n!
Still setting the world on Fire... 39 March, 2024
... as if it wasnt hot enough in this hell already. While Im putting
the final touches to the pack, the guys are discussing hot sauces on
Discord. Weve truly embraced the Fire, havent we?
When I returned to ANSI in 2015, Blocktronics was pretty much the only
ANSI group around Impure and Break were playing the ASCII game, so
forgive me that Im not counting them. Nine years later, Blocktronics
is gone, and Fires going strong. Turning it into a bit of a tradition,
Zir even brought in another second place in Blender, allowing Fire to
catch up with Blocktronics in the Blender Hall of Fame group standings.
Fuel has returned and vanished again, and the only other ANSI group
left is Lazarus... at least Fire-adjacent in name heritage and...
well, four Fire artists contributed some awesome work to their latest
pack as well.
The rest of the world is exercising their skills in feeble attempts of
automated conversion and is still mining the social media for scraps in
their continuously failing attempts to earn a seat at the table -
simultaneously claiming to support and, in reality, trying hard to sink
our scene. Of course its a losing effort - after all, theres not
much you can do when your hands full of victim cards.
Its still more important than ever to strengthen our ranks, and Im
happy to say that this is a pack of returns...
Originally joining Fire from Rune back in July 1996, Gunthar tech-
nically has two months seniority over me. But while he officially stuck
around until the end, his final ANSI work was released in Fire 31 back
in February 1998. Therefore, his fontage joint with Savage in this pack
is his first textmode work in slightly over 26 years.
Haji, on the other hand, got pulled into the freshly revived Fire ASCII
division by his Eclipse buddy Pariah in March of 1997. Like Gunthar,
his last work for Fire was released in 31. He stayed in the business
afterwards until he released his final piece in Mimic 63 in 2003.
Twenty-one years later, hes strengthening the Fire ASCII division
once more.
Guesting with us in this pack is another artist who hasnt been seen in
20 years... Hailing from Down Under, rzicus primarily ran with Force
during the original Fire days and its probably not surprising that he
immediately clicked with our resident Australian Savage.
Misfits last work prior to the release of our 2024 calendar was in
Blocktronics final pack two years ago. With his joint piece with Filth
in this pack, its about time for his hiatus to end.
Snake Petsken, known as a member of Hokuto Force and The Solution in
the Commodore 64 scene, had also taken a break from PETSCII and just
returned barely a week ago. His new PETSCII work is featured in this
pack as well.
Holocaust, who returned to the scene as a guest in our previous pack in
November, is back as a guest yet again.
And last, but not least, without having taken any break since his
return to the blocks in 2018, Warpus of Lazarus fame took part in our
little Multi Joint project.
Were now gearing up for the celebration of Fires 30th anniversary
this summer. Heres to many more returns.
/nail, 2024-03-03