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| Hi, it's me again, only two days late this time. This column is going to be a little heavier on the graphics than usual, but I figure you'll forgive me because the subject matter is comic strips, particularly those dealing with animals. I think Christina, one of my humans, spends about an hour every morning surfing to her daily comic strips. Let's see if we can make that an hour and a half. First up is a strip that's not actually online, but rather a web site for a paper comic book. Innocent Bystander is the brainchild of Gary Sassaman and his two cats, Stan and Ollie. The web site itself only houses one real strip ("How We Met"), but there's info on ordering a whole series of comics starring Gary and "the boys," as he calls them. If the books are half as endearing as the introductory strip about the origin of Stan and Ollie, I'm buying the place out. (You can also order the graphic novel from Stomp Tokyo and Amazon Books.)
 Moving on to sites with a little more online content, we're going to zoom to the other end of the lovability spectrum with a little strip called Chuck Loves the World. Although Chuck is distinctly human, his companions, Ratsputin and The Bug (and the giant maniacal Worm), are anything but. "Biting" best describes the humor here, as Chuck's social life, self esteem, and pantry are constantly under attack by his animal "friends." If cruelty is your sort of thing, Chuck and company have what you need.
 Veering back towards the cute and cuddly, we have Kevin & Kell. This strip is the story of species-crossed lovers, namely Kevin the Rabbit and Kell the Wolf. As if the herbivore/carnivore jokes weren't enough, there's also a high degree of technology humor here, as Kevin apparently runs a bulletin board with an herbivore support group. Still, it's the "do I love my stepdad, or do I just hunger for him?" melodrama that will put you in stitches. Looks like this strip has been running for at least four years -- plenty of archives to keep you happy. Plus, the terrific navigation bar lets you jump back and forward by days and weeks. A truly slick online comic.
 Our final time-killer in this series is the wonderfully bizarre Sluggy Freelance, which not only features a host of animals, it also overdoses on pop culture references. Ah, dear to my heart, the most recent strip concerns "Mecha-Easter Bunny," a Terminatorized replacement for the recently deceased EB. Mecha-EB's directives are to avenge the original Bunny's death, deliver Easter Eggs, and crush Tokyo -- because destroying Japan is just part and parcel of the whole "Mecha-" process. Betcha can't read just one.
 Next update: delayed again. Maybe I should go monthly. This page is for entertainment purposes only, and Otis is not responsible for the content of the sites presented here. Copyright 1999 by Chris Holland. Do not take internally. Your mileage may vary. |