--- title: Microsoft Comic Chat is now open source | daily.dev description: Microsoft has open-sourced Comic Chat, the 1990s IRC client that automatically rendered conversations as comic panels with illustrated characters, speech... canonical: https://daily.dev/posts/microsoft-comic-chat-is-now-open-source-7xpwkglat twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:site: @dailydotdev og:type: website og:site_name: daily.dev og:title: Microsoft Comic Chat is now open source | daily.dev og:description: Microsoft has open-sourced Comic Chat, the 1990s IRC client that automatically rendered conversations as comic panels with illustrated characters, speech... og:url: https://daily.dev/posts/microsoft-comic-chat-is-now-open-source-7xpwkglat og:image: https://api.daily.dev/og/posts/7xPwKGLaT.png og:image:alt: Microsoft Comic Chat is now open source og:image:width: 1200 og:image:height: 630 og:locale: en --- > ## Documentation Index > Fetch the complete documentation index at: https://daily.dev/llms.txt > Use this file to discover all available pages before exploring further. # Microsoft Comic Chat is now open source **[Hacker News](https://daily.dev/sources/hn)** · 5 min read · 0 upvotes · 0 comments ## Summary Microsoft has open-sourced Comic Chat, the 1990s IRC client that automatically rendered conversations as comic panels with illustrated characters, speech bubbles, and expressions. Originally built in Visual C++ 4.0 and MFC by David Kurlander at Microsoft Research, it shipped with Internet Explorer 3 in 1996 and Windows 98, and was also the first home of Comic Sans. The source code is now on GitHub, accompanied by AI-assisted modernization examples showing the code building with current Visual Studio tools and running on modern Windows systems. Microsoft is inviting developers, historians, and retro computing enthusiasts to explore, study, and build upon it. ## Full article daily.dev links to this article rather than hosting it. Read it at the original source: ## Similar posts on daily.dev - [Visual Studio Code previews chat customizations editor](https://daily.dev/posts/visual-studio-code-previews-chat-customizations-editor-apzuovvgu) · InfoWorld · 0 upvotes · 0 comments - [Your space to connect](https://daily.dev/posts/your-space-to-connect-spdjzjk6p) · Lobsters · 0 upvotes · 0 comments - [I replaced Adobe, Figma, and Canva with ChatGPT and one open-source tool](https://daily.dev/posts/i-replaced-adobe-figma-and-canva-with-chatgpt-and-one-open-source-tool-sdyhxyr0d) · XDA Developers · 0 upvotes · 0 comments --- Tags: [#open-source](https://daily.dev/tags/open-source), [#microsoft](https://daily.dev/tags/microsoft), [#c++](https://daily.dev/tags/c++) [View this post on daily.dev](https://daily.dev/posts/microsoft-comic-chat-is-now-open-source-7xpwkglat) ```json {"@context":"https://schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"Organization","@id":"https://daily.dev/#organization","name":"daily.dev","url":"https://daily.dev","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://daily.dev/apple-touch-icon.png","width":180,"height":180},"sameAs":["https://twitter.com/dailydotdev","https://github.com/dailydotdev","https://www.linkedin.com/company/daily-dev-ltd"]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https://daily.dev/#website","url":"https://daily.dev","name":"daily.dev","publisher":{"@id":"https://daily.dev/#organization"},"potentialAction":{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https://daily.dev/search?q={search_term_string}"},"query-input":"required name=search_term_string"}}]} {"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"TechArticle","headline":"Microsoft Comic Chat is now open source","url":"https://daily.dev/posts/microsoft-comic-chat-is-now-open-source-7xpwkglat","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://daily.dev/posts/microsoft-comic-chat-is-now-open-source-7xpwkglat"},"datePublished":"2026-07-16T16:43:04.369Z","dateModified":"2026-07-17T08:00:29.216Z","description":"Microsoft has open-sourced Comic Chat, the 1990s IRC client that automatically rendered conversations as comic panels with illustrated characters, speech...","image":"https://media.daily.dev/image/upload/f_auto,q_auto/v1/posts/16a9d6d0584790621994a248b0c0de21?_a=AQAEuop","thumbnailUrl":"https://media.daily.dev/image/upload/f_auto,q_auto/v1/posts/16a9d6d0584790621994a248b0c0de21?_a=AQAEuop","isAccessibleForFree":true,"articleSection":"Hacker News","inLanguage":"en","publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"daily.dev","url":"https://daily.dev","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://daily.dev/apple-touch-icon.png","width":180,"height":180}},"author":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Hacker News","logo":"https://media.daily.dev/image/upload/t_logo,f_auto/v1/logos/hn","url":"https://daily.dev/sources/hn"},"commentCount":0,"discussionUrl":"https://daily.dev/posts/microsoft-comic-chat-is-now-open-source-7xpwkglat","interactionStatistic":[{"@type":"InteractionCounter","interactionType":{"@type":"LikeAction"},"userInteractionCount":0},{"@type":"InteractionCounter","interactionType":{"@type":"CommentAction"},"userInteractionCount":0}],"keywords":"open-source,microsoft,c++","timeRequired":"PT5M"} {"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https://daily.dev"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"Hacker News","item":"https://daily.dev/sources/hn"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":3,"name":"Microsoft Comic Chat is now open source"}]} ```