The Square Lake Vault
Well, it finally happened. There were hints that The Daily Illini’s staff weren’t competent enough to maintain archives of Dan Acton’s brilliant comic strip Square Lake forever. First Dan’s own site, squarelakecomics.com, forfeited to the whims of the German internet porn industry. And now the day has come when the images are slowly being stripped away from dailyillini.com’s servers.
Fear not. By some stroke of divine fortune, I was inclined no more than two months ago to mirror the whole series on my own hard drive. Rest assured: as long as I am alive, Square Lake will never die. The soon-to-be-even-more-revamped Square Lake Vault is up and running. And just think: we came this close to losing them forever.
Thank god. Square Lake was the first comic I took notice of as an incoming freshman at UIUC…and it was magical.
You are performing an invaluable service.
Hey! I’m so glad I came across this. I was in the same class as Dan Acton back at U of I, and Square Lake was without question the best part of the Daily Illini. I’m sad to hear squarelakecomics.com is gone, but I’m glad you preserved it. I love this site — thanks!
One quick comment: maybe it’s me, but I was unable to access some of the comics and got an error saying I didn’t have the right permissions. You may wish to check the permissions for these:
6/28/2000
7/4/2000
9/4/2000
2/16/2001
2/19/2001
1/25/2002
1/29/2002
Thanks again!
~ Chad
DAN ACTON NEWS 4–1-07
I am the publisher and Editator (sic) of the now out-of-print (but still online) Sangamon Star humor newspaper. Dan Acton began contributing cartoons to the paper early in 2006. You can see all those cartoons in the archives at the SS website.
I have re-turned my hand to producing a weekly humor column “The Curious Column of Howard Tate” which I will begin pitching to newspapers in April 2007.
Each “Curious Column” features a single panel illustration by Dan Acton. You can see examples of the columns at http://sangamonstar.com/Curious-Columns.html
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Howard Tate