“I’m so excited. I’m so scared. I’m so, I’m so…scared!”
Poor Jessie Spano’s “Saved by the Bell” lament came almost 30 years ago; her heart kathumping on account of her reliance on “Keep Alert” caffeine pills to keep up with both school and her singing group, Hot Sundae. (The episode “Jessie’s Song” is much goofier — and Jessie’s quote forever in meme hell — thanks to NBC standards and practices’ decision to go with over-the-counter pep pills rather than the amphetamines originally written into the script. *the_more_you_know.gif*)
Spano’s excited dread — the nauseating, churning feeling of two things that should not go together, like a mayonnaise and mint chocolate chip ice cream sandwich doing turnovers in your gut — can be the result of too much caffeine (like the time in high school we brewed coffee with No Doz, my God what a terrible idea), too much sugar (like when I eat one too many super sweet protein bars) or, perhaps, trucker-grade speed. (Wouldn’t know about that last one, to be honest, but I did try a THC vape pen once, and that seems WILD now.)
But those internal loop de loops can also come from a great, creepy read — like writer W. Maxwell Prince and artist Martin Morazzo’s (along with colorist Chris O’Halloran) “Ice Cream Man.” Look, let’s be honest here: I’m in the pocket of big frozen dairy. Have been since “ICM” #2. (More real talk: I didn’t “get” #1. Probably still my least favorite issue.) And while Prince’s insights into the human condition and Morazzo’s ability to consistently pull off the impossible both have an impressive gravitational pull, it’s the kathump kathumping as I “flip” the pages on the glass screen normally reserved for the horrors of social media that keep me hooked.
But other creators taking on the “Ice Cream Man” mantle?
I’m so excited. I’m so scared.
Six months and 190,000 dead Americans ago, Prince and Morazzo announced “Quarantine Comix,” a series of charity mini comics set in the “ICM” world with both the main creative team and sets of four guest writers and artists. Now, with coronavirus all solved and behind us, Image has released a collected edition of all 10 stories in a handsome single issue — a publication that probably owes a lot to the creators’ insistence that floppies are “the best” as they say in a brief introduction. And while it is inherently uneven (as all anthologies are), it’s still a fantabulous work, a necessity for “ICM” fiends, a great primer for anyone looking to become a sad fiend and strongly recommended for anyone who needs more kathump kathump kathump in their life.
There was probably some other way of putting this volume together aside from the six Prince/Morazzo stories followed by the four guest pieces, but I like the clean, uncomplicated route that allows for a nice vibe in the more visually and thematically consistent first half before rolling to the bumpier back stretch. The Prince/Morazzo pieces are something between a greatest hits album and a collection of covers (maybe “Ice Cream Man Unplugged”?): Stories like “I Am What I Am (A Sonnet)” and “Secret Origins: Pinky Ring” go over familiar territory (that’d be Prince’s self-doubt and social media-fueled anxiety and an exploration of DC superheroes, respectively) but in a fresh way. Likewise, “True Original” works not only as a spin on the Christian story of the Garden of Eden but also as a companion piece to the “Hopscotch Melange” arc of #9-#12 as a rumination on the origins of sin and evil.
The guest pieces are where personal styles are most likely to come into play — I didn’t care for Al Ewing and PJ Holden’s “Creature Causeway,” but if you dig “Animal Crossing” and all of that turnip stuff, maybe it’ll hit you differently. Declan Shalvey’s “Nature Calls” works as a general morality-play-with-a-twist in the style of “The Twilight Zone,” and while that doesn’t hit the core “ICM” themes, that general thrust will never be unwelcome. “Mene, Mene, Tekel, Upharsin” (Deniz Camp, Artyom Topilin and Aditya Bidikar) and “Small” (Christopher Cantwell, Eoin Marron and O’Halloran) are the strongest of the guest stories; the former for best speaking to the chaos and callousness of the coronavirus pandemic and the latter for most closely fitting in with the tone, style and themes of “Ice Cream Man.”
Ultimately, the “Quarantine Comix” collection is both a commiseration and a celebration — a sad, somber dirge more satisfying and complex than a goofy goddamn slogan from Steve Geppi and proof that the medium is healthy and well even if all of us are not.
Prince has said there’s a change coming after “ICM” #24—either the end of the series, a hiatus or a switch to miniseries that will take up stories set in a specific part of the world they’ve created, such as a run of the superhero-inspired “Confection Comics” or (after reading “True Original”) maybe a stab at telling twisted biblical tales.
Whether it’s new creators, an extended break or a different format, it seems change is coming to “Ice Cream Man.”
I’m so excited. I’m so scared.
Will Nevin loves bourbon and AP style and gets paid to teach one of those things. He is on Twitter far too often.
