Sign in with Facebook
Loading...
256th out of 1,503 books
—
3,027 voters
Ice Haven
At long last: Daniel Clowes is back at Pantheon, with a brilliant new graphic novel already hailed by Time as “another of his hilariously 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....more
Welcome to Ice Haven! “It’s not as cold here as it sounds,” declares Random Wilder, our reluctant guide to this sleepy Midwestern town....more
Hardcover, 88 pages
Published
June 7th 2005
by Pantheon
(first published 2005)
Friend Reviews
To see what your friends thought of this book,
please sign up.
Community Reviews
(showing
1-30
of
3,000)
found this at a thrift store, totally stoked to read it. yeah two dollars fifteen cents!
Co-worker saw me reading this over lunch and commented "oh, some high-level reading, huh?" because it's got, y'know, pictures. Never mind that it's actually written for adults, making it maybe a higher level book than 80% of what I've been reading anyway. Grumble.
Because Dan Clowes is not an easy, breezy read. Ice Haven has a pretty large cast, all of whom have their own individual dramas going on, and every drama is given the same weight--from the parents whose son has been missing for a week t...more
Because Dan Clowes is not an easy, breezy read. Ice Haven has a pretty large cast, all of whom have their own individual dramas going on, and every drama is given the same weight--from the parents whose son has been missing for a week t...more
O estereótipo da cidadezinha idílica norte-americana é o palco para a colisão de histórias de um grande grupo de personagens que vive isolado nos seus mundos interiores, largamente ignorantes dos laços que os unem entre si. As histórias são inconclusivas, impermanentes, fatias congeladas no tempo de momentos passageiros da vida. O tom geral é de solidão, com os personagens presos dentro das suas esferas de pensamento, com contactos geralmente insatisfatórios.
Narrada sob o ponto de vista de um a...more
Narrada sob o ponto de vista de um a...more
Finished "Ice Haven".
It meanders between being brilliant and being annoyingly (dare I say) "emo". The most interesting characters to me are ones that seem to come and go in short spurts, whereas the ones that are showcased are very annoying, whiny people.
Perhaps it's because I've never been able to sympathize with that teenage attitude of self-importance, thinking they know everything there is to know about the world and that everyone owes them something. But Violet's abuse towards her parents d...more
It meanders between being brilliant and being annoyingly (dare I say) "emo". The most interesting characters to me are ones that seem to come and go in short spurts, whereas the ones that are showcased are very annoying, whiny people.
Perhaps it's because I've never been able to sympathize with that teenage attitude of self-importance, thinking they know everything there is to know about the world and that everyone owes them something. But Violet's abuse towards her parents d...more
view 1 comment
Bien, el cómic me gustó. Está muy corto, por cierto. Pasa algo especial con Daniel Clowes, esta es la segunda obra que leo de él y le pongo(de nuevo) 3 estrellas, porque sí, me gustó, pero hasta ahí. Aunque claro que le podría dar las cuatro estrellas considerando otras cosas; el intento por hacer una novela de los habitantes de una comunidad contando la vida de cada uno, sus personajes de lo más extravagantes, tanto su caracterización como psicológicamente; marginales, profundos, que quizá pare...more
I enjoyed this more than Ghost World and much more than Twentieth Century Eightball. There was more cohesion and meat to this story than the other two of Clowes' that I have read. The reader meets an array of characters from the city of Ice Haven and through their individual yet connected stories, a crime is solved during the course of the book.
