Show HN: I rebuilt Microsoft Comic Chat's layout engine in one HTML file

I used Comic Chat in 1996 and never got over it. So when Microsoft put the source up last week, I wanted it back the way I remembered it: same engine, browser tab, no install, works on a phone.

I do not write or read code. I'm the proverbial "product manager." So, I have to thank both GPT 5.6 and Fable 5 / Opus 4.8 (just before they released Opus 5 today). I aimed to stay faithful to the original as much as I could and extend it intelligibly.

It's not IRC, but you can connect with up to 10 people in a secure (E2E encrypted), ephemeral group chat. Sorry, but I'm not sure who uses IRC anymore. I don't. ;)

One link, up to ten friends, everyone typing into the same strip live. Names, lines and uploaded backdrops are encrypted in your browser with AES-GCM through WebCrypto before any of it leaves. The relay is a Cloudflare Durable Object that orders events and passes them along, and it cannot read a line of your comic. A room carries separate keys for the script and for uploaded images, plus a third derived with HKDF that proves you belong without the real key going on the wire. Keys are non-extractable and ride in the URL fragment, which a browser never sends to a server. Security was not an afterthought with this.

It is one HTML file. Nothing is emulated, there is no WASM, and the constants are reproduced from the source by hand rather than compiled. There is a "For nerds" tab in the app with the routines, the geometry and the crypto behind the shared rooms, etc., so I will let the page answer that rather than paste it here.

Comic Sans is kinda optional. Barely.

I'm down for constructive feedback and viable suggestions / bug reports.

Enjoy!