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Haha #1-6
Haha: Sad Clown Stories
ICE CREAM MAN writer W. MAXWELL PRINCE brings his signature style of one-shot storytelling to the world of clowns--and he's invited SOME OF COMIC'S BEST ARTISTS to join him for the ride.
HAHA is a genre-jumping, throat-lumping look at the sad, scary, hilarious life of those who get paid to play the fool--but these ain't your typical jokers.
With chapters drawn by VANESA DEL REY (REDLANDS), GABRIEL WALTA (VISION), ROGER LANGRIDGE (THOR), and more, Haha peeks under the big top, over the rainbow, and even inside a balloon to tell a wide-ranging slew of stories about "funny" men and women, proving that some things are so sad you just have to laugh.
Collects HAHA #1-6
HAHA is a genre-jumping, throat-lumping look at the sad, scary, hilarious life of those who get paid to play the fool--but these ain't your typical jokers.
With chapters drawn by VANESA DEL REY (REDLANDS), GABRIEL WALTA (VISION), ROGER LANGRIDGE (THOR), and more, Haha peeks under the big top, over the rainbow, and even inside a balloon to tell a wide-ranging slew of stories about "funny" men and women, proving that some things are so sad you just have to laugh.
Collects HAHA #1-6
176 pages, Paperback
First published September 28, 2021
15 people are currently reading
346 people want to read
About the author
W. Maxwell Prince
108 books187 followersW. 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.
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 90 reviews
August 15, 2022
HAHA is another Image Comics anthology written by W. Maxwell Prince, as he teams up with 6 different artists to tell 6 different stories about sad clowns that may or may not be set in the same world as Ice Cream Man. This is not necessarily a horror book like ICM is, even though there are elements of Prince’s trademark pseudo-horror throughout, so feel like if you go in with that knowledge you may enjoy it more. It’s more of a genre-hopper than a traditional horror anthology.
Most of these stories are not only memorable, but tear-jerking bouts of depression filled with very human and pitiable characters. Not all of them are relatable necessarily, but Prince is good at finding realistic voices for a variety of different people and telling stories around them. Prince will have an issue that’ll have your neurons firing the entire time, and then another will have you on the brink of tears before it’s over. But each one is a YMWV kinda thing, as you can even see by the fact each of the other GR reviewers for this book has a different story they liked.
Prince writes all six of said stories and Good Old Neon letters them, so the artists and colorists for each of their respective issues will be listed below with each individual review. If any of these names stand out to you, I’d say to give this series a shot. As you’ll see from my individual reviews down below, it’s not perfect by any means but it does have plenty of heart-wrenching moments throughout that make it worth checking out at least. Recommended for those who like that series or any comic anthologies in general, as this is one of my favorite ones I've read.
Chapter One: “Bartelby Rejects The Premise” by Vanesa R. Del Rey and Chris O’Halloran ☆ ☆
This was weird as fuck, I don’t even know what genre to classify it under. Bartelby just has the worst day ever before something weird happens as he is cashing in his last check at the bank.
Vanesa R. Del Rey’s art was pretty nifty even if the story was a bit too weird. I liked her panel layouts and the different drawing styles she used at points, but this never came together as a cohesive package for me. Some of Prince’s stories can feel like they seemingly don’t have a larger point, and this feels like one of those.
Chapter Two: “Rudolph on the Road to Funville” by Zoe Thorogood and Chris O’Halloran ☆ ☆ ☆ ☆
This was a totally depressing story with some gorgeous art. I need to see what other interiors Zoe Thorogood has done because her work here was absolutely fucking stunning.
A mother and her daughter, Rudolph, run away from home to go to Funville, an amusement park that is the place where, as the mother puts it, “they can finally be themselves.” And in typical fashion, the journey takes a dark turn before the duo gets to Funville.
I liked the writing a good deal, but the art is the show stealer here. I felt so sorry for Rudolph and her mom every time they appeared on page thanks to Thorogood’s facial expressions, which just makes the ending all the more depressing. I just wanted them to be okay! Poor Rudolph...
Chapter Three: “Remi Says” by Roger Langridge ☆ ☆ ☆ 1/2
A mostly silent comic with extremely cartooney art where a depressed and down-on-his-luck Mime becomes friends with a robot who turns his life around. I’m sure nothing bad happens.
All of these endings have been pretty depressing so far, but I’m glad this one was at least somewhat hopeful. It was horribly sad at first, but the last two pages were thankfully there. It helps the rest of the story is solid enough and has some fun art. It’s not amazing, but it works for what it sets out to be.
Chapter Four: “Gustav in the World of Floating Objects” by Patrick Harvorth ☆ ☆ ☆ 1/2
Two stories run simultaneously in this one, with one following a young boy on his birthday after his clown “bailed” mid-party, and the other follows said clown, Gustav, stuck in a balloon that is floating around the boy all day.
I liked the ending again and thought the watercolor art was pretty, but this is another one I’ll probably need to reread before I get the bigger point. Everything with the grandpa and son was sweet, but I didn’t really give a fuck about the clown.
Chapter Five: “Pound Foolish Makes a Casserole” by Gabriel Hernández Walta ☆ ☆ ☆ ☆ ☆
Whelp this one is honestly worth buying the whole collection for. A bittersweet tale about what a changing world can both give and take away from us, and how our memories can be a comfort and a way to cope with said change. An old woman dressed as a clown makes a casserole while a young boy must start some mischief in said woman’s house as part of an initiation to join a club.
I was absolutely blown away by both the writing and the art in this one, with Walta doing some truly spectacular work on his end. I hope he gets some more gigs with Maxwell Prince again sometime down the line. The story took a turn that I was just not expecting and the ending was a tearjerker. If you don't want to read the whole series, just read this one.
Chapter Six: “Happy Hank the Very Happy Clown” by Martin Morazzo and Chris O’Halloran ☆ ☆ ☆ ☆ 1/2
So I have read Ice Cream Man Vol. 1, but I am not aware if this is a crossover with any specific issue from that series. I mean, it clearly takes place in the same world so I assume so, but this was still a pretty solid issue that is able to stand on its own even without the ICM connection.