The writing and art are really good in this comic strip novel. The juxtaposition of hearing the writers voice (and point of view) through a set of "narrators" of sorts, as well as through his characters leads readers on an interesting journey through Ice Haven. Although Random Wilder is consider the "narrator", he ultimately becomes a major player in the story. Watching his break down of faith in himself is hard. Harry Naybors, as another type of "narrator", has lots to say about the state of af...more
Feb 05, 2009
Bookmarks Magazine
added it
Graphic novelist Clowes's Ghost World illustrated his talent for creating alienated misfits; here, he's just as twisted. Ice Haven, based on the simple premise of the disappearance of a strange little boy (inspired, in turn, by the true story of child murderers Nathan Leopold and Richard Loeb), is actually quite complex. The more than 30 short strips form a portrait of a dull suburban town, and the blocky, dull-colored drawings mirror the themes: alienation, loneliness, entrapment. "It's not as
...more
A good, if slight, book from Clowes. Very funny in parts. Highly postmodern, although in an ingenuous and understated - not overly knowing - way. I was interested by the 'Vida goes to Hollywood' section - is its misogyny just self-referential self-mocking? Is it supposed to be that, yet still misogynistic in its own right? Is it more misanthropy than misogyny? I give Clowes the benefit of the doubt, and believe it is carefully constructed - both highlighting the misogyny of which Clowes has been...more
Mar 29, 2009
Patrick
added it
Eh. Took way too short a time to read to have much of an impact on me but still did have an impact on me, but in a cerebral way not really associated with the content of the story. Am I Random Fatass (forget his real name), or am I turning into him??? I liked what Clowes did with the page layouts and all that. Became a little too meta-meta-meta for my taste. Kid thinking big thoughts is both cute and cheap at same time. None of the characters were that interesting or believable, plot was nonexis...more
Another dark 'n' funny Clowes work with the author interjecting himself into a small-town story revolving around the disappearance and feared death of David Goldberg, a strange, chubby young boy. We have Mr. Ames, the detective, and his wife, who wishes she had more of him, but finds more where she can. Violet, who is dragged from her older boyfriend by her mother's remarriage and their relocation to Ice Haven, where her stepbrother Charles pines for her. Charmichael the weird miscreant. And Vid...more
"What torment, to know so well one's own character!"
I run hot and cold on Clowes. Loved "Ghost World." Hated "David Boring." Thought "Wilson" was pretty alright. I can confidently say that "Ice Haven" is my favorite work of his. Existential struggles of desire and frustration play out over the ages in the "emotional space" (and quiet Midwestern town) of Ice Haven. Participants include an unhappily married team of private investigators, an adolescent in love with his step-sister, a terrible local...more
I run hot and cold on Clowes. Loved "Ghost World." Hated "David Boring." Thought "Wilson" was pretty alright. I can confidently say that "Ice Haven" is my favorite work of his. Existential struggles of desire and frustration play out over the ages in the "emotional space" (and quiet Midwestern town) of Ice Haven. Participants include an unhappily married team of private investigators, an adolescent in love with his step-sister, a terrible local...more
If you're a fan of Daniel Clowes's comics, this one will probably please you as much as any of them, or nearly so. I liked the comic-strip-style chapters and the interrelated storylines and characters. Ice Haven features Clowes's distinctive and charming art, a collection of characters coping with fears and obsessions and their strained relationships, and a drab backdrop that manages to look like every place and no place at the same time. I would have liked the book even more if there had been m...more
On comics (graphic novels): “…Perhaps in [the value of the comics] schism lies the underpinning of what gives ‘comics’ its endurance as a vital form: while prose tends toward pure ‘interiority,’ coming to life in the reader’s mind, and cinema gravitates toward the ‘exteriority’ of experiential spectacle, perhaps ‘comics,’ in its embrace of both the interiority of the written word and the physicality of image, more closely replicates the true nature of human consciousness and the struggle between...more
My two-star rating is based not on my assessment of this book in the entire realm of books, but in relation to his other books that I have read. It wasn't my fave. In fact, I found it a little boring. There were a lot of blathering characters, something I would have found profound in my younger years, but now just make me want to yawn and look at the pictures. The illustrations stole the show in this one. I have a whole stack of Clowes that I plan on reading over the long weekend, and I'm sure t...more
Quite possibly Daniel Clowes masterpiece.
1 like · like · see review
An unrelentingly fun and scattered approach to the graphic novel genre, including some fine meta-commentary on the form itself. Thoughtful and precocious, this was a quick read, and the quickness of the read is, unfortunately, the only reason it's relegated the 3-star territory: there was ample room within the storyline and with these characters to stretch this out at least another thirty pages, and the brevity of the work made it feel regrettably underdone. Other than that, a good way to spend...more
This is a beautiful little gem that takes full advantage of the graphic novel (or "comics" as the character Harry would prefer) medium, which is why I read it for a second time. Clowes uses one of my favorite graphic novel methods--introducing a variety of storylines, bits of seemingly unrelated information and so forth, and then weaving them slowly together to bring out something that's both humorous and poignant. So in a small space of time I cared about every character, even the missing boy w...more
With an almost clinical tone, this comic surveys a small town. Amidst its moderately realist interweaving stories of the town's inhabitants, it contains a multitude of ironic and metatextual elements: shifts into inordinately cartoony art; cartoon gangster bunnies and children speaking of emulating Leopold and Loeb; a focus on writers (of the embittered type) and a snide comic book critic who provides a meta-summation of the comic itself; a tortured, self-aggrandizing-philosopher child who prese...more
Para empezar ya me encanta la forma física que tiene 'Ice Haven', horizontal y apaisado, recordándome una tira cómica de los periódicos, pero por dentro también tiene en cierto modo la forma de una tira cómica, porque son varias historias de varios personajes que se cruzan, dibujadas y presentadas con estilos algo diferentes. Me encanta como Clowes mezcla las historias de varios personajes que viven en un pueblo llamado Ice Haven, como incorpora sueños y flashbacks a la narración. Sí, narrativam...more
Written as a collection of short comic strips, each with its own title, this odd work from the author of Ghost World tells the story of the residents of the fictional town of Ice Haven and their dysfunctional interaction in the wake of the case of a missing child. Through the point of view of a troubled poet, a young intellectual in love with his miserable step sister, a private investigator neglecting his wife to solve the case and many other townsfolk the story unfolds with various suspects an...more
Interesting, clever, disturbing. Every spread or two is an episode about a different character in the town of Ice Haven, and you discern the connections among them as you read . . . which makes me think I might want to re-read this one. That element of mystery makes it interesting but I felt a bit experimented-upon. Clowes' later book "Wilson" has many similarly brilliant characterizations and an episodic format, but its focus on one character gives it a more unified story.
