Tommy as a teen
The prolific Mr Fish has published two more 48-page issues of his excellent series The Cavalcade of Boys. Here are a few words about the main stories in those comics.
The seventh issue begins a two-part story about Tommy, who’s been shown so far as being more interested in having sex with as many men as he can. Tommy is given a back story which shows his life as a teenager, and once more, Tim Fish manages to build on the hard laughs which this character elicited from the reader and make him evolve and question his life. This seems to be one of the main themes of CoB: characters might take a number of blows, but there’s always a chance for them to decide they don’t like what they’ve done or what they’ve put up with. These characters get more and more alive with each new issue, and that’s definitely the best way to keep readers coming back for more!
In the eighth issue, Tommy’s spotlight ends with him finding friendship and maybe more in Wing, one of Gordon’s former boy toys. And we get to see Tighe, who was the main character back in issue 1, hook up with Eric, one the three teenagers living together.
Tighe and Eric
Another bitter-sweet summer love story as Tim Fish does so well. In fact, it seems to me that the writing, which was already good at the beginning of the series, is getting even better, and that the character development is more finely tuned. It must be said that, as the writing, the art keeps on evolving and becomes also more and more coherent and fluid, the line more assured and rounder. Which I really like, but that’s just my own tastes.
Tim Fish doesn’t seem to be close to running out of steam on his ever-changing characters, and I don’t feel the same general humorous bitterness towards relationships that pervaded the first issues. Let’s see whether he proves me right or wrong with the next issues.
UP. 06/2010: these comics are out-of-print, but a collection of Cavalcade of Boys is available, for example at Amazon
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