Hank the Happy Clown is not a happy person. And this chapter is just the journey of what happens to Hank after his perspective on life begins to change after being fired from his job during one crazy night. Fantastic closer issue to this series, and Morazzo’s art, as always, is fucking stunning. I love when Prince writes these horror stories about the psyche of different people. He’s really good at it. And yes, this story was the most horror-esque and recommended for ICM fans.
TLDR;
This admittedly ain’t perfect, but the positives really outweigh the negatives for me. I feel like even if every single story isn’t a hit, there’s at least one story in here that will be a hit for anyone who gives them all a shot. I'd be genuinely shocked if you disliked every single story in here.
Recommended to anyone who enjoyed Ice Cream Man or enjoys comic anthologies in general. Pound Foolish and Happy Hank were my favorites, but I also thought Rudolph and Remi Says had their moments. Shoutout to W. Maxwell Prince and all the artists involved to help make this work, it was a unique reading experience for sure.
Most of these stories are not only memorable, but tear-jerking bouts of depression filled with very human and pitiable characters. Not all of them are relatable necessarily, but Prince is good at finding realistic voices for a variety of different people and telling stories around them. Prince will have an issue that’ll have your neurons firing the entire time, and then another will have you on the brink of tears before it’s over. But each one is a YMWV kinda thing, as you can even see by the fact each of the other GR reviewers for this book has a different story they liked.
Prince writes all six of said stories and Good Old Neon letters them, so the artists and colorists for each of their respective issues will be listed below with each individual review. If any of these names stand out to you, I’d say to give this series a shot. As you’ll see from my individual reviews down below, it’s not perfect by any means but it does have plenty of heart-wrenching moments throughout that make it worth checking out at least. Recommended for those who like that series or any comic anthologies in general, as this is one of my favorite ones I've read.
Chapter One: “Bartelby Rejects The Premise” by Vanesa R. Del Rey and Chris O’Halloran ☆ ☆
This was weird as fuck, I don’t even know what genre to classify it under. Bartelby just has the worst day ever before something weird happens as he is cashing in his last check at the bank.
Vanesa R. Del Rey’s art was pretty nifty even if the story was a bit too weird. I liked her panel layouts and the different drawing styles she used at points, but this never came together as a cohesive package for me. Some of Prince’s stories can feel like they seemingly don’t have a larger point, and this feels like one of those.
Chapter Two: “Rudolph on the Road to Funville” by Zoe Thorogood and Chris O’Halloran ☆ ☆ ☆ ☆
This was a totally depressing story with some gorgeous art. I need to see what other interiors Zoe Thorogood has done because her work here was absolutely fucking stunning.
A mother and her daughter, Rudolph, run away from home to go to Funville, an amusement park that is the place where, as the mother puts it, “they can finally be themselves.” And in typical fashion, the journey takes a dark turn before the duo gets to Funville.
I liked the writing a good deal, but the art is the show stealer here. I felt so sorry for Rudolph and her mom every time they appeared on page thanks to Thorogood’s facial expressions, which just makes the ending all the more depressing. I just wanted them to be okay! Poor Rudolph...
Chapter Three: “Remi Says” by Roger Langridge ☆ ☆ ☆ 1/2
A mostly silent comic with extremely cartooney art where a depressed and down-on-his-luck Mime becomes friends with a robot who turns his life around. I’m sure nothing bad happens.
All of these endings have been pretty depressing so far, but I’m glad this one was at least somewhat hopeful. It was horribly sad at first, but the last two pages were thankfully there. It helps the rest of the story is solid enough and has some fun art. It’s not amazing, but it works for what it sets out to be.
Chapter Four: “Gustav in the World of Floating Objects” by Patrick Harvorth ☆ ☆ ☆ 1/2
Two stories run simultaneously in this one, with one following a young boy on his birthday after his clown “bailed” mid-party, and the other follows said clown, Gustav, stuck in a balloon that is floating around the boy all day.
I liked the ending again and thought the watercolor art was pretty, but this is another one I’ll probably need to reread before I get the bigger point. Everything with the grandpa and son was sweet, but I didn’t really give a fuck about the clown.
Chapter Five: “Pound Foolish Makes a Casserole” by Gabriel Hernández Walta ☆ ☆ ☆ ☆ ☆
Whelp this one is honestly worth buying the whole collection for. A bittersweet tale about what a changing world can both give and take away from us, and how our memories can be a comfort and a way to cope with said change. An old woman dressed as a clown makes a casserole while a young boy must start some mischief in said woman’s house as part of an initiation to join a club.
I was absolutely blown away by both the writing and the art in this one, with Walta doing some truly spectacular work on his end. I hope he gets some more gigs with Maxwell Prince again sometime down the line. The story took a turn that I was just not expecting and the ending was a tearjerker. If you don't want to read the whole series, just read this one.
Chapter Six: “Happy Hank the Very Happy Clown” by Martin Morazzo and Chris O’Halloran ☆ ☆ ☆ ☆ 1/2
So I have read Ice Cream Man Vol. 1, but I am not aware if this is a crossover with any specific issue from that series. I mean, it clearly takes place in the same world so I assume so, but this was still a pretty solid issue that is able to stand on its own even without the ICM connection.
Hank the Happy Clown is not a happy person. And this chapter is just the journey of what happens to Hank after his perspective on life begins to change after being fired from his job during one crazy night. Fantastic closer issue to this series, and Morazzo’s art, as always, is fucking stunning. I love when Prince writes these horror stories about the psyche of different people. He’s really good at it. And yes, this story was the most horror-esque and recommended for ICM fans.
TLDR;
This admittedly ain’t perfect, but the positives really outweigh the negatives for me. I feel like even if every single story isn’t a hit, there’s at least one story in here that will be a hit for anyone who gives them all a shot. I'd be genuinely shocked if you disliked every single story in here.
