GOATS: THE COMIC STRIP (April 29, 1999)
You must read this comic strip to believe it. Well, maybe not to believe it, but to enjoy it. It is certainly enjoyable, that's for sure. It focuses on these two guys named Jon and Phillip, and there's this goat named Toothgnip, and this crazy chicken (or "El Polo Loco," for our Mexican friends) named Diablo, and lots of other funny characters and situations. I assume it's called GOATS: THE COMIC STRIP so that it won't be confused with GOATS: THE ANIMATED SHORT, the CGI film creator Jon Rosenberg is producing that is sure to win the Academy Award for Best Animated Short. Go, GOATS, go! Wow, this is the worst Achieving Superosity Award review I've ever written. Either this one, or the one for SOUTH PARK CENTRAL.

THE 5 BEST FUTURAMA SITES (April 6, 1999)
Because I couldn't pick just one FUTURAMA fansite to win this award (there are too many good ones), I have chosen 5 different sites dedicated to the best show on TV in years. For those not in the know, FUTURAMA is the new series from SIMPSONS creator Matt Groening, focusing on a pizza delivery boy from 1999 who is accidently frozen and wakes up in the year 3000 (well, actually, the last day of 2999). Once there, he teams up with a bad-behaving robot named Bender and a one-eyed female alien named Leela, and they're hired to be the crew of an interplanetary delivery service by Fry's scientist ancestor, who proudly keeps various lengths of wire in a drawer. Anyway, the best fan sites for FUTURAMA on the web are: The Futurama Archive, The Futurama Outlet, The Futurama Source, The Futurama Zone, and There's Something About Futurama.

SOUTH PARK CENTRAL (March 15, 1999)
22 year old web designer Chris Wiser of Milwaukee, WI puts together one of the best-designed and most comprehensive South Park fan sites on the web. Anything you ever wanted to know, hear, or see relating to Kyle, Kenny, Stan, Cartman, and the whole South Park gang can most likely be found right here. Even if you're not the biggest fan of South Park, you have to admire the amazing work that goes into it's fan sites, with "South Park Central" being at the top of the admiration list. Check it out!

USER FRIENDLY (March 9, 1999)
Canadian cartoonist Illiad premiered this daily, computer-related comic strip in November 1997, and it immediately took off with the speed of a Silicon Graphics workstation (or another speed/computer-related comparison, if you can think of a better one). I didn't discover it until late 1998, but since then I haven't missed a day. Illiad tackles not only down-to-Earth subjects like Microsoft and the iMac, he mixes them with fantastic out-of-this-world characters (from a talking ball of dust with legs named Dust Puppy to an artificial intelligence named Erwin) and situations seamlessly. User Friendly combines both everyday wired-world references with some weird-ass stuff to create the ultimate web strip focusing on computers. Oh, and it's funny, too.

CAMP CHAOS (March 7, 1999)
The funniest Macromedia Flash animation on the web (and that's including Spumco)! Camp Chaos is the creation of animator Bob Cesca, who draws and does the voices for the Chaos cartoons including "Hootenanny!," "Googly & Spiffy," and my personal favorite, "The Dante & Jimmy Hour." These cartoons are but only scratching the surface of what we'll be seeing on the web via new technologies in the far-flung future. But Camp Chaos is a darn good start.

COUNTDOWN TO STAR WARS (March 5, 1999)
This is the keenest STAR WARS website ever, hands down. Maintained by Australian Lincoln Gasking, this site is constantly updated with the latest STAR WARS news, STAR WARS mentions in comic strips and other entertainment, and the most radical STAR WARS fan art you've ever seen. It also includes information on the preparation for waiting in line to see EPISODE ONE, with plans by many fans to wait in line up to a MONTH in advance of release! Now that's dedication, dammit.

THE BLACK VAULT (March 3, 1999)
John Greenewald, Jr., a 17 year old high school student, created THE BLACK VAULT to inform the public on what the government's doing in relation to important subjects like UFOs, top secret military aviation, weapons of mass destruction, and more. With actual government documents obtained through the freedom of information act, his site represents the largest catalog of official government documents on the web (outside of the actual government websites). What you find on his site may suprise you.

SLUGGY FREELANCE (March 1, 1999)
The first "Achieving Superosity" Award goes to a website that is home to, quite simply, one of the very best comic strips currently being published in any medium. Sure, anybody can take two mild-mannered computer geeks, their luckless lady friend, a people-hungry alien from another dimension, a homicidal-but-also-lovable mini-lop (that's a li'l bunny rabbit, for you laymen out there), and a whole gaggle of other unusual characters, and slap them all together into a comic strip. It's a basic, routine formula, right? Of course, but even with a time-tested formula, you're far from guaranteed instant hilarity. Not to mention exciting action and soul-consuming human drama. That takes talent. Cartoonist Pete Abrams is that talent. Since Sluggy's debut in August 1997, he's put the elements together in just the right way, as one cohesive, daily, serialized whole. For that, both I and the entire web thank him. Go on, read the strip from the beginning, and become addicted to this mysterious thing called SLUGGY FREELANCE (what does that name MEAN, anyway?).
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