Microsoft Comic Chat
Instead of plain text, users communicated through cartoon avatars with messages displayed in speech bubbles inside dynamically composed comic panels. The application used an expert system to determine character placement, gestures, facial expressions, balloon shape, and panel layout in real time. It shipped as part of Internet Explorer 3.0 and was later bundled with Windows 98 and MSN before being discontinued in the early 2000s.
In July 2026, Microsoft released Comic Chat's source code under the MIT License, allowing developers to study, preserve, and modify one of the company's most unusual software projects.
How Comic Chat Works
As users type messages, each Comic Chat client automatically determines:
- Which characters to place in each panel
- Gestures and facial expressions based on message content
- Character placement and orientation
- Word balloon shape, outline, and layout
- When to advance to a new panel
- Zoom factor for each panel
The application connects to standard IRC...
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