Recommended to anyone who enjoyed Ice Cream Man or enjoys comic anthologies in general. Pound Foolish and Happy Hank were my favorites, but I also thought Rudolph and Remi Says had their moments. Shoutout to W. Maxwell Prince and all the artists involved to help make this work, it was a unique reading experience for sure.
August 10, 2023
Six depressing stories about sad clowns, each by a different artist. I've seen this billed as horror but it's mostly just melancholy. I liked Gabriel Walta's story about a old woman clown who lives alone the best, but that's not saying a whole lot.
Received a review copy from Image and Edelweiss
Received a review copy from Image and Edelweiss
October 1, 2021
HAHA consists of six stories featuring clowns. The stories are lazily linked to eachother by the characters popping up in the backgrounds of eachother's stories. I say lazily, them being connected doesn't add anything to the stories.
Most of the stories are almost predictably cynical - the world's a bad place, so is HAHA. It's the trap of thinking extremes convey truth about life. I'm not a huge fan of this style of writing.
There are two stories I really liked - one about a clown stuck inside a balloon, and one about an elderly lady clown.
There's a lot of narration in all the stories, and I wonder how much of it is actually needed. Most of it seems to be there because that's what you'd expect in comics.
Each issue/chapter (never has 'chapter' felt more wrong in a book) is drawn by a different artist, all of them good.
I'll end this with a couple of parp noises. Parp parp.
(Picked up an ARC through Edelweiss)
Most of the stories are almost predictably cynical - the world's a bad place, so is HAHA. It's the trap of thinking extremes convey truth about life. I'm not a huge fan of this style of writing.
There are two stories I really liked - one about a clown stuck inside a balloon, and one about an elderly lady clown.
There's a lot of narration in all the stories, and I wonder how much of it is actually needed. Most of it seems to be there because that's what you'd expect in comics.
Each issue/chapter (never has 'chapter' felt more wrong in a book) is drawn by a different artist, all of them good.
I'll end this with a couple of parp noises. Parp parp.
(Picked up an ARC through Edelweiss)
October 13, 2021
A clown has a terrible day - but manages to stay upbeat. A clown stripper remembers a doomed road trip with her crazy clown mother. A mime makes a friend - in a robot! Another clown floats, a kid attempts to steal from an old lady clown, and a clown stumbles into the world of the Ice Cream Man...
… which is appropriate given that Haha is basically Ice Cream Man - the clown-themed version! Also like Ice Cream Man, Haha is a pretty bad pseudo-horror anthology of forgettable and uninteresting short stories.
Each issue is drawn by a different artist. The best one is definitely Remi Says, drawn by Roger Langridge, about a mime who makes his act successful after finding a discarded robot and incorporating him into his performance - except the corporation that built the robot wants him back! It’s a decent story, and I liked that it was silent, in keeping with the mime character, and Langridge’s art is very appealing.
The others though are really boring and arbitrarily downbeat. Bad things happen to Bartelby the clown, Rudolph’s mother, and Happy Hank for no other reason than these are “sad clown stories”. Because clowns are meant to be happy so… irony? W. Maxwell Prince can’t make these gloomy things interesting either. A lonely old lady eating casserole, a drunken clown in some kind of fantasy floaty land - they just are what they are and it’s unimpressive.
I liked Martin Morazzo’s art in the final story, and it ties into his and Prince’s Ice Cream Man series for no reason, but I didn’t really like the art of Vanesa Del Rey, Zoe Thorogood, Patrick Horvath, or Gabriel Hernandez Walta.
Haha is only for readers who like Prince’s terrible Ice Cream Man series and want to read more of the same. Like Ice Cream Man, I found reading Haha to be a dreary and underwhelming experience.
… which is appropriate given that Haha is basically Ice Cream Man - the clown-themed version! Also like Ice Cream Man, Haha is a pretty bad pseudo-horror anthology of forgettable and uninteresting short stories.
Each issue is drawn by a different artist. The best one is definitely Remi Says, drawn by Roger Langridge, about a mime who makes his act successful after finding a discarded robot and incorporating him into his performance - except the corporation that built the robot wants him back! It’s a decent story, and I liked that it was silent, in keeping with the mime character, and Langridge’s art is very appealing.
The others though are really boring and arbitrarily downbeat. Bad things happen to Bartelby the clown, Rudolph’s mother, and Happy Hank for no other reason than these are “sad clown stories”. Because clowns are meant to be happy so… irony? W. Maxwell Prince can’t make these gloomy things interesting either. A lonely old lady eating casserole, a drunken clown in some kind of fantasy floaty land - they just are what they are and it’s unimpressive.
I liked Martin Morazzo’s art in the final story, and it ties into his and Prince’s Ice Cream Man series for no reason, but I didn’t really like the art of Vanesa Del Rey, Zoe Thorogood, Patrick Horvath, or Gabriel Hernandez Walta.
Haha is only for readers who like Prince’s terrible Ice Cream Man series and want to read more of the same. Like Ice Cream Man, I found reading Haha to be a dreary and underwhelming experience.
March 21, 2022
A collection of shorts about clowns by the master of psychedelic horror, author of Ice Cream Man, W. Maxwell Prince, each of six stories illustrated by a different illustrator to match the different story style, including Ice Cream Man illustrator Martin Morazzo and five other artists. Maybe the short form is Prince’s strength, because that is also the mode of Ice Cream Man, and because he likes to play with narrative, to use the comics form to explore different ways to tell stories.
#1 “Bartelby Rejects the Premise”, illustrated by Vanesa Del Ray.
“Laugh all you want, but this job [being a clown at Funville, a cheezy amusement park] keeps the lights on.”
Click.
“Goddamn it.”
“What was funny a few years ago ain't funny, anymore.”
Life is nasty, brutish, and short”--Thomas Hobbes
When he goes into the bank to cash his last check, bank robbers tell him to get down and he can’t stop laughing. He says, “I prefer not to” [echoing Melville’s Bartelby]. Not the right thing to say to a nervous bank robber, kids reading at home.
Ok, this collection, like Ice Cream Man, is about playing with those cultural expectations about Ice Cream Men and clowns as happy and trustworthy, but you (especially) already knew this about clowns, right, from Gacy to Pennywise. Still, it is worth reading to see his playing around with genre.
