Swan Songs Vol. 1

Swan Songs

by W. Maxwell Prince, Martin Simmonds (cover_art)

W. MAXWELL PRINCE (ICE CREAM MAN) continues to push the comics envelope with SWAN SONGS—a moving, multi-artist anthology that explores the way things END…and also how they never really do.   
The End of the World. The End of a Marriage. The End of Eden. The End of a Sentence. The End of Anhedonia. …Even The End of the Sidewalk!
And along for the terminal ride are some of the industry’s best, brightest artists! MARTIN SIMMONDS (DEPARTMENT OF TRUTH), CASPAR WIJNGAARD (HOMESICK PILOTS), FILIPE ANDRADE (The Many Deaths of Laila Starr), CAITLIN YARSKY (Black Hammer), ALEX ECKMAN-LAWN (renowned collage master), and MARTÍN MORAZZO (ICE CREAM MAN) each contribute a chapter in their respective (and beloved) styles, resulting in a stunning melange of powerful stories that weave their way through death, love, divorce, crime, therapy, and language itself.
All things come to a close; these are the SWAN SONGS. 
Collects SWAN SONGS #1-6

Genres: Comics, Graphic Novels, Short Stories, Anthologies, Horror, Comic Book, Graphic Novels Comics

193 pages, Kindle Edition

Published March 13, 2024

About the author

W. Maxwell Prince writes in Brooklyn and lives with his wife, daughter, and two cats called Mischief and Mayhem. He is the author of One Week in the Library, The Electric Sublime, and Judas: The Last Days. When not writing, he tries to render all of human experience in chart form.

Reviews

[Drew Canole · Rating 3 out of 5]

I really love these one and done comics by Prince. Each of these issues has a different artist and are loosely bound by the concept of being someone's swan song.

Top notch writing throughout. Perhaps my favourite was issue 3. Drawn with loose lines and colored pencils, a cool post-apocalyptic story.

[Bandit · Rating 5 out of 5]

A superb anthology done in Prince's inimitable style. Anyone familiar with his work from his Ice Man series, would expect a significant amount of bleakness here. And sure enough, there it is, in every page of these six sad tales of endings. But also, there's beauty and poignancy and all the things that make the author's work so darkly compelling.
Each story uses a different artist, starting most auspiciously with the phenomenally talented Marin Simmonds. Each story will emotionally gut you if you let it. No matter how stoic you are, these tales will get under your skin.
Yes, the last one is a bit indulgently whimsy with the poems taking you into an all-too familiar territory, but overall, this is a terrific anthology and a great read from an incredibly talented author. Recommended.

This and more at https://advancetheplot.weebly.com/

[Matthew Ward · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book lived up to the hype I thought it deserved. Incredible ICM-esque anthology storytelling about endings. Ironically, and because of how much I was enjoying the stories, the art in each issue by different artists, and the way this one made me feel, I really wish this anthology didn’t have to end.

[Ed Erwin · Rating 4 out of 5]

Mostly good. But the attempted poetry in one of the stories is a crime against humanity. (The idea of imitating Shel Silverstein is a good one, but it fails due to Prince's apparent lack of an ear for meter.)

[Jiro Dreams of Suchy · Rating 4 out of 5]

I love the ice cream man series, it’s always super creative and horribly disturbing (in the best way)

This new series feels like a more serious ice cream man. If ice cream man is a Terrifier this series is more Hereditary, I really enjoy both. I found the last comic to really be the only one that felt like ice cream man while the first five are their own thing.

I wonder if this was his attempt at doing a Stephen King to Richard Bachman, like do people like this series or my stories? I really like his stories!

[Gustavo · Rating 4 out of 5]

Não pretendo detalhar toda a experiência aqui, mas há partes em Canções do Cisne que me deixaram impressionado pela qualidade artística e técnica. Nada no quadrinho é fruto do acaso, e ainda assim tudo se harmoniza de forma tão incrível. São seis histórias cujo tema central é “o fim das coisas”, e pra minha infelicidade eu tive que terminar de ler. Mas essa não é a proposta de tudo?

