# NetBoy

> Mediated Wiki article. Canonical URL: https://mediated.wiki/source/NetBoy
> Markdown URL: https://mediated.wiki/source/NetBoy.md
> Source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/NetBoy
> Source revision: 1308797434
> License: Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/)

NetBoy Panel of NetBoy Author Stafford Huyler Website www.netboy.com Launch date May 1994 (1994-05)

***NetBoy*** is a [webcomic](/source/Webcomic) created by Stafford Huyler.[1] Publishing began in May, 1994.[2] Drawn as a stick figure, the comic character NetBoy is an Internet innocent with his greatest joy in life being "fast [.GIFs](/source/GIF)."[3]

## Development

Huyler grew up in [Winnetka, Illinois](/source/Winnetka%2C_Illinois) as the oldest of three brothers. Bored throughout high school, he skipped college and in 1988 started an [electronic graphics](/source/Computer_graphics) business with his father. The company the two created folded up within a year, however, and the *NetBoy* concept was slowly forming while Huyler worked as a [pizza deliverer](/source/Pizza_delivery) and programmed digital keyboards for musicians.[2]

Huyler started uploading *NetBoy* on the [World Wide Web](/source/World_Wide_Web) when he was 23 years old and worked as a creative director for Chicago-based [internet provider](/source/Internet_provider) [InterAccess](/source/InterAccess). The stick figure character was designed as an "Internet innocent" because, as Huyler put it at the time, "the Internet needs a good parody." According to Huyler, each of the characters in the webcomic are based on people one may find on the internet. Huyler started selling *NetBoy* [T-shirts](/source/T-shirts) within a year of the webcomic's release.[3] When *NetBoy* was accessed by six users every second in December 1994, the server it was hosted on crashed, which prompted Huyler to go on hiatus for three months so that he could design a server that could better serve the rising demands. In March 1995, Huyler estimated *NetBoy*'s following to be at 1 million people.[2]

## Reception

The webcomic was recommended by *[Wired](/source/Wired_(magazine))* in October, 1994 as "comics for the hardcore geek."[4] *NetBoy* was featured in *[The Milwaukee Journal](/source/The_Milwaukee_Journal)* as the "leading cartoon denizen of the Internet" in January 1995.[5]

## References

1. **[^](#cite_ref-St._Louis_Post-Dispatch_1-0)** Silverman, Dwight (August 24, 1994). "Cybertoons: Comic artists find an instant audience on the Internet". *[St. Louis Post-Dispatch](/source/St._Louis_Post-Dispatch)*. p. 5C.

1. ^ [***a***](#cite_ref-People_Magazine_2-0) [***b***](#cite_ref-People_Magazine_2-1) [***c***](#cite_ref-People_Magazine_2-2) ["Byting the Hand He Ain't Got No Body, but Stafford Huyler's Nettled Netboy Is the Satirical Scourge of the Internet"](http://www.people.com/people/archive/article/0,,20105271,00.html). *[People Magazine](/source/People_(magazine))*. **43** (10). March 13, 1995. Retrieved 28 June 2010. Stafford Huyler, 24, NetBoy was launched on the Internet last May

1. ^ [***a***](#cite_ref-Houston_Chronicle_3-0) [***b***](#cite_ref-Houston_Chronicle_3-1) Silverman, Dwight. (1994). [Internet's playing their 'toons"](http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/tech/news/3962584.html). *[Houston Chronicle](/source/Houston_Chronicle)*.

1. **[^](#cite_ref-Wired_Magazine_4-0)** Wired Magazine. (October, 1994). [The (Second Phase of the) Revolution Has Begun](https://www.wired.com/wired/archive/2.10/mosaic.html?pg=9&topic=). *[Wired Magazine](/source/Wired_Magazine)*.

1. **[^](#cite_ref-The_Milwaukee_Journal_5-0)** ["Internet shows a sense of humor"](https://news.google.com/newspapers?nid=1499&dat=19950117&id=LKMaAAAAIBAJ&pg=5034,965872). *[The Milwaukee Journal](/source/The_Milwaukee_Journal)*. [New York Times](/source/New_York_Times). January 17, 1995. p. D2. Retrieved 28 June 2010. Netboy, the leading cartoon denizen of the Internet ... daily on computer screens for a little more than six months[*[permanent dead link](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Link_rot)*]

## External links

- Stafford Huyler's [NetBoy.com](http://www.netboy.com)

v t e Early webcomics 1993 and prior T.H.E. Fox Where the Buffalo Roam Doctor Fun 1994 Dysfunctional Family Circus NetBoy Rogues of Clwyd-Rhan 1995 Argon Zark! Art Comics Daily Dilbert Kevin and Kell Polymer City Chronicles

---
Adapted from the Wikipedia article [NetBoy](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/NetBoy) by Wikipedia contributors ([contributor history](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/NetBoy?action=history)). Available under [Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International](https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/). Changes may have been made.