#2 In “Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer” a woman, having a “psychotic break,” takes her daughter from their home to become a clown act (with red noses!) in Bartelby’s Funville. She says, “oh, Dad just wouldn’t understand. He’s never seen the angels up in the sky flap-flap-flapping their colorful wings.” Yikes. Black comedy, for sure.
#3 “Remi Says” is a mostly wordless, silent era comic, about a mime, Marcel, and his true love, a robot. None of these stories come to a happy ending, clown fans!
#4 “Gustav in the World of Floating Objects” is a kind of surreal art comic or poetry comics story, where Gustav, a kids’s party clown, and an alcoholic, is seen throughout “floating” (away) with various objects in his life. “The whole Gustav the Magnificent story is weightless here, lighter than air.” Another sort of parallel story that happens here is that of a mom and a kid who hired Gustav to clown their birthday but he never showed, floating away (in an alcoholic haze, is my guess). This is the most hopeful and sentimental story, though, where the kid’s grandpa agrees to help him fly a kite. Happy ending to balance the floating clown story. Aw!
#5 In “Pound Foolish Makes a Casserole” (get it, it’s not Stephen King’s Pennywise, it’s Pound Foolish?), a retired older woman clown named Pound Foolish finds a kid in her house who was tasked by his neighborhood gang to go into the house to steal something creepy. After he passes out, she. . . makes him steamed cauliflower (which for some kids could be their worst nightmare, now that I think of it). What?! Prince going soft on us? No child imprisonment or scaring him to death?! Disappointing. . . but it's a different vibe, disrupting your expectations, which is what he is always after.
#6 “Happy Hank the Very Happy Clown,” illustrated by Ice Cream partner Martin Morazzo, is back to the old playfully disturbing Prince, with Morazzo’s help. Uh, Hank? He’s way not happy, as it turns out. Hank works for the same clown service where Gustav works, and Gustav actually got chosen for a job before Hank, so you just know it’s not looking like a lucky future for Hank. Grim, with light and happy clown colors, and the requisite insanity.
Is this collection just a confirmation of what is now common in culture, the notion of the crazy, sad, homicidal clown to destroy your view of the circus? Maybe, sure, but Prince is great and very smart and the range of illustrators here is wonderful. I like the little thematic links between the stories; such as keys mentioned from one story to the next. Even ice cream man makes his way in. Balloons. Birds. A kind of nightmare repetition of images. Creepy fun. A kind of coherence. I am way into this Prince guy, now, but I am not turning my back on him.
#1 “Bartelby Rejects the Premise”, illustrated by Vanesa Del Ray.
“Laugh all you want, but this job [being a clown at Funville, a cheezy amusement park] keeps the lights on.”
Click.
“Goddamn it.”
“What was funny a few years ago ain't funny, anymore.”
Life is nasty, brutish, and short”--Thomas Hobbes
When he goes into the bank to cash his last check, bank robbers tell him to get down and he can’t stop laughing. He says, “I prefer not to” [echoing Melville’s Bartelby]. Not the right thing to say to a nervous bank robber, kids reading at home.
Ok, this collection, like Ice Cream Man, is about playing with those cultural expectations about Ice Cream Men and clowns as happy and trustworthy, but you (especially) already knew this about clowns, right, from Gacy to Pennywise. Still, it is worth reading to see his playing around with genre.
#2 In “Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer” a woman, having a “psychotic break,” takes her daughter from their home to become a clown act (with red noses!) in Bartelby’s Funville. She says, “oh, Dad just wouldn’t understand. He’s never seen the angels up in the sky flap-flap-flapping their colorful wings.” Yikes. Black comedy, for sure.
#3 “Remi Says” is a mostly wordless, silent era comic, about a mime, Marcel, and his true love, a robot. None of these stories come to a happy ending, clown fans!
#4 “Gustav in the World of Floating Objects” is a kind of surreal art comic or poetry comics story, where Gustav, a kids’s party clown, and an alcoholic, is seen throughout “floating” (away) with various objects in his life. “The whole Gustav the Magnificent story is weightless here, lighter than air.” Another sort of parallel story that happens here is that of a mom and a kid who hired Gustav to clown their birthday but he never showed, floating away (in an alcoholic haze, is my guess). This is the most hopeful and sentimental story, though, where the kid’s grandpa agrees to help him fly a kite. Happy ending to balance the floating clown story. Aw!
#5 In “Pound Foolish Makes a Casserole” (get it, it’s not Stephen King’s Pennywise, it’s Pound Foolish?), a retired older woman clown named Pound Foolish finds a kid in her house who was tasked by his neighborhood gang to go into the house to steal something creepy. After he passes out, she. . . makes him steamed cauliflower (which for some kids could be their worst nightmare, now that I think of it). What?! Prince going soft on us? No child imprisonment or scaring him to death?! Disappointing. . . but it's a different vibe, disrupting your expectations, which is what he is always after.
#6 “Happy Hank the Very Happy Clown,” illustrated by Ice Cream partner Martin Morazzo, is back to the old playfully disturbing Prince, with Morazzo’s help. Uh, Hank? He’s way not happy, as it turns out. Hank works for the same clown service where Gustav works, and Gustav actually got chosen for a job before Hank, so you just know it’s not looking like a lucky future for Hank. Grim, with light and happy clown colors, and the requisite insanity.
Is this collection just a confirmation of what is now common in culture, the notion of the crazy, sad, homicidal clown to destroy your view of the circus? Maybe, sure, but Prince is great and very smart and the range of illustrators here is wonderful. I like the little thematic links between the stories; such as keys mentioned from one story to the next. Even ice cream man makes his way in. Balloons. Birds. A kind of nightmare repetition of images. Creepy fun. A kind of coherence. I am way into this Prince guy, now, but I am not turning my back on him.
September 9, 2021
Send in The CLOWNS... and give them a hug!
