TITLE The Bastich By Hart
PANEL 1 (BASTICH addresses a group of nerdy individual gathered around a table.) BASTICH: Greetings, fellow techno-connoisseurs. Welcome to the first weekly meeting of the BBS & IRC Modem Hogs club. I am The BASTICH. Please, tell us all a little about yourselves...
PANEL 2 (A kid with large glasses and a backward baseball cap speaks.) **MEMBER #1: ** Hi, I'm Genius Boy. I flunked out of kindergarten, but now I'm using my newfound computer prowess to exact revenge on the world for 'pantsing' me in gym class.
PANEL 3 (A big man with a crew cut and a wide-open mouth points angrily at the group.) MEMBER #2: I'M LOUD-MOUTHED-BIGOT-GUY! MY OPINIONS ARE ALL VITRIOL and WRONG-MINDED! I HATE YOU ALL! ESPECIALLY COMMIES and WOMEN! (but I'm a teddy bear at heart)
PANEL 4 (A balding man twirling a villain mustache leers at the group.) MEMBER #3: I'm Lecher Man. Are there any under-aged girls around? Or should I log back in again?
PANEL 5 (A drooling man in a striped shirt stares blankly as BASTICH looks on.) MEMBER #4: COMPOO-TUR... MUST HAVE COMPUTER... BASTICH: Hiya, Sysop... Parents boot ya outta the basement yet.? MEMBER #4: 'pooter..?
PANEL 6 (A young woman with a 1980's perm and heavy sweater address the group.) MEMBER #5: Hi, I'm No-Self-Esteem-Girl. Before I started BBS'ing, no boys would give me the time of day. Now I get proposed to five times a week!
PANEL 7 (A generic-looking clean-cut white guy speaks to the group.) MEMBER #6: Hello. I'm Normal-Lad. I log in, from time to time, to check up on things and chat with my friends who are too far away to call. I like BBS'ing and "Surfing" the Internet, but I also enjoy a life that doesn't require computers to continue...
PANEL 8 (A wad of paper smacks into NORMAL-LAD's head as BASTICH angrily gestures for him to leave. HACKER-LAD can be seen at the edge of the panel.) BASTICH: BE GONE, HERETIC! There is по room for your kind here!!
CREDITS (c) 1996 Joshua Adam Hart
Commentary
Oh boy... Well, SOMEBODY was working through some issues with this strip. We have here a cavalcade of mean-spirited stereotypes, including a Gamergate-worthy jab at girls who dare to enter male-dominated online spaces. Well, I'm not proud but the historical record must be preserved!
Sadly, of these tropes, LOUD-MOUTHED-BIGOT-GUY seems the most timeless. The flamewars of the 1980s and 1990s turned out to be an unmonetized dry run of the discourse that drives today's Social Media.