lda
Another infofile? Really, can he have anything new to say after all this time?
Well, the jurys still out. There are plenty of artscene cases where the
public really would be better served with more comprehensive infofiles --
the whole Fuel - Gaz - Legacy shake-up, to pick a recent example -- but no
one can accuse Mistigris of not being exhaustive in its record-keeping. But
because I know youve all been very patient humouring my extensive updates
in the past, I will strive not to test your patience here.
25?!? Despite the aphorism about statistics, the numbers dont lie. Were
not just celebrating releasing this artpack on the 25th day of the month
which it is, funny that, what a definitely non contrived coincidence!, but
because its now been 25 years since we began releasing artpacks. Not
continuously, but even prisoners sometimes earn time off for good behavior.
Hats off for a handful of Mist Classic veterans who were releasing artwork
with us as a matter of course some 2-odd decades ago... and whose creative
work also appears here in this collection today! Stand up, Crowkeeper, Etana,
Melodia, and Quip. Yes, yes arent they great? OK, you can all sit down
again. Its a little odd that we couldnt rouse more alumni from their
retirement, but admittedly even in the full flush of youth they werent the
most active contributors. Theres an ageist joke here somewhere about us
all now being of sufficiently advanced years that we were physically unable
to answer the call, but Ill leave that one as an exercise for the reader.
Nitnatsnoc, Tincat, Dead Soul, The Extremist and, well, a wide array of
Mist alums say hi and wish they were able to take part, but unfortunately
for a variety of reasons it was not possible. Well of course, if you limit
yourself to merely the possible youre never going to get much of value
achieved!
As part of OK, lets face it, pretty much the entirety of our anniversary
festivities, we repeated a trick we tried back in the M-9802 artpack
collection -- of getting different artists to take turns trying out
detailing a blank logo in their personal style. j33p33 drew the dope
graffiti-style logo yonks ago in an unfinished and since-lost WIP Mist
promo, but LDA painstakingly recovered it from a screenshot. Then a series
of talented artists, some Mist regulars and others cameo guest stars, did
their thing to it, demonstrating just how many ways there are to draw the
same logo. So thanks to Banzo9420, CoaXCable, Cranksy, Filth, Illarterate,
Jellica Jake, MaDDoG, Melodia, NBreakfast, Picrotoxin and Warpus for showing
us just how its done.
And speaking of logos... I need to take a moment to raise a great big
thanks to LDA for the swell and elegant anniversarial iconography bookending
this infofile, and to the magnificent Smooth for the FILEID.DIZ!
Other guests and first-timers we need to welcome here include: 1bitwonder,
creator of monochrome pixelart masterpieces A Flamingo Cup, pixelart painter
of shadows, whose nickname I had to double-check wasnt A Flaming O-Cup
Billy Stoughton II, who transports iconic Mist Classic compositions into the
strange new world of voxelart and The New Hotness, emissary from the
curious and extinguished subculture of GameFAQs ascii art.
Hats off to Mist contributors who have been making a splash at recent
demoparties: kudos to The Elk for placing 3rd with Target: Armada at Deadline
congratulations to TeletextR and Jellica Jake for forcing the budding of a
teletext compo at Flash Party they liked Jellicas work so much, he was also
engaged to promote the party extensively!, then sewing it up Agent-037 took a
bite out of Flash Party also, as well as Demosplash, whre LDA also represented
along with Cranksy, who was also pushing his ANSI art kitty cats at Syntax.
And congrats to all of our contributors for stumbling along closer to the
goal of finding our audience... just this month, we reached a total of two
thousand followers on Instagram, which is probably an order of magnitude
beyond our widest local BBS audiences back in the 90s. Picrotoxin whipped
us up a little celebratory graphic for reaching the milestone, which you can
find in this months collection of work that otherwise floats along on a
vaguely cyber/punk feeling including specifically a handful of works on a
Blade Runner theme, not just an influential cyberpunk reference but splendid
retrofurutism that now as of November 2019 officially takes place in the past!
