DMA
Here we are again: another May, another science fiction-themed artpack - a
tradition weve been upholding for half a decade now... but who knows,
perhaps this may be the last time around for this particular cosmic echo.
The longer we do this, the further we proceed into what was once the future
-- catching up with decades of speculative fiction, painting bleak pictures
of dystopias. At least in previous years, we were catching up with cool,
stylish cyberpunk hellscapes such as Blade Runner and Akira. 2022 was
largely the setting for milquetoast heckholes no ones ever heard of or
remembers, such as Alien Intruder, Time Runner, the Dark Side of the Moon,
or No Escape. The most distinguished alternate 2022s are those of Soylent
Green which, to be clear, remains brutally badass and the year of George
Jetsons birth or, who knows, perhaps they take place in the same
continuity and somehow pivoted to utopia... at least for the technological
sky-dwellers. There is a theory that the Flintstones are contemporaneous to
the Jetsons, living like primitives on the polluted planet surface below.
But I digress. This year is thin soup, in retrofuturism terms.
But theres lots of great art here! The work is strong. I get the feeling
that even the fans are just about burned out on Disneys overextending the
Star Wars brand, but even so we have a glorious last huzzah in this
collection. It has also never been a better time to be a Star Trek
enthusiast, and that also is reflected in our selections. Indeed, I made
the curatorial decision to release a second science fiction-themed artpack
collection concurrently with this one, devoted to a solid body of Star Trek
ANSI work Darkman Almighty came up with for his USS Excelsior BBS -- you should
be able to find it out there as TREK2022.ZIP ... his 25-line pieces reminded me
strongly in their theme and style of possibly the first modern artpack, Noel
Gamboas ATREK22 released over 30 years ago, and of how fans of Star Trek
have been making textmode Trek fanart for just about as long as textmode art
has been in existence. But youll see that one on the 16c frontpage, I should
have promoted this one in its infofile instead! But... I digress.
Darkman Almighty also graced us with the delightfully Stargate-y logo
gracing the top of this very infofile, making his first appearance in any
artpack anywhere, ever! Nitron, recently emerged from a long retirement,
also appears in a Mist pack for the first time this month, offering a wide
assortment of Star Wars ships to duke it out in a BBS door game. Otherwise,
its mostly the Horsenburger and Blippypixel show here this time around --
the annual SF pack is always somewhat of a showcase for Blippy, yielding
many of our most popular works shared on social media all year. Thanks also
to, well, the FILEID.DIZ was drawn by myself, good work there bucko! Work
continues apace on other computer art adventures over at our collaborative
Moebius server, so stay tuned for further creative explorations coming up
this summer, along with the next Blender the weekend of Jul 23-24!
Until then: You tell everybody.
Listen to me --
youve gotta tell them!
Mistigreen is people!
DW
DW