[Chris · Rating 4 out of 5]

NYE seemed like the right time to read this one

[Benji Glaab · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is Maxwell Prince in his Ice Cream Man wheelhouse churning out a great anthology with a guest artist for each issue, and a common theme of all things must come to an end. And how things come to an end, and what we do when things end.

The first 2 issues were so strong, but the rest range from quite weak to middling.

The first issue is an apocalypse issue with some very quirky writing and an unusual premise with the artist form James Tynion's Department of Truth series, Martin Simmonds. Very recognizable and quite stunning look.

The second issue that caught me was a brilliant issue told from two perspectives of a couple going to battle in ending a marriage and the divorce process. The writing and framing device is absolutely genius and I could really relate to the relationship in here.

Now I await more ICM from Maxwell Prince but won't hesitate to pick up any more anthologies from them they are always so inventive and unique.

[Valéria. · Rating 5 out of 5]

Swan Songs are amazing. Each issue brining the ending of something else. For fans of Prince for sure, for those who did not his writing very imaginative, not so much I guess, but I would recommend at least to give it a try. Some of those stories are really beautiful and if not for story, I bet you will like at least art in some of them.
For me, 5/5 each one of them.

[Doreen · Rating 4 out of 5]

4/3/2024 Just realized that W Maxwell Prince wrote all these stories. Y'all, that's some range. Full review tk at TheFrumiousConsortium.net.

4/4/2024 With seven different artists, one for each story except for the last, which has two.

And, shoot, I didn't even realize that W Maxwell Prince had written every story in this comics anthology till I started writing this review, which should attest to the quality of his work and his capacity for diversity! I thought his Art Brut Vol 1 was the most brilliant graphic novel of last year (I even nominated it for the Hugos even tho I knew I was fighting my usual losing battle there,) and am so thrilled to be able to dive further into his oeuvre as he sets his gaze on the theme of endings in this excellent mind-bender of a collection.

And here's the thing: while the first and third stories (and arguably the sixth) are explicitly speculative fiction about the end of the world, the rest sit easily in our real world, where the battles portrayed exist almost solely in the mind. One of the strongest of the stories (and definitely the most upbeat,) The End Of... Anhedonia, follows a young man afflicted with the title malaise as he undergoes trance therapy to find a solution. Climbing into his mind and his memories feels less "genre" than literary, an exercise that more celebrated names in the world of "serious" prose only wish they could carry off with anything approaching Mr Prince's aplomb. Tho who knows if they would ever be able to work as intimately with an artist as Mr Prince does with Alex Eckman-Lawn, to such glorious effect. This chapter is a scary but ultimately tender look at the freedom that comes with the end of a serious mental affliction, however ominous it may turn out to be.

Another excellent post-modern story is the fourth one here, The End Of... A Sentence, which starts out as a playful take on an ex-con with a love of Mad Libs-type word games. Bobby Halburn is about to get out of prison, but isn't sure what he's going to do next. Unluckily for him, his brother Kurt already has ideas. Caitlin Yarsky's nimble artwork keeps pace with Bobby's emotional turmoil, as he clings to his word games to help him make sense of the life collapsing around him.

Caspar Wijngaard stretches his artistic muscles to illustrate the book's second story, The End Of... A Marriage. John and Eileen fell in love, got married and fell out of love. The terms of their divorce, however, are unusual, and possibly less actual than metaphorical. This exploration of how even the most passionate of romances can turn into neverending conflict succeeds mostly because of Mr Wijngaard's visual versatility.

The End Of... The World (with Martin Simmonds) and The End Of... The End Of The World (with Filipe Andrade) both explicitly deal in sci-fi themes, as they consider the apocalypse and its aftermath. While the art was exceedingly strong in both, I felt that the storytelling was much better in the first -- though perhaps the other story merely suffers in comparison with that strong opening chapter. In The End Of...The World, young Brian and his Ma are watching the nuclear clock count down, even as her failing kidneys confine her to a hospital bed. Wanting to cheer her up, Brian braves the savagery and chaos outside in order to snag the last copy of the magazine they've both been enjoying. Meanwhile, The End Of... The End Of The World details what happens once it's safe enough after the apocalypse to venture outside, and the misunderstandings that will perhaps naturally occur.

