Customer Reviews

Trust/Truth

5 star:		(2)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

Picking up about two years from where we left them at the end of Calvacade of Boys, Trust/Truth focuses on middle-aged muscle hunk Chase and his cute younger BF Terry. Arriving home after his own galavanting around, Chase hears a voice mail that implies Terry has cheated. Terry neither confirms or denies the accusation in light of Chase's repeated assertions about "Trust" in the face of his own cheating behavior. The fight spirals out of control leading to a break up and a custody hearing over their dog. The foolishly misguided duo spend the majority of the graphic novel trying to make new relationships work and forget about each other. The art is, as usual, fun and excellent and the color adds a welcome beautiful dimension missing from the Calvacade series. What prevents the graphic novel from being a true five-star effort is the pacing and flow of the story. The edges of a comic series that must stand along when serialized in an online publication are sometimes disjointed when put together in a single novel -- which is what happens here. The individual chapters do not always completely mesh in a seemless arc for the overall story and the ending wraps up a bit quickly. Still, a fine effort from one of the only gay comic book producers working today whose product isn't permeated with erotica.

James Michael Chase takes for granted his relationship with Terry, but all falls apart when, after an unsettling message for Terry discovered by James Michael the issue of trust is raised. From there goes on a bittersweet comedy on the fate of relationships and love, on the familiar background of Archè city and J.M. Chase's friends Tighe and Michael. Great storytelling, great graphics and exquisite coloring, make this graphic novelette a real treat!

The book "Trust/Truth" from Tim Fish was nothing more than a pleasure to read. The comic style is the one we know from Tim Fish; nicely done, well designed characters with enough details to please the eye but not too much to catapult the final price to the moon. This book is coloured with nice, bright and vivid colours. The story is a "gay-rendition" from an old theatrical play (love-break up-and?...).

All in all, a nice "gay" drama soap story, made to pleasure the reader's appetite for a simple, daily(?) story, but with male homosexual characters. The price is fair for the quality; not too cheap, not too expensive. A purchase I sure didn't regret for.

the two central characters are not from cavalcade of boys, but were introduced in the serial Love is the Reason, which i guess i prefer over this because it focuses on the character tigh, as well as a new cavalcade. so here, its only about those two characters, who break up over suspected affairs (hence the title), but have to stay in contact because of their shared dog.

the art is an interesting development from tim fish's past work; this is his only finished product, his older stuff shows signs of rush work since they were first published in periodicals. its also coloured. its a much more personal look, the characters look, uh, hokey, exaggerated by emotion, whereas cavalcade of boys and love is the reason were more basic, but still good. i mean the earlier work was good because it looked generic, like it could have come from any romance comic, except its about gay guys.

in truth/trust fish gets a great, solid, peculiar style. it was only on rereading that i realized the drama and conflict were a little hackneyed and constructed. i didn't completely believe why they broke up and why what happened happened next. you could hear the author's ideas and concerns voiced by characters, as opposed to characters with their own voices, which was what was so great about cavalcade. the melodrama in fish's earlier work was pitch perfect. here its kind of lop sided. but it's still good, the art's great, i still recommend it. also check out fish's blog.