Troy From 1 to 100

Michael Derry's very gay strip has been running since 1998, and here we have a collection of (surprise!) the first one hundred strips (all strips can be read online at Derry's site). Derry's art has definitely evolved over the almost six years this book covers, becoming rounder and more assured, but his humor remains more or less the same: mostly light, but rather entertaining. All his characters live in West Hollywood, look good, have good bodies, and look for sex and love, sometimes even both. The main character is the eponymous Troy, at the beginning a kind of cute and naive guy who doesn't have the gym-defined body of his friends. But resistance is futile, and he will be assimilated.
Troy's friends are mega-hunk Rigo, a bartender who can have his pick of men, activist Ray, drag queen Derrick (Ray's boyfriend), and various more or less short terms boyfriends of the main characters.

Storylines range from silly to funny, often both: Troy goes out with a closeted actor and hijinks ensue; Troy meets a guy who's looks like him minus a few years - and who's far less naive; Troy meets another seemingly straight hunk... but this one will last. Nick is in my opinion the most interesting character in the strip, since we follow him from "I'm straight, but I like to take it up the ass" to a budding recognition of his being gay (or bisexual, maybe). Of course, it's played for laughs, but it's engaging nonetheless.

It's a pity that on some of the strips, the printing is not that good, probably because of a not high enough definition. But it's not too annoying, and often happens with the Cafe Press books.
All things considered, this first Troy collection is a good opportunity to comfortably get into Troy and his friends' sitcom life.