The book's final chapter, The End Of... The Sidewalk, is its most macabre, blending horror with sci-fi in a very adult riff on the Shel Silverstein classic. The poetry doesn't always work, tho the theming throughout is spectacular. Art-wise, I am obsessed with Martin Morazzo, who combines once more with Chris O'Halloran for the sixth story's dazzling stylistic hijinks.

Smart, adult, and too often a heartbreaker (but in the best way!) Swan Songs may be the finest comics anthology I've had the pleasure of reading in recent years. Mr Prince is an extraordinary talent, and I can't wait to read more of his work.

Swan Songs by W Maxwell Prince was published March 12 2024 by Image Comics and is available from all good booksellers, including Bookshop!

[nicole · Rating 3 out of 5]

the writing was just ok but the art on these!!! wow!!! the best one was the end of anhedonia, definitely my favorite

[James DeSantis · Rating 2 out of 5]

The first two stories were really good. A end of the world and a end of the marriage, enjoyed both and wanted more but what I got were 4 more stories that just didn't hold my interest at all. I think Maxwell can be a very talented writer but sometimes he misses hard for me.

[Sam Quixote · Rating 2 out of 5]

Swan Songs is a collection of six comics loosely connected by the theme of the end of something, ie. the end of the world/a marriage/a sentence, etc. W. Maxwell Prince specialises in these kind of one-and-done comics collections - his Ice Cream Man series with Martin Morazzo has the same format and subversive, dark tone - but unfortunately Swan Songs isn’t one of his better books.

The End of World, drawn by Martin Simmonds, is about a guy getting a gardening magazine for his dying mother as civilization crumbles around him. Like the majority of these stories, Prince doesn’t do anything too surprising with the premise and the stories often play out quite forgettably, as this one does. I liked that final image at least.

The End of a Marriage, drawn by Caspar Wijngaard, is the story of a couple’s relationship and its demise as their divorce depicts them as mediaeval knights, samurai and superheroes battling. Again, the art is the star of this story.

The End of the End of the World, drawn by Filipe Andrade, is a plain boring story of the post-apocalypse with the worst art in the book.

The End of a Sentence, drawn by Caitlin Yarsky, follows a man who improbably likes madlibs, recently released from prison, whose brother ensnares him in a Point Break-style robbery. The ending is kinda cute in how it asks the reader to decide the character’s fate with madlibs of their own, though the comic as a whole feels like Prince came up with the ending first and worked backwards from there.

The End of Anhedonia (a lack of pleasure from life’s experiences), drawn by Alex Eckman-Lawn, is about a guy getting hypnotic treatment to help cure his condition. The story has the most interesting art in the book due to the dream-like world it takes place in, allowing Eckman-Lawn to play with surrealist imagery.

The final story is The End of the Sidewalk, drawn by Martin Morazzo, which is both an Ice Cream Man tie-in and a homage/parody of Shel Silverstein’s Where the Sidewalk Ends. The comic is full of bad poetry telling the story of a man in a mental asylum and how it affects his wife and daughter on the outside. Really didn’t care for the terrible rhyming or the juvenile story - once again, the comic is saved by decent art with Morazzo drawing in a more spare, but still effective, style than he usually does.

I found Swan Songs to be unimpressive, dull reading without any standout stories and only the occasionally intriguing art saved it from being a total loss. Definitely only one for the die-hard fans of this author as it’s among his most forgettable collections.

[Rahul Nadella · Rating 3 out of 5]

There should be a lot of people commenting on this volume. This was a unique if not intense read. Honestly I couldn't read one page of the book cause I was so close to crying already I knew what was coming but it was just brutal. Reading about a family being torn to pieces and suffering in whimsical poem format under the cruel Ice Cream Man overlord is very Prince and it was done well but seriously? That was painful.

