Ice Haven

Originally published in a somewhat different form as part of Daniel 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. This group of oddballs plays 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 multi-faceted story as a series of brief comics, some drawn in a wildly cartoony style, others in his well-known 20th-centeury style. Color illus. 88p.