panels showing the course of events on the show almost as if they are in slow motion. It’s a bit unorthodox. The big question is did it work? In a word, yes.

Story: .75 Stars 

I am still enjoying the “Tales from the Crypt” style of stories “Ice Cream Man” continues to put out. This story, while it tells you something happened on the first page, still finds ways to surprise the reader.

Dialogue: .75 Stars 

Due to the majority of this issue being scripted as a novella there wasn’t much in the way of dialogue. What we do get helps to paint a picture of what took place during the interview.

Editing: 1 Star 

This book has a lot of lettering in it. If this wasn’t done by scanning in a typed page the letterer had their work cut out for them. They pulled it off brilliantly though. It reads just like a traditional book.

Mechanics: .75 Stars 

With the way “Ice Cream Man” #23 bounces between traditional and comic book format it takes the reader a few pages to get comfortable with the flow of the story. Once that happens it’s very easy to fall into this book.

I liked the change of pace from the traditional comic book style that this issue gives us. With a $3.99 cover price I felt it was definitely worth the price of admission.