The last issue was made so much more emotionally impactful for anyone who has read where the side walk ends which this book is an homage too. The contrast of both of them is intense. I honestly have a hard time describing the last issue. It is an end, but also a beginning for some. Oddly enough the book ends on a note of hope and renewal after many pages of brutal hopelessness. This book is a book to read because you should be talking about it afterwards. It feels like this was meant to be talked about, discussed, or at least sit in silence afterwards and ponder it. I do not know. I do not know if I am doing this justice. Read and judge it yourself.

[Lucas · Rating 3 out of 5]

Swan Songs is an anthology about endings. All written by Ice Cream Man's W. Maxwell Prince, and drawn by different artists. As such, I expected some kind of cohesion, some "fil-rouge" or some statement on beginnings and endings and life and stuff. Not just a succession of stories on random gimmicky endings and a tacked on "all things end" poem on the final page. It feels more lie a venue to showcase some artists than an actual cohesive project.

Now that my rant is over, most of the stories are pretty decent ! If a little inconsequential.. And the art is gorgeous. I was only familiar with Martin Simmonds, Filipe Andrade and Martin Morazzo, who all killed it but had the least formally interesting scripts to work with. Alex Eckman-Lawn, who drew issue 5, particularly blew me away. He's very obviously influenced by Dave McKean's work. It's all multimedia collages that feature an insane blend of styles, it makes my head spin.

[André · Rating 4 out of 5]

An anthology of independent stories about different endings, from more typical situations such as death, disease or divorce to apocalypse and even some experimental concepts as seen in "the end of a sentence" and "the end of the sidewalk". Each story has a new artist and style, from more classic illustrations to more surreal explorations and one even has poetry and humour interspersed with horror, showing a lot of range to both the form and the writer.
A few of the ends are more interesting or original than others and while this is natural, it also makes coming up with a rating or general opinion particularly difficult. Some of these stories are just good, others are great and the artwork makes some exceptional (The End of Anhedonia, i'm looking at you).
This edition includes the collection of variant covers and I recommend not skipping it, a couple of them are really worth exploring.

[Alex Sarll]

To see out another wretched year, an anthology on the theme of endings. Nothing here changes my opinion that Prince is only intermittently as clever as he thinks he is – most of these stories turn on fairly trite epiphanies, and the sound of an 'aaaaaah' was never far away (no, not 'aaaah'!). But he's got some very good artists making it look more convincing – Caspar Wijngaard, Martin Simmonds, Felipe Andrade among them. And even if it stretches plausibility in the opening issue that the protagonist's mum's dialysis machine is still working while everything else succumbs to the end of the world, I did appreciate the honesty of the sign on the lift: STILL OUT OF ORDER – PROBABLY FOREVER. Maybe we can look forward to a similar spirit of openness about the state of things next year, heavens know there's precious little else.

[Rory Wilding · Rating 4 out of 5]

The phrase “swan song” refers to the final effort that somebody makes before they die or at least before they retire. In comics, especially when it comes to superheroes, they rarely have a swan song, which Ice Cream Man co-creator W. Maxwell Prince somewhat acknowledges with his latest miniseries, Swan Songs. Collaborating with various artists to create this anthology series, Prince tells six standalone stories, each of which mark the end of something, whether it is the world itself, a marriage or some emotional trauma.

Please click here for my full review.

[Christian · Rating 3 out of 5]

[3.2]
6 independent stories with the common theme of "something ending". I read them as single issues and was always keen on reading them when they came out, as I never knew what to expect. They are also well written for the most part. I wouldn't say anything knocked it out the park, but it was always a cozy read. The last issue was uncharacteristically preachy and low level, which surprised me. Not woke preachy, just preachy and pretty basic in that sense.
The tone is often melancholic here, which isn't a bad thing for me. If you are averse to that though, then this is likely not for you.

[Sebastian Lauterbach · Rating 2 out of 5]

Hard to rate this, as every story is standalone and features another artist.

I'm going with 2 stars, since none of the stories really grabbed me.

The end of a marriage and the end of Anhedonia worked the most for me, but all of these stories are one and done and feel inconsequential. Neither did the artwork wow me in any of these stories. In the first story it was so muddy, I couldn't make out what was on the panel.