Weve been enjoying a great deal of success cross-pollenating Mistigris
contributors on our new Discord who otherwise belong to mutually exclusive
ecosystems and would thus never ordinarily be interacting with each other,
and interesting art is yielded from the community interactions that result.
In the Mist Classic days we undoubtedly had a community but it was always a
problem getting art in the modern period, we had no problem getting art,
but it never really felt like we had a community together... until now! If
you like, feel free to pop by and drop a line!
Now the last time I folded in a memorial to a Mistigris anniversary artpack
newsletter, it resulted in a passage that wound up mirrored as a tfile on
textfiles.com. I fear Im not going to be able to live up to tradition on
this one, but after being tipped off by our mutual colleague Andrew Matecha,
the occasion demanded acknowledgement. Were all a quarter century older
than we were 25 years ago, but joking to the contrary above, were none of
us old yet, and we by all rights ought to have a lot of life ahead of us
still. But life isnt always fair. You can be in the fullness of life,
more robust and healthy than youve ever been before, and still every day
some little thing might go awry and lower the curtains on your unfinished
act. Currently, the highest cause of death of us men in our early 40s, as
with our colleagues in their 20s and 30s, are external causes: suicide,
homicide, and accidents. At our most recent crossing of paths, Silent
Knight worked in the security industry, putting him in front of at least two
of those risk factors. I dont know anything about the circumstances of his
death, and it would be reckless for me to speculate, but I can at least wish
that things had turned out otherwise.
From early days he knew what he wanted to do: he wanted to make art! He
pursued what was considered to be the necessary training, taking classes
with Onyx and Reanimator at CDIS, threw his lot in with the computer art
kids online, upgraded his training at the VFS, and always pursued his ideal
of an independent comics digest full of mini-stories. Back in Mist Classic
infofiles you probably heard us talking a lot about Dream Factory comics
and how wonderful everything was going to be once it came out, if only they
could line up a few more comics creators. The first issue did drop, around
the same time that Mist Classic dropped out, and despite such highlights as
Spirit Wolfs Virgins NOT Required which you could enjoy in the MIST2000
collection and a handsome cover by Bonemouse, it sunk like a stone in the
muddled comics market of the late 90s. After shelling out -- twice -- for
training to work in his preferred field and briefly realising his dream of
making a comic, he switched gears to a career with a future. But I fear
that though it kept his belly full, it emptied his heart of hopes and dreams.
There is a William Carlos Williams quote: It is difficult to get the news
from poems yet men die miserably every day for lack of what is found there.
And Im sure there is something similar of equivalent eloquence said
somewhere by an indie small press comix creator.
Spearheading the creation and publication of Dream Factory for so long, the
cruellest irony is that he couldnt even manage to make space in his comic
book for his own pages featuring his characters. Its not /entirely/
unlike the plight of some hypothetical person who finds themself trapped in a
vicious cycle curating and releasing artpacks without ever managing to find
the time or presence of mind needed to create and contribute art to put in
them. But I digress. His sample pages, however, did see daylight in an early
Hallucigenia artpack, released while Mistigris was going into torpor. But
because as I suspect its been Quite A While since any of you went exploring in
old Hal packs, Ive made arrangements to reprint them here. The closing to be
continued really resonates differently in this new context. I can say that
while poking around for details, a provincial business registry revealed the
incorporation of a graphic design firm established in his name in 2016, perhaps
in the wake of seeing Mist lumbering up from the ashes, taking a big yawn and
shaking off the soot. Sadly in his case this recent renewal appears to have
arrived on the scene too late to resolve that lingering promise, but perhaps by
putting the panels before a wider public, a piece of fanart or two in response
might serve to settle matters left unresolved? Then the agitated and unruly
thwarted muse of Silent Knight, a man who in life was invariably able to end up
arguing even with a supporter, might finally know some species of rest and
satisfaction.
All right, soo... thats a heavy note to wrap this newsletter and our first
quarter-century on. But what can I say... we believe in our members, we
hope that your life gives you art and your art gives you life. Now without
further ado, Ive got to wrap this monster so we can get this collection
out the door! In one months time well be unwrapping presents, so ... see
you in three weeks with our annual seasonal holiday artpack collection!
lda