An Ice Cream For The King Review - A Whimsical Tale of Adventure and Charm
Reading time: 2 minutes
How about something short and sweet as a mini 99 with a flake and sprinkles in art as whimsical as chasing the notes of Greensleeves on a summer afternoon for a screwball? Set sail for An Ice Cream For The King by William Healy.
William Healy is an illustrator, animator, musician and sculptor. Williams' previous works include Pioneer Cadets illustrations, The Adventures Of The Crêped Crusader by Mark Wain, Roads To Rome (US Animated comedy), BBC (Stranger Than Sci-fi Podcast, Great Ormond Street and Drop Zone TV Pilot). An Ice Cream For The King is William's debut comic. Maker met it's the moment of examination.
So, let's start with the art. Williams' art for An Ice Cream For The King is black & white art charm riddled-sweetness with shades of Herge via Quentin Blake and Tillie Walden. It's a delicate, cute, delicious style of happiness, invoking joy. This art is beautiful in simplicity and a reserved, concise creation of whimsy. The art on offer will delight and charm in equal measure. It will deliver a treat to your eyeballs from start to finish. Adorable art admired its story time.
William Healy bestows a silly and quaint tale of a craving for ice cream for an isolated island king and the industrious ice cream lady who is willing to engineer her way to him. The whole tale is instigated by a washed-up treasure chest and the captain's log and ends satisfyingly, if abruptly. It's a nice touch to leave an open end for future tales. This one does feel like a story that would be fun to get more from.
There's really great humour in here. As a story, it is very appealing to a large audience of all ages. It has the strong feel of an improvised bedtime story in a really fun, easy-going, entertaining way. The punnery on offer is sure to elicit wry smiles in older readers. Little ones will be regaled by the adventure antics and high sea shenanigans combined with the peppered-through silly moments. This isn't some deep world-view changing imparter of knowledge. It's just a great example of fun and endearing storytelling presented in a very pretty way. A perfect antidote to blue afternoons. Nice personified in all its presentations.
For fans of fantasy, fun, islands, ice cream, kings, the perceived threat of a rubber duck that squeaks being disproportionately dealt with in an unconstitutional way, underpants, treasure chests and high sea battles in art to delight in its delectable presentation, set a course for An Ice Cream For The King.
To get your copy, head to https://www.willmotionstudios.com/shop, where you'll find the book and a little more on the man behind it. Now is an even better time to treat yourself or someone special as it is on sale for the ridiculous price of £2.50. A major bargain.
Review: A ship shape 4.4/5
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