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Every May since 2018 I find myself writing an infofile for a science fiction
artpack, observing how it might be the end to that particular tradition given
the year-over-year diminishing returns of Disneys Star Wars death march I
dont think Ive seen a single piece of Andor fanart despite the rave reviews!
and bemoaning how each new years crop of contemporarily-predicted SF on a
general downturn since eg. the years in which Akira and Blade Runner were set
becomes thinner and thinner soup. There really is a very Groundhog Day quality
to it. The world itself disappoints us, with crises in public health and
capitalism undermining scientific literacy and, more acutely felt, escapism in
cyberspace and the entire planet perpetually, it feels, on the verge of very
underwhelming backslides into fascism, feudalism, or indeed complete ecological
collapse. I take back what I said about the SF downturn: I dont want to live
through Parable of the Sower! So with the stage set, here we are in 2024, the
year of Highlander 2: The Quickening, doing our best to meet or exceed its
high-water mark.
Standout creators in this collection include the obligatory Blippypixel hirez
and teletext futurescapes, Darkman Almighty doing a Star Trek victory lap
around the flaming wreckage of Star Wars, now diminished to mere background
radiation in its cultural impact, bringing the scope of his ANSI art fandom all
the way up to Voyager now, some ANSI surprises by which I mean even I havent
seen them yet, a Mist pack release isnt just a chance to wow outsiders with
previously uncirculated work -- last-minute submissions are a creative way of
giving the same experience to insiders such as the artpack packager! basically
its an exercise in trust and faith... not the most scientific approach, but I
cant argue with the results! by LDA recipient: longest parenthetical
introduction award, 2024, a suite of original cyberspace ANSI works by
Mavenmob did I mention that 2024 is also the timeframe for the Inception of
1999, The Thirteenth Floor? and a tight run of ANSI screens by dedicated guest
Nitron. Between them you also find quality teletext work by AtonalOsprey and
TeletextR, ANSIs by DosDoc, another typewritten screen by Lord Nikon, and a
design pastiche from a real time traveller, Thanatos, who just emerged from a
chrono-rift direct from the mid-90s where he was the head of Mist Classics
high resolution graphics department. Just his cruddy luck to beam ahead in
time directly into the lead-up to the Bell riots! Could be worse: his
coordinates could have been sent to the Downunder biosphere, I suppose. That
would be fun... until suddenly it wasnt! ... and of course its rather
unlikely youll be overlooking Polyducks submission!
We should be dropping another collection of unthemed computer art late next
month, so if you feel moved to contribute, send your work in! There will be
more later in the year indeed, well have to do something special to celebrate
our 30th anniversary this fall, but recently Ive felt almost like describing
specific prospective releases in these infofiles is almost jinxing them our
schedule still looks worryingly a lot like the alternate histories explored in
last years SF pack infofile, so well have to keep you lot in at least as
much suspense as we ourselves are in. One sure thing: theres another Blender
competition coming up the weekend of July 20-21!
Thanks to Darkman Almighty for the header art atop our list of contributors!
Sadly I was forced by myself to inflict a grand guignol experiment in
outsider art smallscale on you for this infofile, but at least I can say that I
got it out of my system! Apologies to Chris Achilleos for my take on Taarna
-- if I ever try to draw her again I promise Ill try to fit in her nose next
time! The FILEID.DIZ is the handiwork of LDA, late-breaking but very much
appreciated!
In any event and despite everything, yesterday was Towel Day, so in keeping
with the odd strain of optimism running through the otheriwse often rather
cynical Hitch-Hikers Guide to the Galaxy I found Zaphod Beeblebrox quite a
bit more charming before the era of Trump and Musk, well leave you with this
upbeat message:
ct