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CBG SATELLITES
The ADD Blog by Alan David Doane
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Ice Haven
The story centers around the disappearance of a young child, David
Goldberg, and the subsequent effect on various people throughout the
community, including the story's narrator, Random Wilder, comic critic
Harry Naybors, the young Charlie-Brown-inspired Charles, his
step-sister Violet, Ice Haven newcomer Vida, and Mr. and Mrs. Ames,
detectives for hire.
Clowes draws some obvious, and a few not-so-obvious inspirations from
so many varied places that I could easily write a column, or even a
series of columns about them all. The disappearance of David Goldberg
is inspired/based on the true story of Bobby Franks, a child kidnapped
and murdered by Richard Leopold and Nathan Loeb in 1924, a fact that
is repeatedly referenced in the book's pages. Clowes even devotes a
series of panels to the telling of that story. Elements of Thornton
Wilder's Our Town can surely be found, and then there are the
obviously Schulz-inspired children of Ice Haven, and there are trace
amounts of Hitchcock to be discovered as well, the most obvious of
which is likely his film Rope, which is based on a stage play
inspired by the crime of Loeb and Leopold. The way Clowes sets up his
tale is reminiscent of Robert Altman's film Short Cuts (which
itself is based on a series of short stories by Raymond Carver), but
while both Ice Haven and Short Cuts have various
narratives that seem to cross paths as well as a central location,
that's probably where the similarities end.
Where Altman's film serves as a window into the lives of a few L.A.
citizens, Clowes uses his Ice Haven vignettes as a tool for
examining ourselves. The characters of the book address so many
different human concerns that it would be a disservice to both the
work and the reader to try and discuss them all at length here. The
most prominent though is love and its many forms. Each character in
the book, with the possible exception of one, expresses some form of
love, or what we/they perceive as love, within their story, be it
Vida's obsessiveness over Random and his poetry, Random's
self-obsessed rants as well as his feelings for the town of Ice Haven,
Charles's unrequited longing for his step-sister Violet, her desire to
escape her current life by way of long-distance boyfriend Penrod, even
young George's affection for his stuffed blue bunny; the list can go
on and on.
Clowes's art is very cinematic in a number of places, and at times the
pages can seem like storyboards for a film, and the relationship
between film and comics is something Clowes addresses briefly through
comic book critic Harry Naybors. Often times his panel layouts are
evocative of certain well known styles of cinematic scenes. His
close-ups are always haunting and no two ever feel the same; be it
Random in his distinguishably goofy and beady eyed glory, or Violet
staring vacantly off into space as she contemplates going all the way
with her boyfriend Penrod. Clowes's ability and willingness to make
his dialogue seem unimportant is one of the book's more fascinating
elements, and another example of the importance of visual storytelling
in the book. In quite a few panels the words within them are excised
in favor of showing the characters emotional state by way of simple
expressions. It's not a tool used often, but it's used to great effect
when it is employed here.
As mentioned, the children of Ice Haven are at the very least some
distant, more adult cousin to Charles Schulz's Peanuts
characters, and as such the panels focusing on them feel like
something out of the Sunday paper, some so precisely "Schulz" that the
resemblance is a bit jarring, but not in a negative way. It's
admittedly hysterical to see a Charlie Brown clone wax poetic about
human nature and sexual desire, as well as envisioning the murder of
poor missing David Goldberg, but at the same time the words ring true
and you find yourself nodding along to the rants of a kid who wants
nothing more than to have a romantic relationship with his
step-sister.
Ice Haven represents the best of what comics can offer;
compelling stories involving relatable characters and a look at
ourselves and the problems of our life and those in the lives of the
people around us through the eyes of strangers. With Ice Haven
Clowes has built a story full of so many layers that once you begin to
pull them back, it's impossible to stop. Each story has a mystery
behind it, and while Clowes has laid the clues to solving the
mysteries within each of them, he never attempts to solve them. As in
life we're left to draw our own conclusions, to rationalize to
ourselves what we believe to be true; there are no definite
answers.
Perhaps the most entertaining bit of dialogue Clowes offers up in
Ice Haven, at least to those in the business of critiquing
comic books, or, hell, critiquing anything, comes through Mr. Ames.
After meeting Harry Naybors, Ames offers up this little tidbit: "If a
comic book is presumed to be 'art,' then can't we also presume that it
is made up of qualities inherent to its chosen form, qualities that,
by definition, defy verbal description? Isn't it incredibly pompous to
presume to quantify in words something that is intrinsically beyond
the range of words?"
Yes, yes it is.
-- Logan Polk
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This Ice Haven hardcover edition features material from
Eightball #22, some of which has been re-worked, as well as
several new strips, which may enhance the enjoyment of the book for
both new readers and those wanting to revisit the town of Ice
Haven.