Adam & Andy

Everyday life and its seemingly futile struggles and joys might not seem to some people like the most exciting material for a gay strip, but with Adam & Andy, James Asal has clearly shown them wrong.
With the blond, slightly grouchy Adam and his lover Andy, dark-haired but of a far lighter nature, it is all about everything that makes a life worth sharing, the times spent together at home, the hugs and sweet words which are as important to a sane relationship than good sex, and sometimes a hunky young guy mowing the lawn.

James Asal has often said he's inspired by his own life, but he isn't turning that life into one big joke. We don't often laugh out loud while reading this strip. The humor is more restrained, more gentle than what we're used to. It can be sexy (and if often is), it can be sarcastic toward some parts of mainstream gay life, but it's never nasty nor scornful.
At the same time, there's no glorification of marriage or partnership or civil union or whatever you want to call a relationship that's been going on for 16 years. The strips gently mock the embourgeoisement of the almost middle-age men. Whether they're shown looking ecstatically at a range of faucets in a shop or preferring an evening at home to an evening out, James Asal definitely doesn't try to shove down his readers' throat his conception of coupled life, but rather to chronicle one particular couple's life, with its quirks and pleasures.

Just as he never shows off with his writing or his punchlines, he also uses an art style which works very well with the kind of stories he tell. There's no exaggeration in facial expression or body language, but it doesn't try to be photo-realistic either, and all his characters look like people one might meet in the street (although I must say I find both Adam and Andy really cute).

Adam & Andy seems to show us that, while the dangerous concept of normalcy is nothing to yearn for, none of us can escape the day-to-day aspects of our lives, and that it's easier to bear when one has a solid sense of humor.