Josh Renaud1d ago

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

Show threadJohn M. Gamble19h 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.

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Show threadJohn M. Gamble

@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.

Mar 26 at 4:34pmWeb