Dark Illustrated (dark)

Black Widow's Canadian operation, active from 1995 through 1999 and continuing into the early 2000s. By January 1996 Dark Illustrated had Senior Staff (Carnifex, Desalvo, Xypher Matryx) running ANSi, VGA, Music, Coders, and Communications divisions, with a roster that revealed handles like 4th Disciple (formerly Tribe), Raize (formerly Morkai), and Desalvo (formerly Forlorn Extender of LTD). The 1996 group hit its second anniversary with the traditional monthly format plus a "Best of 1995" retrospective. Mid-1998 added a dedicated ASCII division, hIVE / dARk(hIVE), under hOlocaust's lead, with Inspectah Deck, Lord Reaper (from Morph + Ruckus ASCII + society + CIA + iTp, the textbook multi-affiliation refugee), Megaman, Prodiac, and Tekn1k. Max 2 groups, max 10 members, quality > quantity. Dark Illustrated's own ANSi cycle continued in parallel through 1998 (dark0298 through dark1298 plus drk0198a-d multi-disk). By 1999 Dark Illustrated had gone bi-yearly, with Acidic Soap and Velkro revamping darkillustrated.org. Mongul (ex-Gunthar of Fire) joined; X-Ray retired; Nav Dhillon (formerly The 4th Disciple) rejoined for Hi-Rez. The December 1998 joint pack with CIA and Blade was the kind of cross-group event that proved Dark was solidly in the second tier of long-running 1990s groups. A durable Canadian-anchored operation. Never the marquee, but the consistent art house: real structure, real members, real cycles. **Founded:** Active 1995, Canadian. **Specialty:** ANSi, VGA, ASCII (hIVE division), music, coding. **Status:** Active 1995–1999+; bi-yearly cadence late.

first/last release: 1994/02 - 1999/07
years active: 1994 (7), 1995 (10), 1996 (14), 1997 (13), 1998 (12), 1999 (3)
(sub)packs released: 59
smallest/largest pack: drk0799c/dark0597
lifetime artworks: 2253
lifetime lines: 95 947

average # of lines per artwork: 68
average # of artworks per pack: 38
longest serving member(s): dark (1994/02-1999/07), carnifex (1994/02-1999/07)
most productive member: dark (226)
extensions: DRK (699), NFO (64), EXE (16), DOC (2), GIF (115), DIZ (1), MOD (11), LIT (90), ASC (24), 004 (1), 002 (1), MTM (1), S3M (49), ZIP (15), RIP (12), COM (2), VOC (1), 01 (15), 02 (14), 03 (12), 04 (9), 05 (8), 06 (4), 07 (2), 08 (1), 09 (1), 10 (2), 11 (1), 12 (1), 13 (1), DAT (2), BIN (15), JPG (232), PCX (5), TXT (2), FLI (1), MEM (34), 21 (1), 22 (1), 24 (1), 666 (1), INI (1), 702 (1), IT (20), 703 (1), 704 (1), 705 (1), 706 (1), 182 (1), 180 (1), 184 (1), ASP (1), 185 (1), ANS (1), 186 (1), XM (1), 187 (1), 190 (1), 191 (1), 188 (1), MP3 (2)

links: www - wikipedia