W. Maxwell Prince’s ICE CREAM MAN and HAHA are two of my favorite comics of the past few years, so hearing that he was working on another anthology series with Image Comics had me very excited. Learning more about SWAN SONGS along the way, from the concept about one-off stories of all different types of endings to the rotating cast of all-star artists — including Martin Simmonds on the debut issue, only increased my anticipation.

SWAN SONGS #1 quickly raises the stakes with two types of very personal endings that many of us fear — a son watching his elderly mother slowly dying due to illness while while simultaneously dealing with the quickly approaching end of the world due to a nuclear holocaust. The son acts as the narrator throughout the story and most of the emotional weight of the story comes via his inner monologue where he replays conversations between him and his (now dead) therapist. We develop an appreciation for his dedication to his sick mother and witness his devotion to her as he traverses a pre-apocalyptic fallen city to find one last issue of her favorite magazine to read to her before she passes and/or the world ends, whichever might come first.

Prince’s writing is meaty without being heavy. Throughout so much of his work, he’s able to create an emotional connection for readers without ever diving too deeply into any specific character. It’s truly a skill to be able to write anthology stories and quickly establish characters and situations which deliver these types of emotional gut punches. None of his stories tend to have true heroes, the characters are everyday people who could be our neighbors, our family members, or some random stranger we pass by in our daily lives. I think that is what makes his stories even more personal. In any story, I could be the main character.

This isn’t the issue for someone who prefers clean lines or vibrant colors. Simmonds’ artwork is characteristically abstract and perfectly suited for this story. It works beautifully here as we’re witnessing an intensely chaotic environment. There is no longer structure in the world or in our narrator’s life and that is perfectly visualized by Simmonds. I particularly enjoyed the design of the trio of end-times nihilists that appear throughout the story as a foil to our narrator.

I do wish we spent more time with the narrator and his mother as I felt that relationship was slightly underdeveloped, but overall I thought SWAN SONGS #1 was a strong introduction to the new world that Prince is building for this miniseries. He was smart to use this specific story for the debut issue given how consequential the story was and it’ll be interesting to see if the remaining stories can match the same levels.

Rating: 8/10