Microsoft has open-sourced Comic Chat, a 1990s chat client that transformed IRC conversations into comic panels. Originally designed by Microsoft typographer Vincent Connare in 1994, Comic Sans font found its initial home in this application. Comic Chat presented users as illustrated characters with speech bubbles and expressions, offering a visual departure from the text-heavy online communication of the era.

Conceived by David “DJ” Kurlander in 1995 and released in 1996 with Internet Explorer 3, Comic Chat interpreted text cues to generate character poses and panel layouts. This ambitious project, a collaboration involving Tim Skelly, David Salesin, and artist Jim Woodring, aimed to create a more engaging online communication experience. It was bundled with Windows 98 and localized into 24 languages.

The open-source release aims to preserve this piece of software history and encourage community exploration. Alongside the original code, Microsoft has included modernization attempts, showing the 1990s C++ and MFC code running on contemporary systems. This release invites developers and enthusiasts to learn from, build upon, and reimagine this unconventional communication tool.