Interview with Marshal Law by iCE Staff for iCE PACK 8/2002
Converted to ASCII text by RaD Man of ACiD Productions www.acid.org
HTML version available at http://www.ice.org/interviews.php?interview9
kz
iCE: for starters, please tell us about yourself. first name, age,
occupation, hobbies
Marshal Law: Darron, 31, Code jockey massive oversimplification for a
Financial Services Firm. If I had some time, I might get some
hobbies. I make it to the gym regularly but I dont know if
that qualifies. I just finished a season of summer league
lacrosse. I do some recreational coding in my spare time and
I enjoy the occasional romp on the PS2. I recently finished
the new Tom Clancey novel on the daily commute and I can still
be found sketching on those days when I am more right-brain
dominant.
iCE: cool. where were you born? still live there?
Marshal Law: New Jersey. Still a resident of the Garden State.
iCE: How and when did you join iCE?
Marshal Law: The iCE archives may have a better idea of exactly when, it
was a while ago. If I remember correctly, the first time I
became a member of iCE was because the group I was in merged
with iCE. It was a pretty competitive time with respect to
ansi groups and they provided greater exposure than an
individual could attain by themselves. Of course in the
beginning, and in the end, I was never really in it for the
notoriety but rather because it was something that I enjoyed
doing. The scene provided me with access to a great group of
individuals from all around the country.
iCE: What other ANSi groups have you participated in? Which one was your
first?
Marshal Law: If I remember correctly, they were iCE, ACiD and RPM. If I
can find my archive of work, I could probably answer that
question more accurately.
iCE: Force Ten will be mad if you forget about GRiM.
Marshal Law: Oops. and GRiM. I was a part of a number of groups, some more
than once. There was really no rhyme or reason to it. A lot
of the time it really just had to do with who I had more
contact with at the time.
iCE: hehe. Which one was first? RPM? I dont think ive seen any RPM
packs, if you can dig them up that would be awesome. Were you in ACiD
before or after iCE? Did you release with them?
Marshal Law: The chronology is really hazy but I think it went iCE ACiD iCE
again. If I find the files on the old PC then I could answer
these questions better. I think I killed off some of the brain
cells that I needed for this conversation in college a few years
ago.
iCE: hehe. Any files you can dig up would be awesome additions for the iCE
archives.
note: MLs old PC, and all the ansi goodness contained within, is gone
forever.
iCE: So, what first got you interested in ANSi art?
Marshal Law: I think it was all the chicks that the guys got. Just kidding.
I did some thinking about this one and what I have been able to
patch together from a few memory fragments is... A sysop of a
local warez board was trying to start an ansi group. Ive
always had some basic artistic talent so on a whim I threw
together a couple of meager ansis at the time 25 lines was
the norm and applied. I suppose it had something to do with
the challenge and the desire for warez. Its not as mystical,
exciting or noble as I would have hoped but what are you gonna
do.
iCE: Would you say you had any artists influence your ANSi style?
Marshal Law: More than any one artist, I think that it was the competition
at the time that had the most influence. When I started, the
artwork was pretty basic. As time went on, the caliber of
artists involved increased dramatically. So it was either sink
or swim and luckily I can doggy paddle. The scene existed
before I arrived, but it was while I was a part of it and not
the reason for it, the scene took off. It was an age of dial
up BBSs.
iCE: What was your opinion of the WWiV PD artists of the time?
Marshal Law: Sorry, not familiar with what you mean by WWiV PD artists. I
have been away for a while and I almost feel like you guys know
me better than I know myself.
iCE: PD as in public domain.. WWIVNet was a message net that had ANSi
artists such as George Ramos and Ebony Eyes.
Marshal Law: Oh yeah. I remember EE. I cant say that I remember any of the
artwork though.
iCE: So, what made you stop drawing ANSi?
Marshal Law: Life. I had a lot of things on the table. Graduating college
etc. 25 credits in the last semester It was really taking
alot of my free time and something had to give. Its funny
though because the start of one of my senior project coincides
with the end of my participation in the scene. The project was
Internet-based, before the Internet was widely used beyond
acedmia.
iCE: Where did you graduate from college? What is your degrees in?
Marshal Law: Stevens Institute of Technology. NJ, Bachelor of Science,
Computer Science. Its a pretty highly regarded enginerring
school.
iCE: How did you first discover BBSing?
Marshal Law: When I got a Commodore 64. Got into some warez leeching and
then some years later, refound the scene but with a PC. From
there I got on some local board where its starting to come
back to me where the guy was looking for some artwork for
d/l credits... the rest as they say is history.
iCE: hehe.. I think a lot of us started drawing for file credits
Marshal Law: Thats the truth. Artwork access.
iCE: Did you periodically check in on the scene in the 90s, see how things
were going? What do you think about ANSi art being created these days?
