Image Comics is always looking to raise the bar on what it means to be comic. W. Maxwell Prince has accepted this challenge and will release ICE CREAM MAN in January 2018.
According to Image Comics, ICE CREAM MAN is a genre-defying comic book series featuring disparate “one-shot” tales of sorrow, wonder, and redemption. Each installment features its own cast of strange characters, dealing with their own special sundae of suffering. And on the periphery of all of them, like the twinkly music of his colorful truck, is the Ice Cream Man—a weaver of stories, a purveyor of sweet treats. Friend. Foe. God. Demon. The man who, with a snap of his fingers—lickety split!—can change the course of your life forever.
Monkeys Fighting Robots and Image Comics have teamed up to give you a behind-the-scenes look at Nimit Malavia’s ICE CREAM MAN #2 variant cover. Watch the video below and click full-screen.
Malavia gives great insight into his motivations and concept for the variant cover.
“I wanted to really emphasize the lush sinking feeling of our main character’s high, the slow melting of being one with your surroundings—and the difficulty of trying to pull oneself away from that feeling. And at once, amidst the confusion of sensual shapes, show a type of clarity in our main character’s eyes, that despite the overwhelming grasp her addiction has over her, seeing her partner trapped, she is determined to break free and save him,” said Malavia.
“Having read a few excerpts from the first issue, in particular, the darker tones that were being explored (not to mention Chris’ fantastically subdued pastel palette), this felt like a great opportunity to contrast the iconography with the brighter trappings of the title. In a way, much like the titular Ice Cream Man, the bright cotton-candy landscape serves as an entryway into the more essential themes of the narrative,” said Malavia.
Check out Malavia’s six-minute version of the video that documents other versions of the cover.
ICE CREAM MAN #2 is written by W. Maxwell Prince, with art by Martín Morazzo, Chris O’Halloran handles colors, with the variant by Malavia. The issue is titled ‘RAINBOW SPRINKLES’ – The second installment of this syrupy series of singular stories! Here, the lives of two very different kinds of opioid abusers intersect. But at whose behest? (I think you know the answer….)
Bug your local comic book store to order ICE CREAM MAN #2 by January 29, as the book hits the streets on February 21.
Are you excited for W. Maxwell Prince ICE CREAM MAN? Sound off in the comment section below.
