Ice Cream Man Vol. 9: Heavy Narration
W. Maxwell Prince, writer; Martín Morazzo, artist; Chris O’Halloran, colors
Image Comics, 2023
Four more generally bleak stand-alone stories: it has been a while since there was any hint of an overarching narrative, although I continue to hope for that kind of resolution eventually. I wonder if the creative team already has an ending in mind for the series, but are holding off on it to explore this world for a while longer. "The Kind of Story I Want to Write" finds Prince ruminating on the kind of bright, uplifiting stories he would like to write. But somehow he always winds up with the darkness of Ice Cream Man. The narrative switches between the two possibilities: happy (in color) and sad (in monochrome). "Two Tramps" follows two vagrants as they hop trains from town to town. They meet up with a third tramp, who turns out to be a vampire...and the cowboy Caleb (the good spirit who opposes the evil Ice Cream Man) reappears, so I guess there was a small callback to the big narrative. "The Book of Necessary Monsters" is a bestiary that presents things like earworms (song that get stuck in your head), shameful memories, the Ice Cream Man, and the Freight Train Dracula from the previous story as if they were literal, physical monsters. Maybe it should not be surprising, because the author is in the midst of a real-life nightmare. "Whale Song" tells the story of a modern Ahab, seeking the whale that swallowed his daughter Amelia whole. When he finds the whale he is swallowed himself, and discovers an entire world inside the beast. The collection concludes with covers and character sketches.
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