March 28, 2026
Squeaks, geeks, and hot takes
The ANSI art "telecomics" of the 1992 election
A lost ‘90s political mouse resurfaces, and the internet starts a flame war
TLDR: Lost ANSI “telecomics” from 1992, starring a political mouse, were rediscovered and posted online, igniting a debate over who made the first internet comic and whether Mack’s right‑leaning turn ruins the nostalgia. Fans want more recovered strips; critics say the “first” fight misses the point.
Don Lokke Jr.’s long‑lost ANSI “telecomics” just crawled out of the 1992 election time capsule, and the comment sections exploded. One camp is swooning over the retro magic of Mack the Mouse, a cranky cartoon pundit drawn in ANSI (colorful text art on old computers), now archived on 16colors. The other camp is yelling, “Who cares who was first?” while sparring over whether Mack’s post‑Clinton conservative turn makes him vintage political meme or early talk‑radio mouse.
The hottest thread? The eternal nerd fight over internet history: some insisted the notorious “Inspector Danger…” wasn’t the first online comic, but neither was Mack—cue the chorus of “Actually…” from the history buffs. Nostalgia heads called sysops (bulletin board operators) the original influencers, while jokers declared Lokke “invented Substack for terminals.” Users spammed ASCII mice, Ross Perot reaction images, and quips like “Mallard Fillmore but make it dial‑up.”
There’s real pathos too: the archive only found 145 pieces, about half of Lokke’s output, and commenters rallied like a digital search party to recover the rest. Business nerds debated whether giving Mack away while selling other series was genius or doomed in the stampede from BBSs to the Web. As one summarizer, Kirkman14, put it, Lokke’s strips “channeled the skepticism and anger” of ordinary Americans—and now they’re channeling today’s internet drama, big time.
Key Points
- •Don Lokke Jr. coined “telecomics” in 1992 for ANSI art comic strips distributed via BBSes and services like GEnie.
- •His flagship series, Mack the Mouse, offered weekly political commentary and shifted more conservative after Bill Clinton’s inauguration.
- •Lokke produced at least 225 Mack installments and additional telecomics between 1992 and mid-1995, using a subscription model on his Online Mall BBS.
- •The migration from BBSes to the World Wide Web by 1995 led Lokke to move online, and his ANSI telecomics faded from attention.
- •145 of Lokke’s ANSI works, including 130+ Mack comics, were later recovered and made available on the 16colors archive, though much remains missing.