The other day I was digging through my writing archives, looking for a Windows 95 screenshot. I never did find the exact image I wanted, but I did stumble across something no one has ever seen before.

No, I’m not talking about the secret files! Just like I told the border guards, I do not know where they are.

Back in 1998 or so, I contracted with QUE publishing (actually MacMillan, but everyone called them QUE) to write a book called Dan Gookin Teaches Windows 98. It was tremendously popular, and I still think it’s one of my favorite books. That entire Teaches series was true genius, but it faded away. That was sad.

In my image archives, I found that some cartoons I’d crafted for the book. They aren’t brilliant or inspired. My goal was to present them to a professional artist would would clean them up. Then, if the publisher desired, the cartoons would find their way into my book.

They never did, but here they are:

Click a thumbnail to embiggen.

The subjects in these cartoons are a race of beings I call the Mulvanians. They are aliens with large heads and no noses. In college I made a short cartoon (cell animation, drawn by hand) of the Mulvianians invading Earth. Alas, it’s long gone. And I keep teasing myself that someday I’ll do a Mulvanian comic strip. Or not. Who knows?