Staring at an ant farm, one can see the extent of the tunnels and the endless chores of the ants as they go about their workday, seemingly unaware of the world around them. It's a lot like reading Adam@home.

    Brian Basset has painted a picture of the home-based business world that shows a very real culture. Those within this culture are seemingly unaware of the many others who are going to the same copy outlets, coffee shops, gyms and courier dropoffs. And all of this happens between the endless chores of shuttling the kids to school, cleaning house and shopping for groceries.

    But every day, in over 200 newspapers in North America, home-based workers can turn to the comic pages and watch Adam Newman goofing off when he should be working ... and working when he should be paying attention to children Clayton, Katy and baby Nick.

    Readers feel vindicated when employees at the local courier company gleefully close the doors in Adam's face as he rushes to make a deadline. Whether he is handed a grocery list to fill on his way to an all-night copy outlet at 2 a.m. by his wife, Laura, or his computer gives him a hard time just because it "feels" like it, home-based workers are reassured they are not alone in the lifestyle they have chosen.

    Just as office workers have looked to the Dilbert comic strip for a chance to laugh at their own frustrations, Basset's readers see their own lives played out in playful jest. Basset insists he has not defined this home-based culture for public consideration nor does he give voice to it. He is only holding up a mirror. And if the reflection of Adam looks a lot like Basset, himself, it is only because it is a reflection of the average home-based worker.

    Basset's Adam is kept purposely generic. He is seen working at the computer because most homepreneurs work at the computer. Money is tight in the Newman household because money is tight in most homes. How Adam came to be a house dad and operator of a home-based desktop publishing company is kept fuzzy so that more readers can identify with him.

    But the similarities with Basset, himself, are still striking. Both have a problem with deadlines and both are disorganized. Like Adam, Basset loves to visit his favourite coffee bar for his caffeinated beverage of choice and will take his laptop computer or sketch pad with him. Sometimes he needs the din of conversation and clinking cutlery over the quiet and loneliness of home.

    But Basset doesn't want to be too associated with the Adam character because it would be embarrassing ... and a little boring for the reader, he adds. But still, the age-old rule of successful writing is to "write what you know."

    And Basset knows the lifestyle of the home-based worker as only a member of its ranks could. After being laid off as a political cartoonist, he fell back on the Adam comic strip, which he had started some years before. His wife, Linda, works outside of the home and he was left to take care of their two boys, Trevor, 12, and Keegan, 14. As well as producing comic strips and putting together books, Basset was in charge of grocery shopping, cleaning and cooking.

    The transformation of Adam from a house dad to a home-based worker/house dad began with his cartoon wife's downsizing. Laura was a high-powered executive and suddenly had to take a job as a low-paid book store clerk for the benefits (a huge concern for HBBs in America). Adam's new desktop publishing business got off the ground just as Basset's home-based cartooning business did.

    Basset stays in touch with the issues and challenges of working from home the old fashioned way: He talks to strangers he meets at the copy shop, coffee bar and anywhere else he spots a fellow home-based business owner. Living the life of a home-based worker is fodder for his imagination as well. He knows from five years of experience that having an office in the laundry room is not the best place, due to the effects of static on his computer.

    He also knows that summer vacation wreaks havoc on production as kids are underfoot an additional seven hours a day. Although Basset has never mounted a microwave oven above his computer to prepare snacks for the kids while chasing a deadline like Adam did, he does know it is a fantasy shared by many parents working from home.

    Technology has provided another way to keep in touch with the hidden culture of HBBs. Basset includes his e-mail address on each comic strip. He receives four to 20 e-mails a day from readers telling him when a particular strip has touched them in a certain way. Their reaction is immediate and genuine.

    "We are only as successful as our readers allow us to be," says Basset from his home studio, a converted bedroom.

    Basset feels he needs to be reminded that comics are important to some people's lives. They need that little laugh to start their day or to be reassured that they are not alone. Too often cartoonists, who for the most part work from home, see only the work and deadlines of cartooning.

    The greatest compliment a cartoonist can receive is to have one of his comic strips cut out of the newspaper and taped to a computer or fridge. But Basset can't see into his readers' homes. Receiving a nice note saying he is appreciated is the only way he knows he is successful.

    Before e-mail, he had a tough time keeping up with snail mail. He was embarrassed to find five-year-old letters in the back of his closet that he had never answered. With e-mail, he can respond to every message sent to him. He can even send aspiring cartoonists answers to Frequently Asked Questions that he has prepared.

    Basset takes pleasure in knowing that Adam@home appeals to a wide variety of people, from small business owners who aren't taken seriously when collecting on a past-due account to single moms who are overwhelmed. But none of them considers Adam a hero. Rather, he is a hero-by-proxy as he shows the world all of the heroic deeds performed by people who run businesses, raise families and maintain their dignity everyday.

    "Don't give up," Adam's creator tells the HBB culture. "For every horrible thing that happens at home, there's a cartoonist anxious to make you laugh at it."

    You may purchase Brian's latest collection of Adam@home comic strips by visiting his syndicate's Web site (www.uexpress.com). You may also sample Basset's newest comic strip, Red and Rover, at www.postwritersgroup.com. And Basset always welcomes e-mail at adamathome@aol.com.