3 out of 5

The strength of this series is definitely its flexibility. While I think Prince has backed himself into an odd corner with the series’ lore – there’s too much if it to not be lore, yet it’s clear it’s not the point / focus of the book – when ICM is operating in true standalone form, it’s one of the most fascinating and exciting cosmic horror series of all times, even moreso now that it’s been able to go on for a while… and get weird.

Whale Song is not especially weird, but it’s definitely the kind of open-ended writing you can only get once a book has a firmly established tone. Ultimately, for this outing I think Prince’s experiment ends up being a bit of a miss, but it’s an intriguing miss; I’d rather read a miss like this every week than a more standard and predictable book.

A father obsesses over his missing daughter, Amelia. The townsfolk know her to he dead; the father knows otherwise – she was swallowed whole by a whale, you see, and is certainly still alive inside.

We learn the father’s obsessive belief is fueled by a need to cover his guilt over being a distant parent; he can correct it all if only he finds her.

The whale presence and themes of obsession give us a Moby Dick comparison, but the fantastical places the story goes – let’s explore the world inside the whale – reminds me of Gilliam’s Baron von Munchausen. Actual “whale songs” may have varied purposes, but if we think of them as communications from afar, and mix this all together, we have a nice brew of ICM themes.

But: the story takes its time to get going, and then wants to world build, and then wants to have some big revelations, and then wants to land on an emotional whammy, and while it’s not impossible to do that in a single issue – Prince has before! – I really feel like he stumbled on to concepts (both contextual and subtextual) that are too big for the book. As such, it feels very cramped after its midway point, to the extent that the dialogue feels a bit forces, and the story beats rushed.