Webcomic done by Peter Zale. Features the misadventures of Helen Nichols, a hyper-intelligent woman of Greek extraction who runs the IT department of some largish company called the Martin-Kirby Corp. The strip, which (going by Zale’s website) started around 1997 falls somewhat between Dillbert and UserFriendly in geeky-ness.
Helen herself is an attractive, fairly arrogant genius (MIT at 15) who at age 24 has risen to the top of her field. In fact, one of the running jokes in the strip is Bill Gates’s constant attempts to “recruit” her. Common storylines range from the usual relationship/adult life themes to the havoc caused by Helen installing AIs with the personality of an interfering mother on all the company’s computers.
Partial cast of characters:
Helen
Title character
Gwen
Helen’s far more sociable best friend.
Lucy
Helen’s mousy co-worker. She is timid where Helen is not.
Gula
Helen’s grandmother, who never really left the old country
Spencer
Closet thing the strip seems to have to a male lead. On again-off again love interest and full time friend
Doug
Classic marketdroid. Usually played for laughs as a fish out of water in the tech world.
Phil
Something of a mentor, (in life, not tech) Phil has developed an almost fatherly relationship with Helen
And of course, Bill Gates
This is really a first wave webcomic, as it was begun with an eye towards syndication and never strayed far from that goal. According to Zale’s website, the strip was in fact syndicated in 2000, something I cannot attest to personaly as I have never seen it in print.
Strips are available at http://www.peterzale.com/helen/ or in published collection form under the title Techies Unite!, which is carried by Amazon