Nine volumes in and Ice Cream Man is still able to put out a pretty decent collection - so it goes with Volume 9: Heavy Narration.
This is just me speculating but I wonder if the first story, The Kind of Story I Want to Write, is W. Maxwell Prince admitting he wants to be like Grant Morrison. The cover (both to the comic and this book) is an homage to Batman and Robin, Volume 1: Reborn and he and Martin Morazzo’s recent series, Art Brut, is similar in style and content to Morrison’s Doom Patrol, Volume 2: The Painting That Ate Paris. Maybe Prince is hinting that he wants to write for DC too or maybe I’m just reading too much into it and it’s all just stuff!
Anyway, it’s a fine story that showcases lighter, more positive fiction vs the kind of fiction that Prince writes in this series - a fantasy vs reality comparison that also speaks to the human condition where there are the types of people we wish we were and the people we actually are and how the two sometimes don’t marry up.
Two Tramps is my favourite story here, about two transients riding the rails who encounter a dangerous stranger. It’s a realistic and sad portrayal of that life rather than a romanticisation of it, and you can tell where it’s headed as soon as Mac mentions the craziest thing he’s ever heard, but it’s still entertaining and the ending is beautiful.
I also get the impression from this story that Prince has given up on explaining the Ice Cream Man and the dark world of this series - there’s just an Ice Cream Man and a Cowboy at odds with each other and that’s that. And I feel like that’s a good idea - not just because it doesn’t really need explaining to enjoy this horror anthology series, but it also means the series is that much more accessible to newer readers. You don’t need to have read the preceding eight books, you can just pick up any book in the series and start there, regardless of numbering.
The Book of Necessary Monsters is about a crazy writer working on his masterpiece. The framing of the story isn’t bad and I liked the increasing creepiness of hearing his family calling him to dinner, but it’s not the most fun to read. That’s due in large part to the abundance of pure prose pages that make up this comic, most of which were about dull half-baked horror concepts.
Whale Song closes out this book. It’s a surreal fantasy about a fisherman looking for his missing daughter who was swallowed by a whale, gets swallowed himself, and discovers an odd underworld of bizarre fairy tale and nursery rhyme figures living within the whale. I didn’t quite get the story but it gave Martin Morazzo a chance to shine drawing some really fantastic imagery.
Morazzo in general is wonderfully consistent with his art, producing issue after issue of top tier comics visuals. Along with the art in Whale Song, I loved the brooding atmosphere he gave Two Tramps, the spider woman in the wallpaper in The Book of Necessary Monsters is hella creepy and his comparisons really sells the story of The Kind of Story I Want to Write.
Two of the four stories in this book are good and the art throughout is great - Ice Cream Man, Volume 9: Heavy Narration is a solid addition to the series and a fine read for any comics horror fans.
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