Can't really recommend this unfortunately, although I really like the concept.

[Mark · Rating 3 out of 5]

3 stars for the story side of this...
The 4 stars are mainly for the art: namely, Martin Simmonds (Chapter 1), Caspar Wijngaard (Chapter 2) & Felipe Andrade (Chapter 3).
These ruminations on things ending are missives that don't really go anywhere and the world building in Chapter 1 is perfunctory and nonsensical (how the hell is there electricity still in that hospital?!)
Unfortunately it is the art that rules here, the first half being the best, whilst the peak is probably Chapter 2 for both script and art.
It ends with an annoying tie-in to Prince's Ice Cream Man book.

[Chris Lemmerman · Rating 5 out of 5]

The insane mind of W. Maxwell Prince turns towards endings in this six issue anthology, with each issue examining the end of something in vivid detail.

Like HaHa before it, Swan Songs is a collection of solid, impressive, and thought-provoking stories, each with their own beautiful and fitting art style that you'll be pondering long after you've put it down - the subject matter's probably a bit nicer than creepy clowns, though.

[Néstor Vargas · Rating 4 out of 5]

These stories may seem simple at moments, maybe rushed, some confusing, but let me tell you that the journey as a whole is mesmerizing. It’s about the little details, we don’t need an essay on the end of marriage or the end of the world to communicate those tricky feelings endings evoke in all of us. There is something for everyone here, and after connecting with one or two of these stories you will feel less afraid or anxious to face endings.

[Josh]

In summary, as with Prince’s other work, Swan Songs is weird, surreal, dark, and more complex than one might expect—but in spite of all its strangeness, he remains an immensely compelling storyteller who is playing with the possibilities of the format while delving deeper and deeper into the strange uncertainties that make us human.

Full review at: https://noflyingnotights.com/blog/202...

[Ogi Ogas · Rating 3 out of 5]

My ratings of books on Goodreads are solely a crude ranking of their utility to me, and not an evaluation of literary merit, entertainment value, social importance, humor, insightfulness, scientific accuracy, creative vigor, suspensefulness of plot, depth of characters, vitality of theme, excitement of climax, satisfaction of ending, or any other combination of dimensions of value which we are expected to boil down through some fabulous alchemy into a single digit.

[Mike Jorgensen · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is my favorite Prince book and that is no small claim. I love the anthology nature of this. A book about endings written by the same author but each story is illustrated in a distinct way. The end of a sentence gets 4th wall/meta in a delightful way. The artwork in chapter 5 is nothing short of astonishing. The book ends with a tribute to Shel Silverstein and is written in the style of Where The Sidewalk Ends.

[Clint · Rating 4 out of 5]

I really liked half of the stories in this anthology about endings and still enjoyed the rest pretty well. The highlights for me were Simmonds’s Vertigo-y art and the muted nihilism of the opening End of the World story, the mad-libbed interstitials of the End of a Sentence story, and the upsetting but darkly humorous Shel Silverstein homage of the closing End of the Sidewalk story with its grim poems and genuinely adventurous presentation.

[AitziST · Rating 3 out of 5]

No me gusta hacer reseñas así breves, pero haré una excepción.
Swang Songs se compone de diferentes historias: algunas son muy buenas, algunas muuuy pasables. Lo que me gustaría recomendar es que, si lees un par de páginas de una de las historias y no te dice nada, pases al siguiente; no te quedes con la sensación de las "peores" historias.

[Sarah AK · Rating 4 out of 5]

I kinda loved this. Some were better than others (End of the World and End of Anhedonia being my faves), but I enjoyed all six of these dark and morbid "endings." As a child who grew up on ALL the Shel Silverstein books, I LOVED the spin on the last story. That said, it didn't work quite as well as Shel would have done it, the rhymes not as clean as they could be, but A for effort!

[Dan · Rating 3 out of 5]

Funny thing is I picked this up originally because I was super busy and mistook it for Swan Song by McCammon. I know stupid of me to think this was a graphic novelization of that book. Most of these stories were so mediocre and not too good. 2 stories were decent. It's an okay read about "endings".