Review: The Cavalcade of Boys #1-4

After the small-scale Meet me in Saint Louie, Tim Fish is back for a chronicle of the lives of an all-male expanded cast of characters.

In the first issue, Tighe, from Meet me in Saint Louie, is back, a few years older, but not that much wiser. He now lives in California, and has a steady job. And he’s looking for the perfect guy. Just like all the other characters in the course of this series.
There’s a pervading obsession with youth in these stories, which is exemplified by Tighe’s friend Stan, who’s into twinks, preferably the muscled club-addict kind. There’s also Murphy, his ex, who seems like a nice guy, Warren, a supercharged talking machine, Gordon, an ugly daddy… all the types of guys one meets in fiction. But this is not the usual kind of fiction, this is not a sitcom with laughs and coups de théâtre.
I don’t mean there’s nothing funny, but all along, there’s a certain bitterness which sets this story apart. I must admit it made me think of the UK version of Queer as Folk.
Tim Fish gives us a realistic psychological depiction of his characters, and while he certainly doesn’t try to show us their best sides, he doesn’t despise them in any way. He also challenges a lot of stereotypes, never forgetting that these are human beings who just can’t be put into neat little categories.

With the next three issues, the format of the storytelling evolves, with the second issue a long story where he manages to give space to all his characters, fleshing them out as he couldn’t do with the first issue when Tighe was the main character; in issues three and four, one long story is followed by a few short ones focusing each on a different character.
All these variations in the way the stories are told give Tim Fish the opportunity to develop characters with various temperaments, and stories with various atmospheres, from the cynical to the almost absurd, and including the tender and the very funny.
Another difference between all the issues is in the art. While solid and coherent throughout all those stories, it definitely shows several influences and references. As you can see from the panels on this page, Walt Simonson might still be Tim Fish’s main influence, but the cartoony aspect of the picture from the third issue and the use of heavy shadows in the one from the fourth is proof of the artist’s diversification.

Tighe with a chicken hawk and Stan with a chicken, from issue 1	Eddie, the navy boy, from issue 2
Eddie & Eric, from issue 3	Trouble in Paradise at the Langley & Dave house, from issue 4

The Cavalcade of Boys¹ is a very entertaining illustration of the fact that Lust and Love might lead us all. But it also proves that it doesn’t mean we can’t get a few good, hard and nasty laughs out of them.