ungenannt .. apathy 2015
I just did the math. Its been 18 years, 6 months since I last wrote an NFO file or assembled an art pack. October, 1996 was the
final Apathy pack. As it turns out, not much about the process has changed. Im still writing this at the very last minute, and Im still scrambling to get work from various artists not to mention finishing my
own. I still feel that sort of fanboy buzz that comes with gathering work
from amazing artists - some of whom Ive known for 20 years at this point.
That blows my mind.
I founded Apathy when I was 15 years old. It was at a time when everyone
in the art scene seemed to have their own thing. We were born out of the
ashes of a couple of smaller groups. We had zero quality control, which
was kind of the point. The elitism that existed in the art scene back
then was difficult to get past sometimes, and we wanted Apathy to be a
place where you didnt have to worry about that. We wanted it to be fun.
Amazingly, it worked out pretty well.
Eventually, we merged with another small group called THRuST or
Thirty Hippos Running Up Stairs Together if you prefer. Thats when
my buddy Marc aka Trip came aboard, and things really started to take
off. Some big name artists signed on, and next thing we knew we were
putting out some quality stuff. People were excited for our releases.
Inevitably, a lot of us started to do silly things like graduate high
school. It became harder and harder to coordinate things. I got busted
for some telecommunications hijinks and wasnt allowed to use a modem.
At one point, I was mailing my pack submissions to Trip on a floppy
disk.
We could read the writing on the wall, and after 14 packs we decided to
call it quits. We negotiated a merger of most of the group into the ANSI
juggernaut known as iCE. I faded out of the picture at that point, but
Trip and a lot of other ex-APA guys went on to be the artistic heart of
iCE for several years after.
Cut to 2013. I stumble my way onto Facebook and discover a group called
Ansi/Ascii Artists Worldwide. As it turns out, Im not the only one
with fond memories of the art scene. I run into the guys from Blocktronics
and I start releasing ANSI again for the first time in over 15 years. Im
thrilled to run into artists I knew back then - including a number of ex-
Apathy guys. One thing leads to another, and the next thing I know were
planning a reunion pack.
And this is where things get sad. One of the artists Id reconnected with
was Eric Ewheat Turevon. He was a founding member of Apathy, and one of
the only artists to stick with us through our entire run. He helped run
the group when I ran into my legal troubles and he brought a sly sense of
humor into the mix that helped cement our legacy. I got to know him again
in the summer of 2013 and found him to be that same funny, caring guy
that I knew as a kid. He was enthusiastically on board for an Apathy
reunion.
Then I got the news in February, 2014 that Eric had died.
We were all gutted. It seemed unreal, after just finding him again.
We talked it over and decided to pay tribute to Eric, as well as former
Apathy artist Mr. Self Destruct who sadly passed away several years
ago, in the best way we could - by dedicating this release to them and
creating some great textmode art in their honor. Im also proud to include
the very last, unreleased work from MSD.
In that spirit, Im happy to present to you the long-lost 13th Apathy
Studios art pack we skipped pack 13 back in the 90s out of some sense
of bad luck, but were embracing that spectre now. Im thrilled with
how its come together. We managed to reach out to a number of ex-APA
alums to contribute. On top of that, the guys from Blocktronics offered
to put their next release on hold and contribute to this project in full
effect. We reached out to every old school scene artist we could get in
touch with and invited them all to contribute as well including the
first ANSI in nearly 20 years from legendary ACiD artist Somms and a new
EP from our old buddy Transient!.
Huge thanks to all who contributed here - and to all of you who are
viewing this. Its now officially past my deadline so Ill spare you all
any more sappy sentiment in favor of some really, really kickass art.
Cheers!
James aka Misfit