History of the Recent Past (Patreon)

With apologies to Charles M. Schulz

I was incredibly fortunate to graduate from art school in 1998, at exactly the right time to fall into a dot com job back when they didn’t expect anyone to have any qualifications to do that kind of work at all. I first got a job “coding” html, and then in 1999 started working at an early online learning startup.

We were building full college courses, and we developed a complete U.S. History II program. I started off making images and animation to accompany the lectures, but it grew out and I was able to step into a project managing role, which I really enjoyed and thrived at. Again, not really what my degree in Painting had necessarily prepared me for, but that was part of the fun of the internet back then. It could be very freeform.

I’ll never forget the last few modules we made for the History class, that focused on the 1980’s and 1990’s. From that Y2K perspective, it was impossible not to look at the preceding decade, where we’d finally won the Cold War and ushered in a new era of mass communication, and not feel totally triumphant. We’d done it! The End of History! I guess we didn’t know, there was still a lot of history yet to come.

I loved that job, but unfortunately the whole project was a little ahead of its time. People were still largely on dial-up modems back then, and we ran into a massive issue of users not being able to download the content. I was laid off in 2002 and went and got a job building Captain Underpants online games at Scholastic.

A Visit to Robert Morris

On Monday I visited the Robert Morris School in South Bound Brook and delivered two assembly presentations, which were both fantastic.

This was my final school visit for the 2022-2023 year, and it really capped off well an amazing run of presentations and talks. I’m really proud of what I’ve put together, and grateful for all the opportunities I’ve had to share it with kids. I’m excited to see what the future will bring.

I think back on my first ever assembly visit, which took place at the school my older child was attending. I’m thankful for the PTA chair for first suggesting that I come in and give a talk to the kids to tell them about my then brand new book, The Fifth Quarter. My talk was more messy, I had a bunch of technical issues, etc, but it was just so awesome getting to get out in front of kids after such an awful and isolating time during the pandemic. I loved being there, and I think the students loved it too.

Well, except for this kid…

I won’t have any new school visits until the Fall, but I do have some upcoming Summer Workshops for both kids and educators. I’ll post more information about those in my next update.

New ‘zine now in my online shop, FUN TIME SUMMER 2023 - HOT SPACE an original cartoon essay. 20 pages, full color throughout. I only have a few signed copies available, so be sure to grab one, and I’ll include a small bonus mini-comic along with your order.

Thanks as always for your support!

Mike