When I saw this advertised as a horror comic, it felt like false advertising. Because while I felt that things were getting weird, they didn't feel that scary. But maybe that's because of all the surreal stuff and events that I see every day. The way people talk to each other, the way they blame others for their problems, and the dreams and needs that slip away. I guess I just happened to have related to clowns a lot more than I thought.
It was really refreshing to see how this series wasn't just another clown going bad, insane scenario, or evil stalkers. Because as some issues point out, the Pennywise and Joker scenarios are played out and really don't speak for clowns as a whole. They're just as human as anybody else and they need some levity.
The loneliness all of these clowns experience really hit my heartstrings. Everybody's got gripes and challenges, I'm just grateful that there were no huge jerks, just a bunch of people trying to get through life. Which is why the clowns were happy with their simple lives and just wanted to spend it with people capable of empathy. It won't always be the best thing in the world, but it's better than nothing.
When I saw this advertised as a horror comic, it felt like false advertising. Because while I felt that things were getting weird, they didn't feel that scary. But maybe that's because of all the surreal stuff and events that I see every day. The way people talk to each other, the way they blame others for their problems, and the dreams and needs that slip away. I guess I just happened to have related to clowns a lot more than I thought.
It was really refreshing to see how this series wasn't just another clown going bad, insane scenario, or evil stalkers. Because as some issues point out, the Pennywise and Joker scenarios are played out and really don't speak for clowns as a whole. They're just as human as anybody else and they need some levity.
The loneliness all of these clowns experience really hit my heartstrings. Everybody's got gripes and challenges, I'm just grateful that there were no huge jerks, just a bunch of people trying to get through life. Which is why the clowns were happy with their simple lives and just wanted to spend it with people capable of empathy. It won't always be the best thing in the world, but it's better than nothing.
January 26, 2022
HAHA neni ani zďaleka tak divné a hororové ako Ice Cream Man, nie že by sa o to snažilo. Furt to je fajn zbierka príbehov zo života klaunov, furt tam sú referencie na príbehy z Ice Cream Mana. Trochu ma hnevalo, že takmer každý príbeh/klaun mal dosť podobne nalinkovaný život a očividne každého klauna čaká rozvod a strata detí a whatever. Furt ale fajn počin, a nakreslené je to tiež každé jedno fakt super. 4/5
August 4, 2023
The Ice cream man series brought me here.
I felt like I was reading his debut. The stories were still depressive and macabre, but somewhat similar from one another. It's as if a clown life can only be sad and lonely. You might need a therapy session or two after reading this.
I felt like I was reading his debut. The stories were still depressive and macabre, but somewhat similar from one another. It's as if a clown life can only be sad and lonely. You might need a therapy session or two after reading this.
May 9, 2023
I was hoping this series would essentially just be Prince's Ice Cream Man but with different artists each issue - and that's basically what we get. There is more of a commitment to a theme - each issue involves clowns (one is a mime) - than Ice Cream Man. But still it's a collection of intriguing short-stories with some good artwork by various creators.
July 24, 2023
W. Maxwell Prince is a screwed up storyteller, man. But god damn if it doesn't make for great stories.
Six one-shot stories with a few tenuous links between them, as well as a stealth tie-in to Prince's Ice Cream Man world at the end, that focus on six different clown and clown adjacent protagonists.
Some of these stories are depressing as hell. Some of them are oddly optimistic. It's an eclectic mix, and it's fun to see some of them zig when you think they're gonna zag, and vice versa. Prince's inner monologues work well, and there's a sense of unease over the whole volume where you're waiting for the other shoe to drop, and it just...doesn't.
Each issue is by a different artist, so it's that kind of book. Vanessa Ray, Zoe Thorogood, Patrick Horvath, Roger Langridge, Gabriel Hernandez Walta, and Prince's Ice Cream Man collaborator Martin Morazzo all contribute an issue appropriate to their sensibilities. Langridge's mime story is like one step away from Disney, Walta's tale of an old lady clown works well with his downtrodden style, and Morazzo tying into Ice Cream Man works wonders as always.
Haha isn't just sad clown stories, despite the title. If you like Prince's other work, you'll get more of the same here, and if this is your first time, welcome to hell, it's nice to have you.
Six one-shot stories with a few tenuous links between them, as well as a stealth tie-in to Prince's Ice Cream Man world at the end, that focus on six different clown and clown adjacent protagonists.
Some of these stories are depressing as hell. Some of them are oddly optimistic. It's an eclectic mix, and it's fun to see some of them zig when you think they're gonna zag, and vice versa. Prince's inner monologues work well, and there's a sense of unease over the whole volume where you're waiting for the other shoe to drop, and it just...doesn't.
Each issue is by a different artist, so it's that kind of book. Vanessa Ray, Zoe Thorogood, Patrick Horvath, Roger Langridge, Gabriel Hernandez Walta, and Prince's Ice Cream Man collaborator Martin Morazzo all contribute an issue appropriate to their sensibilities. Langridge's mime story is like one step away from Disney, Walta's tale of an old lady clown works well with his downtrodden style, and Morazzo tying into Ice Cream Man works wonders as always.
Haha isn't just sad clown stories, despite the title. If you like Prince's other work, you'll get more of the same here, and if this is your first time, welcome to hell, it's nice to have you.
Read
September 19, 2021A clown-centred anthology comic, which may sound ridiculously niche, but W Maxwell Prince has previously written an anthology based around a library, and an ongoing series which anchors horror stories to an ice cream man, so this is pretty much what he does. Opening story Bartelby flips the near-namesake's rejection of life into a rejection of despair, even for one clown at a failing amusement park who has lost almost everything; Vanesa del Rey's art manages to stitch everything from tragicomic grot to anatomical awfulness to outright delusion into a coherent whole, or at least a crazy quilt, and sells the story's emotional core, which could easily have come across as schmaltz. It's a battered but unbowed vibe which recurs, even in the inevitable It riff, which hybridises with another two-letter title for surprisingly heartwarming results. The artists are definitely a big part of it - especially Roger Langridge, who manages to sell a mime/robot team-up which is otherwise one of the shakiest issues. But either way, I enjoyed this the most of all the extremely specific anthology comics I've read from Prince, at least until the final issue crossed over with Ice Cream Man and slipped into the grinding obviousness of Happy Hank... who's really miserable DO YOU SEE!?!?
