Ice Haven (Hardcover)

by Daniel Clowes (Author)

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly
Starred Review. Clowes (Ghost World) casts a harsh spotlight on the misfit dreamers who inhabit the small town of Ice Havenin this riveting graphic novel. Originally published in a somewhat different form as part of Clowes's occasional comic book Eightball, this piecefinds Clowes moving beyond the withering satire of his earlier works to a more nuanced style. Readers will wince even as they feel sympathy for the self-deluded characters who reside in Ice Haven. Take narrator Random Wilder, writer of doggerel poetry. One would think it'd be easy to be the best poet in a place like Ice Haven, but Wilder has a rival: Ida Wentz, an old woman who likes to bake cookies. Wilder spends his spare time plotting against her. Ida's visiting granddaughter, Vida, also has literary yearnings, despite having sold zero copies of her fanzine. These and other oddballs play out their stories against the mysterious disappearance of a little boy named David Goldberg, whose possible murder recalls the Leopold and Loeb case. Clowes unfolds the multifaceted story as a series of brief comics, some drawn in a wildly cartoony style, others in his well-known mid–20th-century look. Masterfully blending fact and fiction, this is a funny, sad, chilling and absurd work. (June)
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From School Library Journal
Grade 10 Up–Previously published in the independent comic-book series Eight Ball, this is a darkly comic romp through the small Midwestern town of Ice Haven. The basic story is pretty straightforward: a sad, quiet little boy named David Goldberg vanishes. But instead of delivering a pulp-inspired detective story, Clowes uses the child's tale mostly as a backdrop. His real interest is in the lives of the bizarre, yet all-too-real townsfolk. They include a lovesick teen, an irritable private detective, a poet, and a schoolyard bully. Although the characters are types, the author/illustrator embellishes them enough to make them unique and memorable. Through vignettes that jump perspective every few pages, readers witness their lives and individual reactions to David's disappearance. As the point of view shifts, so does the artwork. In showing how the event affects the boy's classmates, the panels take on a style inspired by Charles Schultz's Peanuts, but Clowes moves into satire with a bleakly funny schoolyard of kids talking quite openly about sex, drugs, and violence. Other vignettes pull from the motifs of detective strips, teen romances, and The Flintstones. While well-read comics fans will get most of the jokes, some references may frustrate or confuse readers. Overall, though, there is plenty here to enjoy.–Matthew L. Moffett, Northern Virginia Community College, Annandale
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

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Product Details

• Hardcover: 88 pages
• Publisher: Pantheon (June 7, 2005)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 037542332X
• ISBN-13: 978-0375423321
• Product Dimensions: 7.8 x 5.5 x 0.7 inches
• Shipping Weight: 8.8 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 3.7 out of 5 stars See all reviews (14 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #192,312 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

17 of 23 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars This is Eightball issue 22!, June 18, 2005

By	R. Wade "darumah" (Norfolk, VA) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

Eightball 22 is my favorite of Daniel Clowes' works and when I read reviews of Ice Haven I was really excited because I thought the story would fall along the same lines, but I had no idea that it was going to be the same book disguised as a new book. If I new that I was buying the same book with 3 extra strips, I would not have bought it. I am giving the book 5 stars because I still love the storyline and if you don't have Eightball 22 than it is well worth the money, but I am very upset with Daniel Clowes' cheap attempt to release an old book as new.

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Where have you gone Daniel Clowes?, September 6, 2007

By	J Feegin "Pumpkin Bear" (Iowa City, IA USA) - See all my reviews

It's very good, but just buy Eightball #22. I realize that many of the other reviews have said basically the same thing, but let's make a clear distiction between the sham of charging almost twenty dollars for a book that's barely distinguishable from the $6 comic (still available from the same publisher!) and the amazing piece of art that they both are. I can see that it's a matter of taste, and the non-linear story will not appeal to everyone, but Eightball #22 is still the comic I give non-fans to read in hopes of showing them what the medium is capable of. Let's all boycott Clowes's movies so he goes back to doing comics! I'm half kidding of course, but it's interesting and sad that "making it" in independent comics often means being able to leave comics for film, television, and the like. **Sigh**

2 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars What a Tease., June 22, 2005

By	Christy Arlinghaus "clowes reader" (Ice Haven) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

Ice Haven is a quaint little town in which not much action occurs. Until one day, an apathetic, mute boy named David is kidnapped! (GASP) This sets the characters of Ice Haven's lives into motion. At least a couple of them. You see, this book centers around about 8 characters. Besides the kidnapping story, it hints at others, such as: young, naive love (of course!), poetry, marriage, lonliness, sex, adultery, and all the others that you would expect from a Dan Clowes comic. And while all these subjects would make very interesting reading, in Ice Haven it is only hinted at. The characters aren't that well developed and the stories are very short. Unlike comics like Ghost World, and David Boring, this book is an 88 page teaser! Clowes starts you off with one character and briefly hints at what their about. Then he jumps to the next. By the end of the book, you want more. Because of this, some of the stories seemed unresolved. Of course it was fun to read, but way too short.