FunMail, out of Livermore, Calif., is signing up both the stalwarts of the newspaper comic strip industry as well as so-called alternative comic strips from independent artists and sending them out to cell phone near you. Spoke with Andy Baldocchi, vice president of sales and marketing at FunMail [www.mobilecomicsnetwork.com] and he explained how it works. FunMail sells the service to the carriers who in turn sell it to end users. Typical pricing is $1.99 per comic strip per month. They can be delivered over MMS [Multimeida Messaging Service] in which case no application is required on the handset or by downloading a J2ME, WAP, or BREW application onto your cell phone and having the cartoon pushed out to you on a daily basis. To read the strip, simply scroll, with one panel at a time displayed. Cartoons include everything from the traditional Dick Tracy, Nancy, and Beetle Bailey to the more current Dilbert, Zits, Los Kitos in Spanish and English, Rose is Rose and Robot Man, over 20 comic strips in all. Coming soon are “darker” strips from independent artists, according to Baldocchi. Once again digital technologies will give the public access to independent voices who usually have a difficult time getting published by traditional channels. Technology Industry