CLICK & DOUBLE CLICK: READY FOR A LAUGH? INTERNET PROVIDES ENTRY TO THE COMIC ZONE (COLUMN 28)

Cybertip: Our e-mail address has changed in preparation for the launch of our new SEMissourian.com website this April. Contact us at click@semissourian.com. We look forward to hearing from you.

Need a good laugh? The Internet offers plenty. If you call up comic strips on a search engine, you'll find hundreds, maybe thousands, of wannabe cartoonists.

In the midst of all those hopefuls are the well-known artists who bring you the cartoons you love. Even the old favorites have gone digital.

The obvious place to start is with the world's beloved computer nerd, Dilbert. You can enter the DilbertZone at

http://www.dilbert.com

Joni: You can get your daily dose of Dilbert, along with archives of the past month or so. Strips are posted one week after they have appeared in the newspaper. Dilbert first proved its electronic popularity in January 1993 when its creator Scott Adams became the first syndicated cartoonist to publish his personal Internet e-mail address in the comic strip. He gets between 300 and 800 messages every day.

Peggy: Is that Scott Adams or Dilbert?

Joni: When Adams was 11 he knew he wanted to be a famous artist. So he took a test for the Famous Artist Course for Talented Young People. His mother found the test in the attic a few years ago. He's put the entire graded test, complete with rejection letter, on the site. He seems a little bitter.

Peggy: We also took a tour with Scott Adams on a typical day, complete with photos of him asleep and of his co-worker, Mister Coffee.

Joni: You can also reach Dilbert another way through United Media, www.unitedmedia.com/comics/

Peggy: In addition to Dilbert, United Media features 19 other favorite cartoons including Peanuts, Rose is Rose, Marmaduke, Ally Oop and the Born Loser.

Joni: You can also click to the National Cartoonists Society off the United Media homepage.

Peggy: If you don't want to wait a week to see your favorite comic strip online, many newspapers are offering more current comics, such as the Washington Post.

http://www.washingtonpost.com

At the top of the front page is a box to select a section: Pick Style. The comics link is on the front of that section. We'd give you the direct address but it's really long.

Joni: They have 20 comics that are one or two weeks behind. But they have 28 comics offering today's strip as well as the last few weeks.

Peggy: Calvin and Hobbes, still one of the most popular comic strips even though it stopped publishing Jan. 1, 1996, has several sites for fans. You can find the official Calvin and Hobbes at the Universal Press Syndicate's website

http://www.uexpress.com

Joni: You can't get a daily dose of Calvin and Hobbes anymore from the newspaper, but you can find a re-release of the original strips starting with the first one, which was published Nov. 18, 1985. Apparently they are giving you a re-released old strip every day.

Peggy: One of the very first strips shows how Calvin caught Hobbes with a tuna fish sandwich. Tigers will do anything for a tuna fish sandwich, you know.

Joni: If you still haven't gotten your fill of Calvin and Hobbes, try the Calvin and Hobbes Desktop Invasion. You can find it at

www.buffalo.edu/(tilde)clau/C&H/

Peggy: When you choose the Invade by Desktop option, you'll create a small window in which a different Calvin and Hobbes comic strip appears every minute. Leave it in the corner of your desktop while you work.

Joni: Obviously, my screen isn't big enough for this to fit in the corner of my desktop. But I can read it fine. You can also read a tribute to cartoonist Bill Watterson. He doesn't have any children. No kids? How did he draw this comic strip with no kids?

Peggy: I guess he hasn't grown up yet. For those of you who aren't fans of C&H, you can check out the characters. There are only five characters and two don't have names. It's pretty easy to catch up.

Joni: You can read what the critics said about Calvin and Hobbes' size mandate for newspapers.

Peggy: Wait just one minute! Does that say Joe Sullivan? Yes, it does. Our Joe Sullivan's comments when he was executive editor at the Topeka Capital-Journal on Calvin and Hobbes are immortalized on this website. Small world, isn't it.

Joni: Universal has plenty of other popular comic strips, nearly 30, on its site that are updated daily, as well as archives, message board, and information on the creators. They have Cathy, Ziggy, For Better or For Worse, and Doonesbury. I like Cathy. Let's go there.

Peggy: You can find the original Cathy submissions on this site. Cathy looked a lot worse in the early days. She's definitely improving with age. You can also read Cathy Guisewite's original letter tempting editors with her new comic strip.

Joni: For aspiring cartoonists, Universal makes submitting new works easy. Who knows? The next Garry Trudeau, Dear Abby or Bill Watterson may be just about to click. If you have samples of a comic strip or column ready to send, just press the strip search button after submitting the form. It's that easy.

Peggy: Let's take a look at my favorite fat cat Garfield.

http://www.garfield.com

You can pick an electronic post card with Garfield's riddle of the day. Read Garfield news, look at the strip, print out coloring book pages, play the "Lasagna From Heaven" game or download screen savers. You can stroll through Garfield's studio. Check your brain at the door for party central.

Joni: You can even take a QuickTime Virtual Reality tour (no flash photography, please, and keep you hands in the tram at all times.) Virtual comic pages can be a lot of fun.

What's your favorite comic site? E-mail us at clicksemissourian.com.

See you in Cyberspace.

~Joni Adams is managing editor and Peggy Scott is graphics editor at the Southeast Missourian.