The creative team behind Image’s Ice Cream Man is dealing a new hand in storytelling technique. The Ice Cream Man: The Mortal Coil Shuffle one-shot by W. Maxwell Prince, Martín Morazzo, and Chris O’Halloran will be told across a deck of 55 cards rather than on traditional comic book pages.

Some of the cards will tell parts of the story, some will cast spells on characters, and some join with other cards to form complete art pieces. There are also trick cards, “rude intrusions,” and wild cards, and the custom-designed deck of cards features custom backs and a special box.

“I love storytelling challenges so you can say I’ve always been very pleased with Ice Cream Man,” Morazzo said. “Now, more than 44 issues in, it’s awesome we’re still trying crazy, never-done-before, stuff!”

“When I was nine, I contracted chicken pox. And the only person available to watch me while sick was my German next door neighbor – a lovely woman named Inge, who, over time, would become a sort of surrogate grandmother to me,” Prince said. “She taught me how to play Gin rummy that be-pocked week, and if I close my eyes now I can still hear her shuffling the deck, tapping her gigantic press-on nails onto the table between drags of her extra long Kool cigarettes.”

Ice Cream Man: The Mortal Coil Shuffle will only be printed once, with no plans for second printings or collected editions. It will be in stores on October 1, 2025.