Ûßßßßßßßßßßßßßßßßßßßßßßßß ßßÛ ² ²Ü þß ÜÜÜ°°°°°±±±²²ÜÜ ² ± Þß Ü±°°°°ßßßßßß °°±±±²²Ü ±  ° ܱßßßß ±²ß °   Û ²ÝÜܲ²²±±±±±Ü ÜÜßÜ   °ß ܲ²²²±±±±±±±±°°°Ü ÞÝ ° ±Þ²±±±±±±±±±±°°°°ÛÛÛÝ ±  ²ßÜ Ü ßßß±±°°° ßÜ ²  ²°°±±±±ÜÜÜ ²Üþ   °° ²  Û°°°°±±±±±±±±²²ÜÜÜÜßß °  Û  ÛÜÜÜÜÜÜÜÜÜÜÜÜÜÜÜÜÜÜÜÜÜÜÜÜ ÜÜÛ "Dust rise right on over my time  Empty fossil of the new scene."   -Alice in Chains It never ceases to amaze me, all the people who bi tch about there being too many new groups. Or all the overnight e xperts who give unknown artists a hard time, when they wer e begging for acceptance into any group that would take them. There are those that say that ANSi is dying, but t here are probably more ANSi artists now than ever before. Unfortunate ly, a rookie artist's initiation in #ansi is all the discouragement some  need to quit the scene before they have a chance to prove thems elves. I am not "old school", but I have been drawing sin ce 1992, and things have changed drastically. In the past two years, look at the groups that have risen quickly and the n died out...Union, Shiver, Integrity...and the mega-groups th at have eclipsed the competition, only to become more about rep utation than art...Acid, Ice and the like. Not that being in a big group is so bad, if the reputation for quality is earned. But a reputation that substandard artists derive from being in a group, a reputation earned by someone else who was draw ing for the fun of it? That ain't right. Yet these are the people wh o put down the new groups, new artists and anyone who stays origina l. A perfect example of this is none other than Rad Man. He has every reason to be pleased with himself and his gr oup. But the ANSi art that made Acid what it is today is being set aside in favor of mediums like VGA and RIP. That's fine... nothing wrong with something new. But being a Teklordz senior and artist, I took notice when he starting ripping on Te klordz. Why? Because they draw original art based on their own ideas (not comics), and are willing to give new artists a chance to improve and be seen. How the hell is any group supposed to start with out new artists and original design concepts? Then there are those who say "There are too many new groups -- don't start another one!" In reality, a lot more groups die than are started. Granted, most of them are unknown local gro ups with no big-name artists to miss, but they are still part of t he scene and mattered to someone. It's also funny, what passes of f as a "new" group might be months old. But in the past two yea rs, it's come to the point where any group with no Internet presen ce might as well cease to exist. Fortunately, some groups that nobody gave a rat's ass abo ut have found success. Fuel and Septic are a couple which rose from obscurity to release some really nice work, mostly with original material by artists nobody has ever heard of. Hal aster brought back Fire to become one of the best groups out there right now. Other revival attempts haven't worked out as well, and some established groups are dead or dying only three months into 1996.  But that is the cycle the scene works on. An influx of new will replace the old if given half a chan ce. If not, the scene will die a slow, lingering death. I think it's safe to say that the artists people consi der the "stars" of the scene won't be doing this forever, and if no n ew artists take their place -be they ANSi, ASCii, VGA o r RIP- there won't be anyone to criticize. What fun would that be? O-Tron FoS/Teklordz/CiA xrist@primenet.com SAUCE00Atomic Delusions Emag Article O-Tron Teklordz 19960308;P