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Strugglers: a graphic novel
Tighe, the confused boy, struggles to find himself. Tracey, the girl with too much ambition, struggles to make it big. Alison, the girl with no ambition, struggles to ignore her meddling friends. And Mike struggles to find someone to love. Sharing a hip Saint Louis apartment, these friends face only the problems we all deal with... finding jobs, boyfriends, bars, and bands. Their struggles end only as they begin to grow up. Originally presented as “Meet Me in Saint Louie” on the Modern Tales Longplay site in June 2003, this edition adds more than 20 pages of new story and art, and many extras.
- GenresGraphic NovelsComics
112 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 2006
31 people want to read
About the author
Tim Fish
12 books3 followersAmerican writer, artist, and writer/artist of comic book short stories, graphic novels, and one play. Currently based in Ireland under a Fulbright grant to research his upcoming projects.
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Displaying 1 - 11 of 11 reviews
September 19, 2018
Read for the Ugly Cover prompt of my graphic novel run on the Popsugar Reading Challenge.
Hmm. Well, that was disappointing. I was really excited to read this because its set mainly on the Delmar Loop, a cute couple of block stretch near my house. While I enjoyed picking up on all the STL references, this book reaaaallly didn't do it for me. It's less than 120 pages and took me over 2 weeks to force my way through - ouch. Its a shame that the book was so deeply incoherent; there was limited segue between scenes and it was often confusing, like there were panels missing or something. The characters were interesting, I wanted to know more about them and their lives, but the book just wouldn't let me. It sounds like most of the characters feature heavily in other series, but honestly this was so rough I have no interest in reading further in this world.
Hmm. Well, that was disappointing. I was really excited to read this because its set mainly on the Delmar Loop, a cute couple of block stretch near my house. While I enjoyed picking up on all the STL references, this book reaaaallly didn't do it for me. It's less than 120 pages and took me over 2 weeks to force my way through - ouch. Its a shame that the book was so deeply incoherent; there was limited segue between scenes and it was often confusing, like there were panels missing or something. The characters were interesting, I wanted to know more about them and their lives, but the book just wouldn't let me. It sounds like most of the characters feature heavily in other series, but honestly this was so rough I have no interest in reading further in this world.
October 1, 2008
After exhausting myself with everything Cavalcade of Boys in print – volume four, I found out, is to be released soon (much to my great delight) – I scrounged up this copy of Fish’s most recent single graphic novel narrative. (As opposed to the hodge-podge of related short stories in his long-running CoB comic series.) In The Strugglers, Fish returns his attention to Tighe – a stand-in for Fish, although in a highly fictionalized way – before he moved to California at the opening of CoB. Having just graduated from some unnamed East Coast university in the mid-90s, Tighe randomly moves to St. Louis where he meets up with two other recent grads (the blonde Texan Tracey, and the brunette Alison), moves in with them after his first housing situation turns bust, and flirts with the frat-boy next door as he comes out of the closet. (Isn’t this just about every gay man’s fantasy?)
As Fish readily admits in his notes at the ends, this is his coming-of-age in the 90s story – in the same comic subgenre as Howard Cruise’s Stuck Rubber Baby and Marjeane Satrapi’s Persepolis. And, I would argue, Allison’s Bechtel’s Funhouse – which I reviewed recently in these pages.
In the short span of a mere few weeks, I’ve become a huge fan of Fish. His art, as I’ve said before, has a snappy, semi-blocky and semi-rounded style that reminds me of the best of John Byrne (my “god” back during my early teens when I devoured everything X-Men, Fantastic Four, and Alpha Flight) and, in more recent years, Darwyn Cooke. Of course, I will take issue with his scrappy inks -- a la Erik Larsen – when he’s no doubt rushing to meet his deadlines. When he takes his time, Fish’s work is indeed a thing of beauty. Not to mention his hunky men, like Mike Hawkswell – Tighe’s frat-boy love interest. (Just say his name ten times fast, and you too will be reminded of that stupid gag from the first Porky’s. You know, the “I’m looking for Mike Hunt” over the PA system bit.)
Please, Mr. Fish: Keep on a-writin’ and a-drawin’. And I promise I’ll keep on a-buyin’.
As Fish readily admits in his notes at the ends, this is his coming-of-age in the 90s story – in the same comic subgenre as Howard Cruise’s Stuck Rubber Baby and Marjeane Satrapi’s Persepolis. And, I would argue, Allison’s Bechtel’s Funhouse – which I reviewed recently in these pages.
In the short span of a mere few weeks, I’ve become a huge fan of Fish. His art, as I’ve said before, has a snappy, semi-blocky and semi-rounded style that reminds me of the best of John Byrne (my “god” back during my early teens when I devoured everything X-Men, Fantastic Four, and Alpha Flight) and, in more recent years, Darwyn Cooke. Of course, I will take issue with his scrappy inks -- a la Erik Larsen – when he’s no doubt rushing to meet his deadlines. When he takes his time, Fish’s work is indeed a thing of beauty. Not to mention his hunky men, like Mike Hawkswell – Tighe’s frat-boy love interest. (Just say his name ten times fast, and you too will be reminded of that stupid gag from the first Porky’s. You know, the “I’m looking for Mike Hunt” over the PA system bit.)
Please, Mr. Fish: Keep on a-writin’ and a-drawin’. And I promise I’ll keep on a-buyin’.
March 15, 2011
Strugglers is a short but wonderful graphic novel by the very talented Tim Fish. Some of you may be familiar with Tim's more well-known series "Cavalcade of Boys;" Strugglers is a prequel of sorts to that series, but you don't have to be familiar with Cavalcade to enjoy Strugglers.
