Ice Haven (Pantheon Graphic Library) - Softcover

Clowes, Daniel

3.93

7,216 ratings by Goodreads

9780375714696: Ice Haven (Pantheon Graphic Library)

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0375714693 ISBN 13: 9780375714696

Publisher: Pantheon, 2011

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At long last, the paperback version of Daniel Clowes’s bril�liant graphic novel, hailed by Time as “another of his hilari�ously slightly off-center worlds that have a vague sense of dread about them. Kind of like where you live.”

Welcome to Ice Haven! “It’s not as cold here as it sounds,” declares Random Wilder, our reluctant guide to this sleepy Midwestern town. He’s also its would-be poet laureate. Would-be, that is, were it not for the “florid banalities” of his archrival, Ida Wentz, pub�lished ad nauseam in the Ice Haven Daily Progress. Among Wilder’s other fellow Ice Havians are the love�lorn Violet Vanderplazt and Vida Wentz; the adorable interracial moppets Carmichael and Paula; the Blue Bunny, newly sprung from prison and the bitterest rabbit in town; and poor little David Goldberg, miss�ing for more than a week now. . . .

The lives of the men and women of Ice Haven are woven into a multilayered tale that, while it owes a debt to Our Town, is ultimately based on and inspired by . . . Leopold and Loeb. No kidding.

Only Daniel Clowes could do it and, luckily for us, he has.

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About the Author:

DANIEL CLOWES is widely considered one of the best car�toonists of his generation; his adaptation of his own Ghost World graphic novel for the screen earned him an Oscar nomination. A regular contributor to The New Yorker, Mc�Sweeney’s, and The Best American Comics, he lives in Oak�land, California.

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
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