Johnnyvibrant1d ago
Josh Renaud

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

Mar 26 at 2:39amWeb
Show threadJosh Renaud20h ago

Rowan Lipkovits' (@mistfunk) description of my Lokke profile as "an interesting look at an ultimately doomed venture" got me thinking.

*Many* of the BBS-related histories I've written over the years on https://breakintochat.com/blog are tragic in that way!

Projects that started with big ambitions, but were doomed to fail.

Break Into Chat

Computer history research, recovered software, and interviews about BBSing, the Atari ST, ANSI art, and more.

Break Into Chat
Show threadMistigris computer arts13h ago
@kirkman I hope I didn't sound too gloomy and dire there... to a certain extent every article on any BBS- or textmode art-related topic is about a "doomed venture". Nostalgic hobbyists can of course chat about well-known and much-loved doomed ventures for hours and hours. It's just very interesting to see so much detail about this specific undertaking surface after so many years of obscurity (well, hiding in plain sight.)
Show threadJosh Renaud13h ago

@mistfunk Not at all. I have always been a sucker for underdog stories, and they often don't get the feel-good ending.

Still, a lot of the BBS games I have written about over the years were, in fact, success stories -- TradeWars, Solar Realms Elite, etc.

Show threadJosh Renaud11h ago

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

Show threadJosh Renaud7h ago

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

Show threadCraig P1d ago
@kirkman what a fun old find, even if I'm sure I would have hated the guy.
Show threadJosh Renaud22h ago

@Craigp You never know. I was a big Limbaugh fan as a teen around that time. But people change.

I admire Lokke for sticking to his "telecomics" and producing a substantial body of work. I wish the second half of his output existed somewhere.

Show threadCraig P21h ago
@kirkman i agree and i agree. Hah!
Show threadOwlor 1d ago
@kirkman Alternative universe where digital comics took off with ANSI art comics but digital games didn't take off until people realized you could easily distribute them online using undocumented features in this universe version of Flash, so everyone is talking about "video comics" and "webgames".
Show threadJohn M. Gamble17h ago

@kirkman

I'm going to take issue with this:

"... but he never developed the smooth rhythm and pithy punchlines typical of comic strips like Mallard Fillmore."

Mallard Fillmore may have been pithy (but only because the author seemed incapable of stringing enough words to make a thoughtful sentence) but "smooth rhythm" and punchlines were definitely not there.

I was actually interested when the Sun-Times announced they were going to run a conservative answer to Doonesbury.

[-more-]

Show threadJohn M. Gamble17h ago

@kirkman

Back then it seemed possible for honest debate like that, even in a Conrad Black (another Murdoch-like figure) paper. The West Wing had the same notion.

But it quickly became apparent that the writer didn't know how to end a strip, or be funny, and even the Sun-Times dropped it after a while.

Show threadJosh Renaud13h ago

@jgamble Thanks for the feedback!

My newspaper ran Mallard Fillmore for many years (presumably for "balance"), and my main feeling was just that it was never that funny.

But to me there's no question that Lokke's writing was rougher and clumsier than that in Mallard Fillmore.