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A #retrocomputing #longreads recommendation for your Sunday:
In 1992, a year before the Web opened to the public, Texas entrepreneur Don Lokke was trying to syndicate weekly political cartoons to bulletin board systems.
His "telecomics," as he called them, represent an overlooked early experiment in online comics, and a window into an interesting moment in American politics.
https://breakintochat.com/blog/2026/03/25/don-lokke-and-mack-the-mouse/
The ANSI art "telecomics" of the 1992 election
https://breakintochat.com/blog/2026/03/25/don-lokke-and-mack-the-mouse/
#HackerNews #ANSIart #telecomics #1992election #digitalart #nostalgia
If you've done 6 impossible things this week, why not round it off with a trip onboard "thE grAvY trAIn" TONIGHT at 21:00 UK! (1pm Pacific/4pm Eastern)
#DontPanic #thEgrAvYtrAIn #TextMode
#RetroComputing #BBS #ChipTunes #TrackerMusic #ANSIArt #ASCIIArt
Still, political ANSI art was more of an exception in the early 1990s. PD artists were more likely to be inspired by pop culture or the theme of a particular BBS.
When the 1992 presidential election came around, not many PD ANSI artists depicted candidates or key moments.
St. Louis-based Dave Hartmann was one of the few. Here are a couple fun screens he drew.
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https://breakintochat.com/blog/2026/03/25/don-lokke-and-mack-the-mouse/
#ansiart #bbs #textmode #art #pixelart #politics #history #retrocomputing #vintagecomputing
In 1990-91, America was involved in a very different conflict along the Persian Gulf. Polls showed Americans strongly supported the war effort.
On BBSes, this led to a profusion of patriotic, sometimes humorous, war-themed ANSI art. Aaron Kuhn collected some in 2014:
https://philly2600.net/posts/sixteen-colors-of-liberation/
Here are a few more examples of PD ANSI pieces that time Aaron didn't collect in that post.
(1/x)
https://breakintochat.com/blog/2026/03/25/don-lokke-and-mack-the-mouse/
Lokke gave away his "Mack the Mouse" telecomics for free, hoping to entice BBS sysops to pay for access to his Online Publishing business.
Subscribers could download extra content like his other telecomics "Talking Heads," "Rainbow," "Reggie the Rattler," and "Yellow Bird."
https://breakintochat.com/blog/2026/03/25/don-lokke-and-mack-the-mouse/
#retrocomputing #vintagecomputing #comics #webcomics #history #longreads #politics #ansiart #textmode #arthistory
Lokke began publishing his "telecomics" at the height of the 1992 presidential election.
He used them to channel the skepticism and anger felt by everyday Americans about broken political promises and the looming economic recession.
He would go on to draw nearly 300 telecomics by 1995. They were forgotten and mostly lost until decades later when I recovered more than 140 of them.
https://breakintochat.com/blog/2026/03/25/don-lokke-and-mack-the-mouse/
#retrocomputing #comics #webcomics #history #ansiart #textmode #longreads
In an alternate universe somewhere, nobody has heard of “webcomics.” Instead, there are thousands of “telecomics.”
In 1992, Don Lokke Jr. coined the term “telecomics” to describe his new digital comic strips, drawn primarily in the ANSI art format and distributed online through BBSes.
This is the final in-depth profile in my "ANSI art and webcomics" series!
https://breakintochat.com/blog/2026/03/25/don-lokke-and-mack-the-mouse/
#webcomics #comics #retrocomputing #bbs #ansiart #textmode #longreads #history #computerhistory
Josh Renaud
Hacker News
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Mistigris computer arts