MIST1218
M i S T i G R i S
sM
.Seasons Greetings To All!.
@
In some way, all releases mark milestones of one kind or another -- whatever
happens, every time we can say: this is our first release since... our last
release! But as a lot of the outside world does follow the resetting of the
Gregorian calendar rather closely, this moment on the cusp of the grand
odometer roll-ver always provides another opportunity for reflection back over
the past 12 calendar months an impulse we havent indulged since... our own
anniversary collection released a month ago 8 While 2017 marked the first
year in which Mistigris successfully achieved monthly releases largely
courtesy of a slow drip dispensing portfolio material from prolific artists
back catalogues, 2018 saw us achieve more of a regular stride thanks to
themed collections featuring a really varied crew of regular, active artists
-- it felt like every month we made another great discovery and these
discoveries have been more consistently winding up as renewable resources
from which we could harvest art sustainably, rather than just acting as vaults
we could plunder then need to abandon and move on. PixelArtFromTheHeart
makes for an interesting case study in that latter case, discovered just in
time to not only appear in our 2017 winter artpack but for his last-minute
inclusions to instantly become the most widely-celebrated materials wed
shared all 2017... since which time hes been essentially dormant. Id rather
work with active artists hitting doubles and triples than defunct ones good
for one home run only. And Id really rather never use a sports metaphor in
an infofile ever again, my god what was I thinking there?
Anyhow, Im very glad to have successfully cultivated our regular crew of 2018
-- its felt at times since reviving and OK, also to a certain extent during
the Mist Classic era that we were doomed to be tied to an eternal exhausting
recruitment/burnout cycle pro tip: dont recruit burnouts 8 but happily more
and more of the highest spots in our accounting of the top-50 I know, thats
a weird cutoff, but lets say top 10 of all contributors most-active Mist
members of all time about which you may have to take my word for it, as Im
the only one with access to the spreadsheet, but I can report that
Horsenburger has once again pulled just ahead of his neck-and-neck deadlock
with Crowkeeper and his unfair two-decade head-start are being held by
currently-active contributors rather than purely inhabited by names from
legend and ancient history.
So good on you, new regular crew! But instead of celebrating you by name
here, instead I will take you for granted j/k, youre irreplaceable!, put
my impressive ledger away well, my mom thinks its impressive! and follow my
now-rote newsletter formula to instead call out a couple of new contributors
appearing for the first time in this months collection: greetings and hats
off to the improbable ASCII art wunderkind PZ, emoji comic strip artist
XTComics, and a crucial guest appearance from ANSI art and RIPscrip! OG
Smooth of Fuel , ACiD, and of course TeklordZ! I hope that we see more of
you in the future! Freeze64 is just last Christmas Vinny Mainolfi of
C64Endings, moved on to another Commodore gaming venture.
Populating these winter-themed artpacks is always a bit of a curious exercise
since their contents are sourced through the first half of December, whereupon
they are released -- supposing that viewers will be more interested in
Christmas art leading up to Christmas rather than after its done. But the
artists keep making Christmas art right up until the big day... all of which
goes into the following years Christmas artpack slushpile. Consequently some
of what you find in here is very fresh, and some of it is eleven and a half
months old, in which time a lot of water can go under the bridge. But thats
all invisible to you! Its probably not vital that I document the experience
of making this artpack because nobody cares but me, and I already know 8 So
what else can I share, here?
2018 was a fun year for Mistigris, and November-December has been a fun month.
We chased the achievement of our first thousand Instagram followers in March
with attaining a thousand Twitter followers in December as well we should
have, weve been there longer and were more active there! Either way, its
critical that we experience growth on those social networks since it looks
like what little following we may have on Tumblr, Google+ and Flickr are on
their way out the door somewhat permanently! If you like Mistigris and would
like to learn more about our illustrious nearly-quarter-century history and
life behind the scenes, well, if youre the type to read these infofiles you
ought to already be well up to speed... but if youre new to these sprawling
missives, you can get caught up with a sprawling four-page interiew we
conducted in the pages of the latest issue of Paleotronic magazine. Im sure
many of our members are up to all sorts of interesting things heck, I
contributed a room to the recently-launched Cragne Manor text adventure
exquisite corpse, but theres no real point in mentioning it since none of you
will successfully make it that far into its 80+ rooms... fortunately for me,
since its fragile implementation falls apart if you look at it funny 8, sales
of their wares and other seasonal hustles, but all I have to report at this
moment is that the latest installment of the Vancouver Chipmusic Societys
Overflow concert series takes flight December 27th at the Fox Cabaret and, for
locals, is not to be missed.
Im not religious and was never that grounded in holiday family life. On more
than one occasion Ive been caught remarking that to me, Christmas was just a
chance to log in to all the BBSes and massacre all the other dormant players
sleeping at the Inn in Legend of the Red Dragon, distracted by visits with
beloved grandmothers, so its very curious that Ive ended up stage managing
all this Christmas business on behalf of others. Im not Grinchily absolutely
bereft of Christmas spirit, it was just never a big deal to me, but since the
rest of you seem to be enjoying yourselves having a merry little time of year,
why dont I paraphrase the late, great Leonard Cohen and place my paper hat on
my concussion and dance? Its been a grinder of a year. Speaking of which,
stay tuned -- we just might be able to squeak in one more appearance before
the ball drops, knock on wood!
- ,,o,,,, / - - -
@ / o G F M
/ / ldb