Want to be totally puzzled? Do a search engine search for "online comic strips." What you'll find is that the first and biggest online comic strip site, comics.com does not even show up, at least not within the first 3 pages. This leads me to wonder just how search engines rank their sites and how stupid can they be? But that's for another topic.

Comics.com quite simply is the black tie of online comics sites. You will find just about every comic strip currently in print in national and local newspapers.

The site is broken down into many sections and you can quite easily get lost there.

My favorite section is "Newest Comics." In this section the site highlights the absolute newest comics online. As of this article the new guys on the block are "Lola," written by Steve Dickenson and Todd Clark. Lola is a woman in her 70's who's not concerned with her diet or being politically correct. Then there's "Captain Murphy" written by Mark Seydewitz. Murphy is more or less a one man army against intergalactic space villains. He's kind of like a Rambo in space. Then there is "F-Minus" written by Tony Carrillo. Quite honestly, I don't get this comic at all. It seems to be kind of like a Far Side deal where every issue is about some strange thing like monkeys playing volleyball or a chipmunk carving a naked lady out of a tree. Very, very weird stuff here. Then there's "Unfit" written by Mike Belkin. The main characters are Mike and Stacey. Mike is a councillor, therapist and baby sitter but would rather be a trainer. He works on his patients muscles more than he does their brains. Stacey is his wife who is honest to a fault and has hair and eyebrows to die for.

After getting past the new comics section, which is usually about 3 or 4 per day, then you have the section where they list comics by category such as family, off beat and web exclusive.

Then you have the recommended section. I have noticed that a lot of times the recommended section contains many of the new comics. This is probably a way to give these a jump start. Right next to this section is "Don't Miss These" which I guess is another way of saying recommended.

To round out the main page they show their featured comic for the day in a big frame layout. This is a great way to get new fans for the comic.

But we're not done. Because above all of this is the navigation menu which includes the following: What's New, Home, Comics, Editorial, Columns, Puzzles, Store and E-Cards. Yes, they sell stuff at this site and I'm sure they make a bundle.

If you head over to the comics link you will find an alphabetical listing of every comic at their site by category, which includes the following: Offbeat, Men, Women, Family, Serials, Ages 18-30, Ages 30-50, Pets, Business, Web Exclusives, Slice Of Life and Editorial Comics. Yes, there is some crossover but even with that there are at least 150 different comics you can read at this site. When I think of the meager 20 or 30 comics I get in my Sunday newspaper it just makes me sick when I realize all the great humor I'm missing each week.

Fortunately because of comics.com, I don't have to. Now if only I could find this site in the search engine listings.

Michael Russell
Your Independent guide to Comic Books