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Microsoft Comic Chat was launched in 1996. It was, and remains, a unique online chat client that automatically created 2D comic book panels for conversations. However, the client was short-lived.
Owner Rob Grimes says he liked to foster a space where people would be open to be themselves—regardless of their gender identity or religion. “Very often people would come in there and express all sorts of opinions but not fear judgment and not fear harassment,” he says. Rob knew most of his customers well. Many of them turned into volunteers, like one veteran who worked there for his first job as a civilian. A local priest started a group that met monthly at the shop called Comic Chat, a quasi-book club where people could talk about big ideas they learned in comics.