@kirkman@digipres.club

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

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Josh Renaud @kirkman@digipres.club

· 6mo ago

💾 🐭 💬

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/

#textmode #ansiart #pixelart #mastoart #uspolitics

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Josh Renaud @kirkman@digipres.club

· 6mo ago

Replying to

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

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Josh Renaud @kirkman@digipres.club

· 7mo ago

Replying to

I started my first personal homepage ("GrossWorld") with Angelfire in 1998-99. After a couple years, I moved my website to joshrenaud.com, and I changed my Angelfire site to (mostly) just a redirect. But I never killed it, and kept it online the past couple decades. #digipres #retrocomputing #history #webhistory #archives

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Josh Renaud @kirkman@digipres.club

· 6mo ago

Replying to

In the decade after Ward Christensen and Randy Suess created the first BBS, there was a growing tension between commerce and the common good. BBSes were born in a spirit of openness and sharing, but it wasn't just a hobby anymore, according to folks like Jack Rickard and Phil Becker. It was "an emerging growth industry of unprecedented opportunity." https://breakintochat.com/blog/2026/03/16/business-of-bbsing-ansi-art-and-webcomics-part-4/ #retrocomputing #ansiart #textmode #ansi #bbs #bbsing #computerhistory #history #mastoart #comics #digipres

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Josh Renaud @kirkman@digipres.club

· 6mo ago

If you're looking for some #retrocomputing #AprilFools fun, head over to Dark Force BBS right now!

Just telnet to darkforce-bbs.dyndns.org, and use port 1040.

DarkLord resurrected his fun setup from last year, which I chronicled on Break Into Chat here:
https://breakintochat.com/blog/2025/04/02/april-fools-day-prank-on-dark-force-bbs/

#atari #atarist #bbs #vintagecomputing

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Josh Renaud @kirkman@digipres.club

· 6mo ago

Replying to

In 1992, Don Lokke Jr., a 36-year-old Texan who ran a small printing/ad business, decided to try selling syndicated content to BBS sysops. He hit on the idea of taking a newspaper tradition — the political cartoon — and bringing it online. He gave away his main series, "Mack the Mouse" for free, but sold subscriptions for more content. Most BBSes were text-only, so Lokke used ANSI art. He dubbed them "telecomics." He would draw nearly 300 of them. (3/x) https://breakintochat.com/blog/2026/03/25/don-lokke-and-mack-the-mouse/

breakintochat.com

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Josh Renaud @kirkman@digipres.club

· 6mo ago

Replying to

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. (2/x) https://breakintochat.com/blog/2026/03/25/don-lokke-and-mack-the-mouse/ #ansiart #bbs #textmode #art #pixelart #politics #history #retrocomputing #vintagecomputing

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Josh Renaud @kirkman@digipres.club

· 6mo ago

Replying to

@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.

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Josh Renaud @kirkman@digipres.club

· 9mo ago

Replying to

This profile was deeply reported, the result of countless hours of research. Stolen hours, really. I don't know of too many other people doing this level of in-depth work on little-known retrocomputing topics. I publish all of my work on Break Into Chat for free — I've never charged a penny! If you enjoy my writing, the greatest way you could show support is signal-boosting. Please share/repost!

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Josh Renaud @kirkman@digipres.club

· 6mo ago

Replying to

@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.

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Josh Renaud @kirkman@digipres.club

· 7mo ago

Replying to

@JMarkOckerbloom The screenshot I posted captured what I saw on the Lycos homepage at 8:30 a.m. Central time. However, when I visit Lycos now, one hour later, I no longer see the message.

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Josh Renaud @kirkman@digipres.club

· 7mo ago

Replying to

@JMarkOckerbloom FWIW, I tried emailing the marketing/media relations address listed on their Contact page: https://info.lycos.com/about/contact-us/ However, it bounced as undeliverable.

info.lycos.com

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