The best kind of fiction isn’t just one genre, as is usually the case with Ice Cream Man. The series offers new tales, usually of the disturbing persuasion, but it was not until this week in Ice Cream Man #42 that writer W. Maxwell Prince sat down and hammered out a singular horror story. It’s a comic one-shot that bends genre, shows us the world outside our window, and makes us all the more scared for it.
Ice Cream Man #42 opens with a trigger warning, which is fitting given this is a story about what is truly horrific. Some might say spiders are the scariest thing or the dark, but Prince and artist Martin Morazzo reveal it’s none of those things. It’s real life. Those real-life things, like school shootings, pop up in the trigger warning as this issue makes you think about the things going on all around us.
After the trigger warning, this issue opens with the ice cream man performing surgery with a few dogs. As if to remind us the Ice Cream Man horror host is about as ridiculous as those dogs who play poker in the famous painting, this is not the scary part of the story.
Once again the creative team breaks from conventional storytelling.
Credit: Image
From there, the issue dives into narration by Prince himself, as is seen when he signs Ice Cream Man comics at a convention. Like a strongly written essay Prince points out his comic was never meant to be strictly horror, that is until this issue.
From there, the story follows a family of four: a dad, a mom, a daughter, and a dog. They’re moving to their relative’s house out in the boonies, and horror elements litter the street, literally, like a vulture eating a cat and spiders crawling on a tree trunk. Prince plays with our expectations as the family enters the home, and we expect the boogeyman to pop out. It’s not until we learn of three horror doors in the basement that the real horror begins.
I don’t want to spoil the reveals, as each door does, in fact, lead to utter horror—each one detailed with actual newspaper clippings of real-life horror. Once it dawns on you what horror is behind each door, Prince and Morazzo show us the truth of that horror in heavily captioned pages detailing the atrociousness of American life.
Morazzo’s art is exceptional, as always, with a nice level of detail in faces and backgrounds. Something he’s exceptionally good at is using shockingly blank backgrounds at opportune times to draw your attention and shock you. The use of real-world media is well done, as if photocopied in some horrific true crime show.
At the end of the day, this issue is a reminder that horror is an escape from reality because real life is far scarier than any horror story. This issue leans into the horror genre as Prince and Morazzo deliver a story directly meant to draw out your darkest fears and hopelessness.
Ice Cream Man #42 is a masterful exploration of the boundaries between fiction and reality, blending horror and social commentary in a way that is both chilling and thought-provoking. W. Maxwell Prince and Martin Morazzo craft a narrative that forces readers to confront the terrors of the real world, proving that no monster under the bed can rival the horrors lurking in everyday life. With its striking art, layered storytelling, and deeply unsettling themes, this issue isn’t just a comic — it’s a wake-up call. By the end, you’re left grappling with an uncomfortable truth: we’re living in the scariest story of them all. It’s a great wake-up call before the next issue’s guest-filled entry.
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