The Test.

Apr 2000. This really was the big test of a relationship back in the day, as it dragged into the light a lot of unspoken business that boyfriends like to keep quiet. I was going to be graduating in a month and Frank and I had decided that I would move up to San Francisco with him in May - which was anxiety producing enough, but by now I had bought him a ring and had either just proposed or was about to do so (tomorrow's batch of nostalgia strips tells me that I hadn't done it yet): so I was in a state of constant panic anyway.

And then we decided to get the test. Now I should be clear, we both got tested all the time separately - every smart gay man does, no matter what. But going together and sitting in that waiting room together and waiting for the results together while you think and think and think....it's a big step.

I would have loved to have done about four more of these, where Tad and Frank have to talk about who they've been with and so on - but I was running out of days, and anything Tad did, I remembered, would have been while he was dating Donna, and by cartoon logic that wasn't something I wanted to get into. Conversely, Frank might have had a lot of boyfriends (why wouldn't he have, hubba hubba), but that was also an uncomfortable angle - The Talk: great for real life, but total death for a funny comic strip.

Also: rotary phone. If you didn't know better you'd think that Tad and Frank were total hipster poseurs instead of out of context gay cartoon characters. Labels...