(Edelweiss ARC)
(Edelweiss ARC)
April 20, 2023
Haha: Sad Clown Stories collects issues 1-6 of the Image Comics series written by W. Maxwell Prince with art by Vanesa Del Ray, Zoe Thorogood, Roger Langridge, Patrick Horvath, Gabriel Walta, Martín Morazzo, and Chris O’Halloran.
A collection of six stories all revolving around clowns: a laid off clown has a hell of a day trying to cash his last paycheck, a clown burlesque dancer revisits her youth, a mime makes a new friend with a robot, a young boy reconnects with his grandfather after his clown “bails” on his birthday party, as a club initiation a young kid must steal something from the creepy old clown lady who lives down the street, and a down on his luck clown stumbles into the Ice Cream Man world.
Sad is not the right word - most of these stories are straight up depressing. But there are a few feel good moments sprinkled in throughout the stories. Each artist does a fantastic job of making their story stand apart from the rest. I haven’t read any of Prince’s Ice Cream Man work but I am very interested to check them out after seeing the stories he crafted in Haha.
A collection of six stories all revolving around clowns: a laid off clown has a hell of a day trying to cash his last paycheck, a clown burlesque dancer revisits her youth, a mime makes a new friend with a robot, a young boy reconnects with his grandfather after his clown “bails” on his birthday party, as a club initiation a young kid must steal something from the creepy old clown lady who lives down the street, and a down on his luck clown stumbles into the Ice Cream Man world.
Sad is not the right word - most of these stories are straight up depressing. But there are a few feel good moments sprinkled in throughout the stories. Each artist does a fantastic job of making their story stand apart from the rest. I haven’t read any of Prince’s Ice Cream Man work but I am very interested to check them out after seeing the stories he crafted in Haha.
October 7, 2022
Something of a mixed bag of sad clown stories, each written by Prince and drawn by a different artist. These aren't as outright misanthropic as so many of Prince's Ice Cream Man stories seem to be, nor are they as much straddling the line of horror. Mainly, these are fairly sad and sometimes depressing. So it was with real surprise that I read "Pound Foolish Makes a Casserole," about an older female clown who lives alone and a young boy who is supposed to sneak into her home to steal something. Not only was it not depressing, it actually was a happy story and ended on a very hopeful note. I also really enjoyed the wordless story about a mime and the robot he finds, even with the very cartoony art in that one. A couple of other stories just wallow in despair, with little break. Whether you like this will probably have a lot to do with your reaction to Prince's Ice Cream Man, though the stories here do depart from that horror-tinged milieu in ways large and small.
February 13, 2022
I thought it was fun! When you say dark humor, this is what I think of. Seeing the humor or smiling in terrible or tragic situations; it makes sense that it's clowns.
This is the first comic series I tried to keep up with, so it was a no-brainer to buy the collection book. The different art and style for each issue was endearing. I like that they're all set in the same universe, and you can see the little easter eggs that reflect on previous stories. Some stories were more memorable than others, but I like the diversity.
The stories themselves brought out different emotions. My favorite was the first one, "Bartelby Rejects the Premise." All the stories put together made for a good time.
I think if you're trying to take it too seriously, you're doing it wrong. It's better to enjoy the stories as they are without overanalyzing it. Definitely use your critical thinking skills and pick out themes, but don't dissect it. It takes the fun out.
This is the first comic series I tried to keep up with, so it was a no-brainer to buy the collection book. The different art and style for each issue was endearing. I like that they're all set in the same universe, and you can see the little easter eggs that reflect on previous stories. Some stories were more memorable than others, but I like the diversity.
The stories themselves brought out different emotions. My favorite was the first one, "Bartelby Rejects the Premise." All the stories put together made for a good time.
I think if you're trying to take it too seriously, you're doing it wrong. It's better to enjoy the stories as they are without overanalyzing it. Definitely use your critical thinking skills and pick out themes, but don't dissect it. It takes the fun out.
November 21, 2021
This one had me laughing on page two, crying by page five.
When a bank robber says “no funny business”, the clown can’t help himself. A young woman finds her power in clown make up thanks to her mother. Then one moment you’re blowing up a balloon, the next you’re inside of it!
Really should have reviewed these in issues because each one is unique in its own funny way. I love all the different art styles for each story. And each story is done well enough that I can’t really pick a favorite, they are all good! There was once or twice I could see some similarities, but it’s not a big enough deal to complain about. I did have a lot of fun picking out the ice cream man references though! Overall, it is a little bit sad and upsetting but the moments where you genuinely laugh really stick out.
When a bank robber says “no funny business”, the clown can’t help himself. A young woman finds her power in clown make up thanks to her mother. Then one moment you’re blowing up a balloon, the next you’re inside of it!
Really should have reviewed these in issues because each one is unique in its own funny way. I love all the different art styles for each story. And each story is done well enough that I can’t really pick a favorite, they are all good! There was once or twice I could see some similarities, but it’s not a big enough deal to complain about. I did have a lot of fun picking out the ice cream man references though! Overall, it is a little bit sad and upsetting but the moments where you genuinely laugh really stick out.
December 22, 2021
I love W. Maxwell Prince and the team of artists who work on his pieces so much! This was beautifully and effortlessly intertwined with the Ice-cream Man series and each issue offered something new, interesting, and bittersweet... mostly bitter.
The concept of basing each issue on the story, life, or happenings of an individual clown is brilliant- I was sold before even reading it.
The art was crazy cool- the same style as that of Ice-cream Man which was exciting to me as I adore everything about that series!
10/10 adding to my favorites shelf!
The concept of basing each issue on the story, life, or happenings of an individual clown is brilliant- I was sold before even reading it.
The art was crazy cool- the same style as that of Ice-cream Man which was exciting to me as I adore everything about that series!
10/10 adding to my favorites shelf!
