Ice Haven - Hardcover First Printing

A Mint condition first printing out of print in hardcover.

Welcome to Ice Haven! 'It's not as cold here as it sounds.' So declares Random Wilder, the town's would-be poet laureate. Would be, that is, were it not for the 'florid banalities' of arch-rival poet Ida Wentz, whom the Ice Haven Daily Progress continues to publish 'ad nauseam'. Random is our ersatz guide to the sleepy midwestern hamlet, and just one of many characters we meet in this ingenious novel told in the form of short comic strip instalments - a form that Time magazine regarded as reminiscent of Robert Altman. In addition to Wilder, we meet a captivating cast of characters. There are the lovelorn lovelies Violet Van der Platz and Vida Wentz, the detective team of Mr and Mrs Ames, those adorable interracial moppets Carmichael and Paula, and the disaffected stationery salesgirl Julie Patheticstein, just to mention a few. Along with the Blue Bunny, the bitterest rabbit in town, fresh-sprung from prison and ready to wreck havoc: 'I paid my dues! It's all about ME this time!!' And lest we forget: poor little David Goldberg, who's been missing for over a week now...All of this blends together seemlessly to weave a fascinating, multi-layered tale that is ultimately based on and inspired by - wait for it - Leopold and Loeb.

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.