. v9- f1RE.gRAPHICS
Welcome to the latest Fire combustion! 31 - February, 1998
-- Intro - Halaster
Its been a while since Ive written one of these things. They
used to flow so easily, me having something fresh on my mind to
rant about, not to mention a whole slew of new members and group
news to announce. But now I find myself having a hard time fin-
ding a focus for this little newsletter introduction .. perhaps
its because Ive been gone so long. Perhaps its because so
much has changed. Perhaps its simply because I dont run the
group anymore. : I dont really have an explanation ..
I was looking back on old newsletters the other night, reading
about all of the controversies that had the scene divided and at
arms at different times .. Stone the crow and his oft-overly-
negative reviews in Bitch Slap .. dual grouping . .. can dual
grouping even be considered a problem anymore with only a hand-
ful of active groups still around to dual in? : If a tree
falls in a forest and .. ah skip it.
So what do I say? What am I doing here? Why have I returned to
the scene after leaving it behind for six months? Why have I
put my board up dialup again even though I know that almost no-
body will be interested in calling it? Why am I drawing again
when all of my contemporaries have left? Why do I continue to
try to fight against what seems like an inexorable and irre- sistable tide ... ANSI is dying, isnt it?
I suppose its nostalgia .. but at a larger level, I think that
I just dont want to grow up.
I was often bored in highschool. I had friends, I had great
friends, but school bored me. In many respects, life bored me
.. I turned to the scene. I turned to a virtual world where I
could be larger than life, where anyone with thedraw, a modem
and a bit of dedication could become a celebrity .. I did it.
But I let it go. I think that, for a time, I was pretty much
satisified with almost every aspect of my life. I was living
as I wanted to live: studying in a challenging, highly selective
program at Carnegie Mellon, living on my own in a strange, new
city .. falling in love with three girls in one year. Thats
good stuff. Thats what life should be like.
Its not like that now, and Im pissed off.
Many of my best friends have moved on. Most of the rest will
graduate at the end of the year. I have less and less to do on
my weekends, and the weather here is simply awful. I am sur-
rounded by grey.
It is for this very reason that I love to draw brightly colored
blocks. The world is what you make of it. If reality isnt
giving me what I want in life at the moment, then I will forge
my own reality - through expression, through art, through music.
The world is what you make of it. The SCENE is what you make of
it.
ANSI artists inspired me. What more can one hope for? My
mission here, with this group, with my art, is to inspire you.
My mission is to inspire you, so that you will draw and inspire
others. My mission is to make ANSI so good that it brings tears
to your eyes. The world is a big box of paints and others the
canvas were dealt.
I am unstoppable. You will draw ANSI. Resistance is futile. :
-- Halaster
Fire walk with me ..
-- ANSI - Nail
The last couple of weeks brought us some kind of an ANSI revolu-
tion... Not in terms of cool never-before-seen art or concepts,
but in terms of old groups dying and entirely new groups popping
up out of nowhere and weakening the few old groups even more...
Twilight and Fuel died and Im sure Im not the only one who
feels sad. The new groups, Avenge and Legion, have yet to prove
themselves, although they were able to gather some well-known
artists...
Meanwhile, back at Fire we had to face the loss of a couple of
great artists such as Seraphim who renamed into Konami and left
us for Nerp Fire From Heaven, who joined Ice and last but not
least our longtime member and friend The Extremist who redisco-
vered his roots in Mistigris after being qcd from fire packs...
Nevertheless theres good news, too... Enzo, a fresh toon artist
left Society to join up with us and were glad to welcome Shaft
back to our ranks, although he wont be as active as before he
left, as well as the artist formerly known as... well, lets
keep this a secret until he decides on his new nick... until
then well just call him Masquerade Waltz... Also, at the last
minute, Menace joined our ranks from the well-known logo group
AWE. And he was even able to get some ANSIs in by pack time.
Last but not least, we can finally see Gunthar, Halaster, Ville
and even Iodine active again. If this isnt enough to have you
keep an eye on Fire in the future, then get your newbie ass out
of here...
Still, wed like to add a couple more ANSI artists to our ranks,
so if you want to join a group with tradition and background
instead of running for the next elite artist who decides to
start something new, feel free to send your application to
nail@crypt.ruhr.de and ill get back to you ASAP...
-- Nail
And now for something completely different ..
-- ASCII - Baphomet
So, how should i start this one then? Lets go back to the start
shall we.. Pariah has been unreachable for a pretty long time
now and fire!ascii has been left to fall apart. I covered for
Pariah when he was absent though and tried to maintain the Fire
ASCII spirit..
Pariah seems to lack the time and dedication it takes to run a
great ASCII division and has now been replaced by me, Baphomet.
We will have to see what happens with Pariah till the next pack.
As for myself, Im planning on recruiting new artists for the
division and kind of start all over. I managed to get a couple
of ASCIIs in at the last minute and also some guest apearances
by The Absent Spinsister, Brane, Arlequin, Dataflow and the
former Fire member m7m.
97 is history. Now go draw!..
-- Baphomet
Bop Zow ..
-- Hirez - God among Lice
Ill try and keep this as boring as possible.
This month we lost a couple of great artists and friends in the
vga department. Kyo jumped at the offer to draw for ACiD, but
hell still be with us as an ansi artist and a RIP artist. Also
heading for greener pastures is Fire From Heaven, who decided to
join the guys in iCE AND Mistigris. We wish you both luck in the
new year.
Joining us this month as a vga artist was Remission, who comes
from the ashes of Twilight. Hes got a great mix of photomanip
and hand-drawnness that can best be described as high contrast
with a little mystery . Also joining up with us as a RIP
artist from Sweden and Awe is Fat Pacifist. A great logo artist,
Fat decided to join Fire in an effort to expand on his pictorial
ability.
The hirez division is looking to expand some during the coming
months. If youre an exceptional vga or rip artist, talk to me
anytime about joining. We may also be interested in gaining a
member to work on our web page full time. If you think you have
the dedication needed, drop me a line, too.
Thats it. Thats all.
-- God among Lice
insert more meaningless words inspired by Cthulu here ..
-- Outro - God among Lice
Im really pretty proud of this group today. Weve hit some
rough times in the past few months, just like a lot of other
groups did. But unlike some that were in similar positions as
ours, we did not fold. So long as there are a few people in the
group that are dedicated to it, well always be around.
That simple promise has turned out to be a wise one for us, as
weve been able to ride out the storm and come out ahead in the
end. Well, end isnt the right word because this surely is NOT
the end, and well have plenty more art for you to look at in
the future.
See you next month!
-- God among Lice