November 19, 2021
A mixed bag of clowns having some bad times. It's even sadder than Ice Cream Man, and I'm only comparing two different books because this feels very much like Ice Cream Man but the main characters are all clowns. I don't think the book says enough, overall, though.
November 19, 2021
3.5 Stars
February 17, 2022
While not every story was a homerun, the main core stories all had me interested. Very ice cream man but not always as dark as I expected. Overall enjoyable and would read another.
Read
January 10, 2023Yayyy clownsss
June 16, 2025
This is a series of vignettes all featuring sad clowns that all end up being loosely tied to one another and I really enjoyed it.
In any short story collection some are better than others but truly I at least liked everything here. My least favorite was Gustav in the World of Floating Objects. My favorites were Rudolph on the Road to Funville, Remi Says and Happy Hank: The Very Happy Clown.
I really enjoyed how there were many subtle hints to the most famous clown stories like It and the Joker movie with Joaquin Phoenix all throughout the whole book and they kept building little by little until you couldn’t deny that they were truly being referenced toward the end. It was like “ok, I’m not crazy” when it all came together and it was a really fun touch.
In any short story collection some are better than others but truly I at least liked everything here. My least favorite was Gustav in the World of Floating Objects. My favorites were Rudolph on the Road to Funville, Remi Says and Happy Hank: The Very Happy Clown.
I really enjoyed how there were many subtle hints to the most famous clown stories like It and the Joker movie with Joaquin Phoenix all throughout the whole book and they kept building little by little until you couldn’t deny that they were truly being referenced toward the end. It was like “ok, I’m not crazy” when it all came together and it was a really fun touch.
November 1, 2021
Reprints Haha #1-6 (January 2021-July 2021). The life of a clown isn’t easy. Despite being ambassadors of fun and laughs, behind the painted on smiles, there can be sadness, anger, and regret. Bartelby has no job and a death wish. Rudolph grows up with life on the run with her mother who struggles with mental disorders. Remi is a mime whose only friend is taken from him. Gustav is a clown who finds himself in a fantastic journey in a strange balloon world. Pound Foolish lives a reclusive life remembering her glory days with the circus. Happy Hank uncovers that the world around him might not be as it seems. Clowns can provide laughs but they also can create tears.
Written by W. Maxwell Prince, Haha: Sad Clown Stories is an Image Comics limited series. The collection features art by Vanesa Del Rey, Zoe Thorogood, Roger Langridge, Patrick Horvath, Gabriel Hernández Walta, Martin Morazzo, and Chris O’Halloran.
Ice Cream Man has been a great title. It is a weird, wild, and sometimes unnerving series of stories that have a strange “world” surrounding them. Haha starts out with some indirect similarities to Ice Cream Man and ends up smack dab in the rich world of Ice Cream Man.
Like Ice Cream Man, the stories are very episodic and there are no real bad stories because they are so varied. Haha seems to just enjoy writing itself and telling its own story. You have serious stories and stories that have a light-hearted nature to them…despite being either sad or depressing. The different clown have different voices that vary widely and stories like Remi the Mime don’t feel out of place despite not resembling the other stories in the collection.
This is also highlighted by the variety of art in the issues. There are cartoon issues like Remi next to other issues that take a much more realistic approach. As in the case with Ice Cream Man, even the less depressing stories still are captured with a hit of darkness through the art. The artist breath a lot of life into the clowns and try to give them a rounded personality.
For fans of Ice Cream Man (like myself), Haha #6 is the most fun of this collection. It directly ties into Ice Cream Man with “what happens next” events occurring within the pages of Ice Cream Man #8 (October 2018). It is a fun nod to Ice Cream Man fans and features appearances of multiple Ice Cream Man storylines…also proving everything is connected.
Haha was a fun short comic and despite being marketed as a limited series, I could see another set of “Sad Clown Stories” coming out in the future. Prince is on a roll, and I recommend checking out his work. On the surface, a lot of the stories might seem small or superficial, but it feels like Prince is painting on a bigger canvas which might present a big picture as the years go on.
Written by W. Maxwell Prince, Haha: Sad Clown Stories is an Image Comics limited series. The collection features art by Vanesa Del Rey, Zoe Thorogood, Roger Langridge, Patrick Horvath, Gabriel Hernández Walta, Martin Morazzo, and Chris O’Halloran.
Ice Cream Man has been a great title. It is a weird, wild, and sometimes unnerving series of stories that have a strange “world” surrounding them. Haha starts out with some indirect similarities to Ice Cream Man and ends up smack dab in the rich world of Ice Cream Man.
Like Ice Cream Man, the stories are very episodic and there are no real bad stories because they are so varied. Haha seems to just enjoy writing itself and telling its own story. You have serious stories and stories that have a light-hearted nature to them…despite being either sad or depressing. The different clown have different voices that vary widely and stories like Remi the Mime don’t feel out of place despite not resembling the other stories in the collection.
This is also highlighted by the variety of art in the issues. There are cartoon issues like Remi next to other issues that take a much more realistic approach. As in the case with Ice Cream Man, even the less depressing stories still are captured with a hit of darkness through the art. The artist breath a lot of life into the clowns and try to give them a rounded personality.
For fans of Ice Cream Man (like myself), Haha #6 is the most fun of this collection. It directly ties into Ice Cream Man with “what happens next” events occurring within the pages of Ice Cream Man #8 (October 2018). It is a fun nod to Ice Cream Man fans and features appearances of multiple Ice Cream Man storylines…also proving everything is connected.
Haha was a fun short comic and despite being marketed as a limited series, I could see another set of “Sad Clown Stories” coming out in the future. Prince is on a roll, and I recommend checking out his work. On the surface, a lot of the stories might seem small or superficial, but it feels like Prince is painting on a bigger canvas which might present a big picture as the years go on.
September 5, 2021
You have to agree that clowns feature in horror books and children's nightmares a bit more than ice cream vendors. So perhaps there was always a chance that taking these characters and putting them in a new series of dark one-shots was going to be a step too close to the norm for our creator. You'll be pleased to hear at least that it's a long time before anyone here is getting sucked down a kerbside drain – and we get four whole stories before meeting up with Pound Foolish.