Strugglers is the story of three almost-accidental roommates in Saint Louis. It is part coming-out tale (Tighe, the truly accidental roommate, struggles with his attraction to Mike, the hot jock across the hall; it doesn't help that Mike is actively gay and interested in Tighe), part rocker-chick success story (Alison & Tracy, the long-term roommates who take Tighe in, compete to see who can be successful first, and both are dating guys in other bands when the story starts). it's all wonderfully paced, with equal attention given to the three roommates and a good amount of time spent developing the supporting characters.
Tim's art is clean and fun; there aren't any muddy, ambiguous panels, and the characters are individualized and recognizable both from page to page and from each other. Some panels are more playful than others (there are a few that show a distinct Walt Simonson influence, an odd thing to see outside of super-hero comics, but for those particular panels the style works), but every panel advances the story clearly. The author's notes at the end say that much of this is preserved from when he first created the story several years ago, and so there is the occasional sense that some pages are more polished than others the roughness of some pages adds to the charm, and I agree with Tim's decision not go to back and redraw the entire story for this edition.
I definitely recommend Strugglers. It's a good straight-forward novella with interesting characters and a real flow and dynamic to it.
Strugglers is the story of three almost-accidental roommates in Saint Louis. It is part coming-out tale (Tighe, the truly accidental roommate, struggles with his attraction to Mike, the hot jock across the hall; it doesn't help that Mike is actively gay and interested in Tighe), part rocker-chick success story (Alison & Tracy, the long-term roommates who take Tighe in, compete to see who can be successful first, and both are dating guys in other bands when the story starts). it's all wonderfully paced, with equal attention given to the three roommates and a good amount of time spent developing the supporting characters.
Tim's art is clean and fun; there aren't any muddy, ambiguous panels, and the characters are individualized and recognizable both from page to page and from each other. Some panels are more playful than others (there are a few that show a distinct Walt Simonson influence, an odd thing to see outside of super-hero comics, but for those particular panels the style works), but every panel advances the story clearly. The author's notes at the end say that much of this is preserved from when he first created the story several years ago, and so there is the occasional sense that some pages are more polished than others the roughness of some pages adds to the charm, and I agree with Tim's decision not go to back and redraw the entire story for this edition.
I definitely recommend Strugglers. It's a good straight-forward novella with interesting characters and a real flow and dynamic to it.
March 14, 2008
Fish can't quite put together a coherent narrative, even though he's revised this book multiple times (as his afterword makes clear). It just sort of ends, which is kind of a shame because the books are short, the characters not unappealing, and most of the art pretty decent in a trendy-young-people indie comics way. He also talks about having revised some of the artwork, so it's hard to tell whether the good stuff or the bad stuff is new. It overlaps a bit with Scott Pilgrim in its scope: a bunch of people fairly recently out of college trying to figure out what to do, hanging out in bars, playing in bands, and dating around. But it's far less creative and funny. I bet it gives a decent picture of St. Louis at a point in time, but I can't say, having no experience with the town. Basically, it's not bad, but I wouldn't recommend you go out of your way to find it.
August 24, 2015
An indie graphic novel about people graduating college and trying to find themselves in the U City Loop in the nineties. I started to look for myself in the background of a couple of the pages. There is niche marketing, and then there is a book targeted at a ten-block radius. (Which was once my ten-block radius, so bully for me.)
It meanders- meandering is basically its mission statement- but it meanders amiably. It made me warmly nostalgic, not because any of the characters reminded me of anyone I knew but because I remember a time about twelve years ago when it seemed like every comic that didn’t have an X-Man in it was exactly like this. And more power to them! Twelve years later, they don’t make them like this anymore. Even the ones about people sitting in their apartments talking about their bands have to have X-Men in ‘em now.
It meanders- meandering is basically its mission statement- but it meanders amiably. It made me warmly nostalgic, not because any of the characters reminded me of anyone I knew but because I remember a time about twelve years ago when it seemed like every comic that didn’t have an X-Man in it was exactly like this. And more power to them! Twelve years later, they don’t make them like this anymore. Even the ones about people sitting in their apartments talking about their bands have to have X-Men in ‘em now.
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May 25, 2016Innocuous and pretty forgettable, there's still something pleasant and comforting about reading about twenty-somethings in the 90's slacking around and getting into jams (I hesitate to even call them problems) that seem so old fashioned in our post 2008 Busted Economy world. It's like catching a rerun of a moderately gayer version of Friends. Plus I learned a thing or two about St. Louis.
I hated its lame rhyming passages, and why was the narration in third person? But at least even the author is willing to admit this "slice of life" doesn't seem like much, in the big scheme of things. Altogether a cute but pointless book that grew on me, and left me feeling wistful.
I hated its lame rhyming passages, and why was the narration in third person? But at least even the author is willing to admit this "slice of life" doesn't seem like much, in the big scheme of things. Altogether a cute but pointless book that grew on me, and left me feeling wistful.
May 17, 2010
A prequel to Cavalcade of Boys, Strugglers is another great graphic work by Tim Fish. While the dialogue can be a little simple at times, Fish has a real talent for writing realistic characters and formulating emotionally engaging and poignant interactions between them. A fun, light read.
February 22, 2014
This isn't a bad graphic novel, but it's a little superficial. We don't spend enough time to really get to know any of the characters on anything more than a surface level and the events depicted all breeze by with no real time spent on them either. Not bad, but it needed to have a tighter focus or more space.
Read
September 7, 2009from the Gay Comics List: "I'm very happy to see Tim Fish's moving and funny real-life drama which, in my opinion, should be on every gay reader's shelf."
May 11, 2010
I don't know why I read earnest, understated contemporary dramas. I don't really like them. Even if they are about gay people.
November 2, 2011
Somewhat of a meandering set of stories, none of which are compelling.
Displaying 1 - 11 of 11 reviews