Feb 26, 2013
Leporidae
rated it
4 of 5 stars
·
review of another edition
Shelves:
graphic-novels-and-the-like
This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers. To view it,
click here.
Sorry comic book nerds but I don't think I'm a fan of Clowes. Will read Ghost World just because I should as part of my graphic novel - erm sorry - "comic-strip novel" bender but I don't think Clowes does a very good job of knowing how girls think. I didn't like creepy old neighbor men when I was a teen. Then again, my neighbor was Jerry Hell (true story) and he liked his booze, cigars, and young prostitutes.
Well constructed piece about a town and some stuff features a comic critic without being stupidly condescending to the role of the critic. Clowes is at his best when he experiments with form and this is a prime example of this. There is less of an overarching narrative than David Boring but it is ultimately more satisfying.
Not as affecting as Wilson but still dang good.
Not as affecting as Wilson but still dang good.
un bambino non tanto bambino vestito di pelliccia, una coppia di investigatori, uno scribacchino in crisi e una giovane aspirante scrittrice, coppie improbabili, esistenze semi-spezzate, strade vuote delle aree residenziali di ice haven, USA.
piccolo gioiellino, assolutamente all'altezza dei precedenti lavori di clowes.
voglio vivere a ice haven!
http://www.ferramenta.splinder.com/po...
piccolo gioiellino, assolutamente all'altezza dei precedenti lavori di clowes.
voglio vivere a ice haven!
http://www.ferramenta.splinder.com/po...
I liked the presentation of each character in the small town of Ice Haven appearing in their uniquely styled comic strip for their portion of the story, but I didn't find anything else original in this depiction of unhappy, misunderstood misfits wandering through lives as the mystery of a non-verbal boys disappearance makes its way through the life of the town.
I love Clowes passionately. I think his quirky voice has a lot to say and his The Death Ray is a work of staggering originality. ('Tis my favorite comic).But Ice Haven doesn't work for me. It's too forced, too self consciously trying to lay on the Americana. It has too many walk on and walk off parts; too many interludes; too many snapshots that doen't go anywhere special.
It don't work so well.
but hey! It's Clowes...so you gotta like some of it.
It don't work so well.
but hey! It's Clowes...so you gotta like some of it.
I read this quickly at first, but after i finished realized my error. Like most of Clowes work, Ice Haven rewards the reader after repeated readings. Also like most Clowes, the story isn't a straightforward telling most of the time. It's bits and pieces come together and give you the whole picture, not just of a few characters, but of an entire world.
Deserves a re-read, but I don't care enough to bother. Clowes tries a bit too hard to be post-modernly cerebral--the sort which is every bit as masterbatory as Michael Bay movies, but with an air of condescension. Maybe he's doing it intentionally as self-referential satire, maybe not. Either way, it gets old after awhile.
There are no discussion topics on this book yet.
Be the first to start one »
Daniel Gillespie Clowes is an Academy Award-nominated American author, screenwriter and cartoonist of alternative comic books. Most of Clowes' work appears first in his ongoing anthology Eightball (1989-present), a collection of self-contained narratives and serialized graphic novels. Several of these narratives have been collected published separately as graphic novels, most notably Ghost World....more
More about Daniel Clowes...
Share This Book
No trivia or quizzes yet. Add some now »
“I will be the biggest, richest, most popular writer in history. You just watch, dead reader. I'll be the biggest whore ever!”
—
3 people liked it
More quotes…