That said, the first clown is in the gutter, but he's looking up at the stars, trying to find a positive in a world where he's unemployed, the victim of crime – and then the more serious victim of a more serious crime. The second one-shot suggests there will be copious links throughout this, as a female with some kind of clown connection aims to work at the joint the first just got fired from. Look past the motley and there's death here, too. A mime comes next, and dutifully stays silent throughout, although it's to little benefit in the finish. And it's that pattern that seems to follow – really quite humdrum examples of melancholia, that don't really entertain or elucidate. Let's face it – the unhappy clown, the clown face upside down, the misery behind the artificial smile, have all been there since Chaplin if not long before him, and however tricksy the author wants to get with call-backs to earlier stories in this issue (and indeed other works in his output), using these characters as foils to show the bland, the depressing and the hard-knock-giving nature of life is little new. I wasn't the world's biggest fan of Ice Cream Man, but this failed to even reach the appeal of that other title. Three stars seem generous.
That said, the first clown is in the gutter, but he's looking up at the stars, trying to find a positive in a world where he's unemployed, the victim of crime – and then the more serious victim of a more serious crime. The second one-shot suggests there will be copious links throughout this, as a female with some kind of clown connection aims to work at the joint the first just got fired from. Look past the motley and there's death here, too. A mime comes next, and dutifully stays silent throughout, although it's to little benefit in the finish. And it's that pattern that seems to follow – really quite humdrum examples of melancholia, that don't really entertain or elucidate. Let's face it – the unhappy clown, the clown face upside down, the misery behind the artificial smile, have all been there since Chaplin if not long before him, and however tricksy the author wants to get with call-backs to earlier stories in this issue (and indeed other works in his output), using these characters as foils to show the bland, the depressing and the hard-knock-giving nature of life is little new. I wasn't the world's biggest fan of Ice Cream Man, but this failed to even reach the appeal of that other title. Three stars seem generous.
January 20, 2023
Ice Cream Man writer W. Maxwell Prince brings his surreal signature style of one-shot storytelling to Haha and this time he's also accompanied by a whole bunch of artists.
Each issue is illustrated by a different artist and there's some absolutely brilliant work in this little mini-series - most notably Zoe Thorogood's talent shines in the second issue and Martín Morazzo in the sixth. It's all pretty distinctive here, but it feels incredibly right for the series.
The plot pretty much delivers on Prince's usual standard. If you're familiar with any of his other work you'll know to expect a little creepy surrealism mixed with some heartfelt moments thrown in for good measure.
The six stories themselves have their ups and downs - it's mostly good, but it does have a few dry parts that weaken the atmosphere and pacing a little.
There's no getting around it - this was a fun and interesting read. It feels fresh and is a lot deeper than you'd initially expect. It's an easy thumbs up!
___________________
My Score: 8/10
My Goodreads: ⭐⭐⭐⭐
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Each issue is illustrated by a different artist and there's some absolutely brilliant work in this little mini-series - most notably Zoe Thorogood's talent shines in the second issue and Martín Morazzo in the sixth. It's all pretty distinctive here, but it feels incredibly right for the series.
The plot pretty much delivers on Prince's usual standard. If you're familiar with any of his other work you'll know to expect a little creepy surrealism mixed with some heartfelt moments thrown in for good measure.
The six stories themselves have their ups and downs - it's mostly good, but it does have a few dry parts that weaken the atmosphere and pacing a little.
There's no getting around it - this was a fun and interesting read. It feels fresh and is a lot deeper than you'd initially expect. It's an easy thumbs up!
___________________
My Score: 8/10
My Goodreads: ⭐⭐⭐⭐
___________________
September 28, 2021
I found the concept of this intriguing, and the art was excellent. Some wonderful visual storytelling. These are essentially six loosely connected stories. One of which takes an odd jaunt into crossing over with a popular movie from a couple years ago. I really liked the issue centered on the mime and Pound Foolish. That being said, I might have liked a little more variety of... "outlook" I guess you could say. This is INCREDIBLY subjective, but reading this as a trade just felt like being pelted with one unrelentingly sad clown story after the other and when I got done, I realized that I was thoroughly sick of depressing clown stories. A rare instance where I think a modern comic might have been better read as single issues.
September 8, 2023
I've been waiting for this series to be made into a full volume and it's finally here! W. Maxwell Prince is responsible for one of my favorite comic series, Ice Cream Man. It's very strange and not for the faint of heart, but it's so well written. Haha even featured very coy references to ICM, which honked my lil clown nose in delight. HAHA follows the same format of it's sister series as it's told in vignettes from the perspective of 6 different clowns. I wouldn't recommend for those with a fear of clowns because it becomes disturbing very quickly. I can't believe this collection is finally bundled together and clown gloves crossed we may get a second volume in the future for some more sad clowns!
October 25, 2021
6 inter-connected short comic stories about clowns - not uplifting but effective.
These 6 comics deal with various unsuccessful or unwanted clowns trying to make a living and dealing with the situation in a variety of ways. Different artists work on the series so some will be favoured above others. It’s sad and reflects modern times in places. Quite good. I received a copy in exchange for an honest review.
August 29, 2021
Lol what a depressing compilation of bitter clowns. I was thinking throughout, "I wonder if the Joker movie influenced this dude?" And we get a little Joaquin at the end there haha.
I think there is probably some poignant messaging in here, but in general it is all pretty bleak. Ice Cream Man is better imo, but I can't give this one less than five stars.
I think there is probably some poignant messaging in here, but in general it is all pretty bleak. Ice Cream Man is better imo, but I can't give this one less than five stars.
April 15, 2022
Six desolate stories about six different clowns drawn by six different artists, but written by one man, W Maxwell Prince. I love Ice Cream Man and thought I would also love this, but it felt like it was missing something. What it may have lacked in story line, it made up for in misery. These tales were all gloom with no happy endings. The last one was my favorite.
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