This title may downplay it but this web-comic is truly epic. The author and artist, E.K. Weaver, not only brings these adorkable and super-hot-AF dudes to life but she spends entire panels placing her drawings against photo-realistic backgrounds that take your breath away. I often revert to one her freebie desktop wallpapers as the scene on my computer screen. They are that stunning.
The story is full of all of my nerdy catnip. Amal breaks off his arranged marriage by coming out to his family and then goes on a drown-my-sorrows bender in a bar and gets picked up by the dread-locked-rasta-drifter-who-sings-Paul-Simon-constantly, TJ. The next morning (in one of my fave plot devices of did-we-or-did-we-not-bonk?) TJ offers to pay the expenses if Amal will let him tag-along on the 3500 mile cross-country trip from California to Rhode Island. And 3500 miles is PLENTY OF TIME for things to get deliciously and sexily complicated. Yes, please!
Amal is hot, ripped with anime hair and a silver skunk stripe in the front. He’s conflicted but true to himself, a good son and brother but embittered by the fact that his sexual preference has resulted in him being cast aside. He’s also a Harry Potter nerd and banters with the best of them – clearly winning the ultimate showdown of ultimate destiny. And you don’t want to miss the marijuana-induced Back to the Future quote-off. He wins the battle of the dorkiness, hands down.
TJ is a free spirit with a past he doesn’t want to discuss and is clearly on the run from somebody. He sings Paul Simon, smokes cigarettes and pot freely and with no apologies and he attempts to live in the moment because his past bothers him. He’s sexy and seductive and utterly smitten by Amal’s courage on coming-out and his new-found liberty.
The developing friendship and the eventual sexy-times are believable and hot. Amal is noisy and active in the bed and TJ is an expert in the stealth orgasm (he’s used to being quiet for unspoken and intriguing reasons) but it’s the feels that get you in the gut. If you’re looking for the romance and the absolute sex-positivity of a relationship between two queer men, this web-comic has it.