WEB REVIEWS
COMICS
COMICS.COM
United Media treats comic strips right. As distributor of some of today's most popular strips, including "Dilbert" and newly retired "Peanuts," it has made Comics.com an online-strip mecca by hosting a month's worth of 90 strips, including some distributed by other syndicates. Each strip has its own section that includes comics and extras, such as the Shockwave Create-a-Comic at "For Better or For Worse." Because of contracts with newspapers, the strips are a week old. ****
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DARYL CAGLE'S PROFESSIONAL CARTOONISTS INDEX!
Daryl Cagle may be biased toward comics as an art form— he's president of the National Cartoonists Society—but he's also dedicated. His Index links to every comic strip or editorial cartoon that's online, by name of the strip or cartoonist. This is also the online home of Hogan's Alley, the magazine of comic arts, named for one of the first comic strips in the United States. ****
COMICS EDGE
Not all cartoonists make it big in newspapers, but the Web gives them a shot. Tribune Media Services, the publishers of "Gasoline Alley," "Brenda Starr" and others, created Comics Edge to showcase five aspiring cartoonists each month. Your comments in the discussion board could lead to the syndication of the next comic-strip superstar. ***
DOONESBURY ELECTRONIC TOWN HALL
How do you make sense of the politically motivated, Pulitzer-Prize-winning "Doonesbury," a comic strip that its own Web site admits is "frequently obscure or inconsistent"? Visit the online Town Hall, where creator Garry Trudeau explains who's who and what's what with quizzes, frequently asked questions and straw polls. A search in the Flashbacks section allows you to visit any strip of the last 28 years—you won't find that in any paperback collection. ***
KING FEATURES SYNDICATE: COMICS
Included at this syndicate site are many grand adventure strips, from the medieval "Prince Valiant" to the outdoorsy "Mark Trail" to superheroes such as "The Amazing Spider-Man" and "The Phantom." Laugh along with stalwarts like "Hägar the Horrible," "Blondie" and "Beetle Bailey"—65 strips in all. Sadly, while you get a month of strips, they run two weeks after they've appeared in newspapers. To add a little salt to the wound, the site leaves out the longer, colorized Sunday strips. We'll still be laughing, though. **