Techies Unite: Helen, Sweetheart of the Internet [Paperback]

Peter Zale (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: May 23, 2000

Voted Internet Magazine Cool Site of the Day, Talespinner Award, Daryl Cagle's "Top Pencil" Award, and The Medaille d'Or for Site Excellence, Peter Zale's "Helen, Sweetheart of the Internet" has taken the Internet by storm and is now making its move to newspaper syndication. This alternative comic strip will be making the unprecedented move from the obscure electronic underground to the forefront of comic strip mainstream this summer. The strip appeals to techies and non-techies alike with its unique blend of geek savvy and techno-phobic attitude.

Helen, Sweetheart of the Internet centers on a beautiful and brilliant computer geek who at twenty-four runs the information systems department of a large company. Peter Zales' strip brings to light the comic ironies about humankind that have come about due to the rapid advances in technology.

Editorial Reviews

From the Back Cover

Welcome to the Digital Age...

Yesterday's propeller-headed geeks are today's trillion-dollar titans. Your grandmother just launched her own website. The revolution will not, in fact, be televise d­­it will be webcast. And forget about those corporate suits upstairs in the corner office, because it's the techies who hold all the real business power today. It's a strange new world­­and nobody embodies the high-tech zeitgeist more thoroughly, more knowingly, or more hilariously, than...Helen, Sweetheart of the Internet (IT'S HER UNIVERSE. WE JUST LIVE IN IT).

Peter zale's award-winning, internationnaly syndicated, and always razor-sharp comic-strip heroine­­now starring in her very first book!

Peter Zale's Techies Unite is a merciless, dead-on, and effortlessly hip send-up of the modern-day digital office. And Helen is an unforgettable creation­­a sarcasm-laden smart bomb waiting to explode, a wry observer of technology's myriad drawbacks, and an irony-dripping fusion of geek savvy and cyber-punk attitude. That's our Helen. She's no sweetheart.

"Peter Zale and his Helen will lead cartoons into the new world."­­From the Foreword by Mike Peters, Pulitzer Prize winning cartoonist

Product Details

• Paperback: 122 pages
• Publisher: McGraw-Hill Companies (May 23, 2000)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0071360735
• ISBN-13: 978-0071360739
• Product Dimensions: 9 x 8.1 x 0.6 inches
• Shipping Weight: 11.2 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 4.7 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (18 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,646,388 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

6 of 7 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars readers unite!, June 27, 2000

By A Customer

This review is from: Techies Unite: Helen, Sweetheart of the Internet (Paperback)

Peter Zale's "Helen, Sweetheart of the Internet" is a very cool strip. Gotta love Helen--so nice to see a strong female character with mechanical ability for once.

Grouping the strips into categories was a smart move on the author's part. Makes this book more readable that the usual book of comic strips.

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A geek... a beauty... she's not to be trifled with, June 21, 2000

By 

Lakeside Listener (Clear Lake, CA USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Techies Unite: Helen, Sweetheart of the Internet (Paperback)

If you caught Helen when she was the Sweetheart of the Internet and available only on the Web, you already know she is a genius not to be trifled with. She is headstrong, female and beautiful, and she takes no guff from anyone. The Internet was a perfect place for Helen. She is capable of meeting Bill Gates at hacker conventions held so far underground that participants have to take an elevator up to the sublevel parking garage in order to leave. Gates creeps around her back door looking for sympathy when the Feds go after him (she's not the right one to ask for sympathy). Now Helen has been reborn in syndication more as a generic super techie than a Web denizen, but since that's really what she's always been, the translation to paper went smoothly. This book is a great, sometimes goofy celebration of geekdom. If you've ever wondered if geeks, nerds and techies can be sexy, funny and wonderful, here's your answer. Her name is Helen. This book collects some fine, funny strips from one of the best post-Dilbert comic universes of all. Highly recommended!

5 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Hilarious!, November 20, 2001

By A Customer

This review is from: Techies Unite: Helen, Sweetheart of the Internet (Paperback)

"Techies Unite" is the only book of its kind. Having been in the tech world for some time I have often felt and sensed the things that this book treats on. I'm amazed actually that someone out there actually wrote all this stuff down and used it so well. This guy knows this business. At least he seems to know me.

I would heartily recommend this book to anyone who knows anything about the tech world. It's hilarious and true. And Helen is a totally cool and unorthodox character. Nothing like her I've ever seen.