Marshal Law: I hit ice.org a few times over the years to see how things were
going. I cant seem to totally shake the desire to toss one
more out there but the reputation is probably too much to live
up to at this point. I checked out the packs for the last few
months today and they are impressive. I hope that the artists
today get the same kind of exposure that we did years ago.
iCE: Your reputation these days is definitely as high as it can go. Marshal
Law, Tempus Thales, and JED are pretty much the 3 icons of the ANSi
scene. Back in 1992-1993, did you think the ANSi scene would be around
10 years later?
Marshal Law: I would say that I thought that with the Internet and all that
it would die out. I am pleased to see that it is still kicking.
Its strange being called an icon and to be compared to those
guys, Tempus especially. He could pump out 3-4 quality ansis
a month while I doing maybe 1, 2 max. Its extremely flattering
to be remembered at all and to be held with such regard is
icing on the cake.
iCE: Do you have a personal all-time favorite ANSi by an artist other than
yourself? What about a favorite that you did?
Marshal Law: Sad to say, I cant remember all of the ANSi that I did. Just
a little while ago Magneticm showed me one that I forgot all
about. Personally, there are things that I would love to change
in alot of my ansis that I saw on ice.org. But I am partial to
the Pitt one that I did for Cybercrime, I think its the shadows.
As for other people I am sure at one time that I had a favorite
or two. It was a time when ansi was big and there were some
really talented people involved in the scene. I like to
appreciate each ansi on its own merit, regardless of the
creator. Like other industries, we do have some one hit
wonders.
iCE: I know its still a little fuzzy, but do you have any old ANSi scene
anecdotes that were too interesting or funny to forget?
Marshal Law: I will have to think about that one. If anything though, the
one thing that I do remember is a great group of guys. I wont
name names becuase I wouldnt want to insult anyone by leaving
them off the list, I definitely dont have anything but good
memories of the time that I spent as part of the whole scene.
I didnt get involved in any of the group rivalries, I was just
interested creating some art and they iCE management made it
easy to do.
Marshal Law: Ahh,,, Wait.. I had done some ansi for someone out in Michigan
and he calls me one morning like 6:00 AM and tells me that he
just got busted for credit card fraud the day before by like
the Secret Service and FBI and I am wondering what the hell
this guy thinks I can do for him, I just put ascii characters
on a screen and now I am thinking, shit are they bugging this
guys phone and am I going to get a knock on the door.. none
came thankfully.
iCE: I was going to mention before, you said you just did the art for arts
sake, I think thats awesome.. Thats pretty much the only reason people
still draw ANSi anymore its an artform. Its great to see one of our
icons did it for the exact same reason.
Marshal Law: Yeah. Its definitely an acquired taste. Beyond some minor
leeching, there really wasnt much you could physically gain
from doing ansi although I do remember some people charging
for their work so you had to like ansi for ansis sake.
Marshal Law: The whole icon thing always feels pretty funny.
iCE: Trust me, youve inspired more people than you would imagine.
Marshal Law: Still hard to believe. Youll see. Someday someone will tell
you how much they loved the last piece you did and you are
happy that the time and energy you put into the work is
appreciated. I hope that those artists today can still enjoy
some of the same recognition that we did at the time. I
realize its a different scene now, but I am sure the
motivations artists are still mostly the same. You can
create something cool, but its not the same until someone else
thinks that it doesnt suck.
iCE: Telnet BBSes are making a comeback, including The Sanctuary. Syntax
Error will be the sysop, and Im co-sysoping, doing artwork and
organizing other art for it. Tempus Thales will also be a co-sysop,
and will be telnetting in to participate in the message bases etc. Do
you think youd be interested in telnetting in occasionally?
Marshal Law: Sounds interesting. Besides getting the chance to talk to
some old-timers it sounds like an opportunity to talk to some
of the new hot-shots. Could be sweet.
iCE: You mentioned you code for a living now, did you ever dabble in coding
loaders back in the day? Happen to do any VGA?
Marshal Law: Back in the day I did some assembly coding just to see if I
could do it, but I never released anything. Same with VGA.
iCE: Whats your favorite sport? Favorite automobile brand?
Marshal Law: Favorite sport would have to be lacrosse. I have played it
for a number of years. Its got all of the best elements of
all of the other sports. Favorite auto brand would be a toss
up. I love Ferraris and Lamborghinis. I root for the Ferrari
F1 team although I will take an exciting race over a particular
driver any day. I pass a Ferrari dealer each day to work and
had the pleasure of driving a Ferrari 355 Spyder for a few days
while I was in Hawaii a few years ago. What a sweet machine.
Doing 100+ along the North Shore was a blast. Almost rented a
Diablo but had other things to do.