LNH History
This is the out-of-character history of the LNH imprints. For in-character histories, see History of Earth-20 and History of the Looniverse.
Contents
The Chaos Age
1992
- April 27: Bill Sherman signs off a rec.arts.comics post by referring to himself as Spelling Boy of the Legion of Super-Heroes.
- April 29: Dan'l "The Ahkond of Swat" Danehy-Oakes responds by assuming the name of California Kid and declaring himself part of a new legion, born from the fires of RAC: the Legion of Net.Heroes! RAC posters love this idea and a whole long thread begins, where people choose silly names and powers.
- May 6: One Steven Librande responds to all this by declaring himself the ingenious Doctor Killfile, who will destroy the LNH with his patented Kill-o-Ray! [1] Various RAC posters respond by RPing as their LNH characters, joining into battle against Doctor Killfile in true 27-to-one hero fashion. This is the beginning of the long RP thread that becomes the Cosmic Plot Device Caper, the first Chaotic Add-On Cascade in LNH history, and the beginnings of LNH as a storytelling universe.
- Early-to-mid-June: Due to the erratic internet access outside of universities in those early days, the CPDC threads are abandoned until the next semester.
- September 1: The Two-and-a-Half Month Gap ends with Scavenger issuing the Call to Arms. LNH storytelling revs up again, with all kinds of new authors including Drizzt, Dvandom and the chaos-creating wReam jumping in to revive the saga. Many iconic characters are created in the chaotic and contradictory post-Gap threads, including Continuity Champ, Acton Lord and Ultimate Ninja. Scav develops his storyline into 501 Blues: The Long Road to Nowhere.
- September 10: As Scav continues The Long Road to Nowhere largely independent of all the other add-on thread shenanigans, Drizzt begins writing an epic story, involving most of the LNH, which would create a coherent plot and sort out the post-Gap add-on chaos once and for all: the Cry.Sig on Infinite Net.Earths! The Cry.Sig, as the LNH's first grand cosmic battle royale story, would inspire the structure of many tales to come, and introduce a net.villain who would eventually cast a long shadow over the Omnilooniverse: the Crossover Queen.
- September 30: rec.arts.comics is removed and replaced by a number of different groups, including rec.arts.comics.misc, the new home of the LNH – but not without controversy, as some posters see the stories as inappropriate on a discussion-focused group.
(Tho it looks like the feeling
- October 3: Cry.Sig finishes, as does The Long Road to Nowhere three days later. Their conclusions signal the transition of the LNH from chaotic freeform RP to serial storytelling, with posts imitating the structure of ongoing superhero comics.
The Golden Age
[October 1992-Retcon Hour]
- Somewhere in early October: alt.comics.lnh is created, in an attempt to stem the flamewars over the LNH's presence on rec.arts.comics.misc. However, it is created without going thru the proper channels, and thus, many servers don't accept the group; while a.c.lnh became the group's new home, stories continued to be crossposted to RACM and continued to be controversial.
1993
- Michael Montoure creates the Patrol universe, the first usenet comics fiction world outside the LNH, laying groundwork for the later creation of rec.arts.comics.creative. Dave Van Domelen was a significant early Patrol author (before leaving over creative differences) and crossed it over with his LNH work.
- Jeff McCoskey begins LNH Triple Play, a series which focuses on and develops the central pool of non-writer characters; it increases the sense of character depth and community in the LNH.
- Rob Rogers begins his popular, beloved and amazingly still active LNH series The Adventures of Easily-Discovered Man.
The Silver Age
[Retcon Hour-1996]
1994
- March: Before this point, new users to the Internet showed up every September as university students gained access, and were taught its customs and mores over the next year until a new wave of newbies showed up. In March 1994, AOL opened up its Internet service, and along with other means of access opening up further and further to the general public, ushered in an era where new users were constantly showing up, known as Eternal September. This includes the LNH, as new readers and writers arrive who never interacted with the original rec.arts.comics community.
- rec.arts.comics.creative is approved. In storytelling terms, this leads to Retcon Hour, the LNH's most sprawling and ginormous crossover to date, as wReamicus Maximus and other temporal threats take advantage of the newly recreated net.reality.
- The creation of RACC leads to the beginning of a whole slew of new storyworlds including Omega and ASH.
1996
- rec.arts.comics.creative becomes moderated by Russ Allbery.
The September Age
[1996-2000]
- 1996-1997: As the moderation of RACC makes the community more stable and self-sustaining, the level of newbies joining accelerates, especially those adolescents who would've been too young to participate in the early university-based era. This includes Chris Ireland, Jesse Willey, Amabel Holland and a number of her friends. RACC's existing culture cannot easily absorb them, and there is a significant amount of cultural clash.
- hitting its apex with Chris Ireland's resurrecting Sig.Lad without permission in Journey Inside a Ninja.
- Amabel Holland unleashes a flood of posts and characters not seen since the days of wReam. They were poorly received at the time, and she has evolved considerably as a writer since then and moved on to other things. However, many of these characters become surprisingly long-lived and successful, including Ultimate Mercenary, Ultimate Ninja's niece Nina (who became Ultimate Ninja II), and Teenfactor's heroine Carolyn Forge (who became Doctor Killfile II).
- Cornelius Götz von Olenhusen comes up with the concept of RACCCafe, an absurd out-of-continuity anything-goes imprint based on Superguy's Author's Altiverse. Dave Van Domelen writes its first story post; Olenhusen follows up with a second that clarifies the rules and introduces the enduring pseudo-character of Example-Character Lad.
- 1998: Beginning of Teenfactor, which would go on for a staggering 130 or so issues in a few years.
- 1999: Rob Rogers begins the Chaotic Add-On Cascade Birth of a Villain
- Dvandom Force and Tales of the LNH end, Panta erased from existence.
- January, 1, 2000: The Millennium happens. Nothing much changes, as tireless engineers had worked to prevent the Millennium Bug. Several LNH stories, such as Limp-Asparagus Lad Annual #1 and the Alt.Riders Year 2000 Special, are written to commemorate this event.
- 2000: The Team begins, Saviors of the Net and Teenfactor end
(ends with the end of SotN? and/or Teenfactor)
The Dark Age
[2001-2007]
- Sig.ago go boom.
- September 11, 2001: the They Might Be Giants album Mink Car releases. Other world-historical events occur as well. (See Limp-Asparagus Lad #55, below.)
- 2003: Flame Wars VI and Ultimate Mercenary
- 2005: Jamie Rosen starts of Legion of Net.Heroes Volume 2, beginning a gradual increase in comedy stories, Classic LNH nostalgia and stories featuring core LNH characters which lay the groundwork for events to come.
- Amabel Holland and Jamie Rosen form the 8FOLD imprint, which doesn't interact much with LNH but is very cool.
(ends with Adventures Beyond Comprehension #10?)
The Beige Age
[Infinite April 2007-2012]
- The original LNH Wiki
- The second LNH Wiki
- 2009: In the midst of all the event-story upheaval, Drew Nilium comes back to RACC.
- 2011: Initial threads that lead to the creation of LNH20, Jeanne Morningstar returns.
The Post-Beige Age
[2012-2016]
- 2012: LNH Volume 2 #50
- 2013: resurrection of the Legion of Net.Hippies
- 2014: Just Another Cascade
The Post-Lull Age
[2016-2022]
- 2017: The Liminals, Brotherhood war storyline starts
- The current LNH wiki
The Post-Sabertooth Age
[2022-present]
Footnotes
- ↑ The thread is titled "Brotherhood of Net.Villains," even though the original Doctor Killfile himself would never become part of any incarnation of the Brotherhood. (Though his daughter would.)
