Ice Cream Man, Vol. 1 Review: Horror Anthology Genius
W. Maxwell Prince's brilliant, experimental horror anthology.
By Web Admin
There is a man who drives an ice cream truck through the quiet streets of American suburbia, and wherever he goes, lives quietly come apart. He is not quite the villain, not quite the narrator, not quite anything you can name — and he is the closest thing to a throughline in Ice Cream Man, one of the most inventive and unsettling horror comics of the last decade. This is our review of Volume 1, “Rainbow Sprinkles.”
Published by Image Comics in 2018, Ice Cream Man from writer W. Maxwell Prince and artist Martín Morazzo isn’t a single story at all. It’s an anthology of standalone nightmares, each issue its own self-contained tragedy, loosely haunted by the same smiling figure. If you love horror that experiments with form and finds dread in the everyday, this is close to essential.
What is Ice Cream Man?
Ice Cream Man is a creator-owned ongoing series written by W. Maxwell Prince, drawn by Martín Morazzo, and colored by Chris O’Halloran. It began at Image Comics in January 2018. Volume 1, “Rainbow Sprinkles,” collects the first four issues and runs around US$13.
The crucial thing to understand is that it’s an anthology. Each issue tells a wholly separate story about different people in different places, usually ordinary Americans whose lives curdle into horror, tragedy, or the surreal. The only recurring element is the Ice Cream Man himself — a shape-shifting, seemingly immortal figure who drifts through each tale, sometimes central, sometimes a background detail, always faintly wrong.
The anthology format is the point
If you come to Ice Cream Man expecting a serialized plot that builds week to week, you’ll be confused. There is no rising action across the volume, no cliffhanger arc to follow. Instead, each issue is a complete short story — a self-contained gut-punch you could hand to someone who’s never read the series. That structure is a feature: it makes the book endlessly re-readable and lets Prince and Morazzo take enormous swings without the safety net of continuity.
For that reason, it’s one of the best horror books for readers who love standalone stories and don’t want to commit to a long ongoing saga. You can dip in anywhere.
The formal experiments
What elevates Ice Cream Man from “good horror anthology” to “one of the most exciting comics being made” is its restless formal invention. Later issues (and the ones that follow this volume) are built around wild structural conceits — stories told backwards, palindrome issues that read the same forwards and back, crossword-puzzle layouts, choose-your-own-path gimmicks, split-screen lives. Even in Volume 1, Prince and Morazzo are already bending the form to fit each story’s emotional logic. It’s the kind of book that reminds you comics can do things no other medium can.
The real subject: human pain
Here’s what surprises people. For all its surreal horror trappings, Ice Cream Man is really about ordinary human suffering: addiction, grief, loneliness, illness, regret, the quiet despair humming under suburban life. The supernatural elements are often metaphors for very real pain. That’s why the book lingers. The scariest thing in it isn’t the Ice Cream Man — it’s how accurately it captures the ways real lives fall apart.
Morazzo and O’Halloran’s art
Martín Morazzo’s clean, precise linework is the perfect delivery system for this material. His style is almost cheerful and cartoon-bright on the surface, which makes the horror hit harder when it arrives — the sweetness curdling into the grotesque. Chris O’Halloran’s color does enormous work, shifting palette and mood to match each story’s tone. The contrast between the sunny suburban surface and the rot underneath is the whole aesthetic.
A few of the standout stories
Without spoiling their turns, the four issues in “Rainbow Sprinkles” already show the range Prince and Morazzo are working in. One follows two neighboring boys whose friendship curdles under the weight of their families’ dysfunction. Another spirals into a hallucinatory descent tied to addiction, where the panel structure itself starts to come apart. A third finds cosmic dread in something as small and domestic as an infestation. What ties them together isn’t plot but a shared sensibility — the sense that the ordinary world is one bad day away from horror, and that the Ice Cream Man is always parked just up the street.
That tonal consistency is why the anthology format never feels scattershot. Even though the characters change every issue, the book has a single, unmistakable voice: melancholy, mordantly funny, and quietly furious about how much people suffer. By the end of Volume 1 you understand exactly what kind of series you’re reading, even if you couldn’t tell someone “what it’s about” in one sentence.
Content warning
Ice Cream Man is emphatically for adults, and it can be genuinely distressing. Across its stories it depicts graphic body horror, drug addiction and overdose, suicide, the death of children, grief, and disturbing violence. It handles these themes seriously rather than exploitatively, but they are heavy and unflinching. Please pick it up knowing that.
How it fits the horror shelf
- Prefer serialized dread? Try Jeff Lemire’s Gideon Falls or Scott Snyder’s Wytches for connected, arc-driven horror.
- Love anthology creepiness? Ice Cream Man is the modern gold standard.
- Want the full genre map? Our best horror comics guide places it among the greats.
Pros and cons
Pros
- Every issue is a complete, re-readable short story
- Fearless formal experimentation
- Genuinely affecting emotional core beneath the horror
- Perfect entry point — start anywhere, no homework
Cons
- No overarching plot; frustrating if you want serialization
- Extremely dark, distressing themes
- Bleakness can be relentless in one sitting
Which edition should you buy?
The series is long-running, but there’s a great value option if you get hooked.
| Edition | Collects | Approx. price | Best for |
|---|---|---|---|
| Volume 1: Rainbow Sprinkles | Issues #1–4 | ~US$13 | Trying it out |
| Later volumes | Four issues each | ~US$16 each | Continuing readers |
| Deluxe / oversized editions | Multiple volumes | ~US$40+ | Best value binge |
The verdict
Ice Cream Man is one of the most quietly essential horror comics of its generation — a book that treats each issue as a chance to reinvent what a comic can be, while never losing sight of the human pain at its heart. If you can handle the darkness, it’s a masterclass in short-form horror and a permanent fixture on our best horror comics and best Image Comics lists, and a highlight of the whole Indie & Image hub.
Frequently asked questions
Do I need to read Ice Cream Man in order?
Not really. It’s an anthology of standalone stories, so you can start almost anywhere — though Volume 1 is the natural first purchase and introduces the tone.
Who is the Ice Cream Man?
Deliberately never fully explained. He’s a shape-shifting, seemingly immortal figure who appears in every story — sometimes as the cause of the horror, sometimes just a bystander. The mystery is part of the appeal.
How dark is Ice Cream Man?
Very. It deals unflinchingly with addiction, suicide, grief, and body horror. It’s a serious, distressing adult read, not casual scares.
Is Ice Cream Man good for horror beginners?
It’s a great entry point in terms of format — you can read a single self-contained issue — but its heavy themes mean it suits readers comfortable with dark, mature material.
For connected, arc-driven scares next, see our best horror comics guide, or explore more one-and-done gems in our standalone graphic novels roundup.
