Ice Haven - ISBNLookup.com

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Welcome to the sleepy little town of Ice Haven, which wakes up under the watchful eye of would-be poet laureate Random Wilder. Ghost World impresario Daniel Clowes presents the intertwined stories of Ice Haven locals with frames that feature vivid coloring and careful, yet unforced linework. At the core of this multilayered tale is the disappearance of little David Goldberg, but it emerges from the interaction of a captivating cast of characters.

Joey Anuff

When I later marveled to my friend that, on first pass, I'd failed to crack the case of young David Goldberg's disappearance, I could tell that Clowes's misdirection had fooled him, too. Which is to say, don't be surprised if Ice Haven becomes your favorite comic long before you've solved its many mysteries.
— The Washington Post

Publishers Weekly

Clowes (Ghost World) casts a harsh spotlight on the misfit dreamers who inhabit the small town of Ice Haven in this riveting graphic novel. Originally published in a somewhat different form as part of Clowes's occasional comic book Eightball, this piece finds 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) Copyright 2005 Reed Business Information.

Library Journal

In a deceptively simple style and format reminiscent of Sunday newspaper strips, Clowes unsparingly explores the lives of a small town's residents-a lovelorn teen girl, a boy genius, a failed poet, a comic book critic-and their reactions to the disappearance of a young boy. (LJ 11/15/05) Copyright 2006 Reed Business Information.