Miscellaneous artilces from Tyrone Issue #4

COMPETITION, WHAAAA???!?!
by John / Mass Murderer

There is always this common urge of a 'rebirth' to the scene, the need
for competition in the scene which was commonly seen in the early 90's by groupssuch as ACiD and iCE. Since that time, groups have been striving to be neck-to-neck and fighting their way to the top.

One problem, the competition has been nowhere to be found for a period of time. Sure there were groups, but would they release quality packs? Would they last more than a matter of a month or two? Well, I am glad to say that in my eyes, there seems to be some sence of competition recently in the ascii scene. Several groups have sprung up, and the commonly-known authority, Remorse, have maintained their ground.

Now, it really excites me to see more than one or two groups releasing some quality eachmonth, and it excites me even more that I am a part of this competition. Yet, lately, this competition hasn't really lived up to what it was all thought to be. This competition that we have strived for seems to be no more than foolish two-year old games. It's kind of scary how something can backfire the way this has. Hey, I can be wrong, but constant bashing on others, random bankicking, and all this rebellion in no way excites me.

This sort of behavior seems to be the new 'trend' in competition lately. I personally think this childish behavior in no way represents what this scene was, and it scares me to think of what will become of it in the months to come. This is no longer a battle of testosterone, it is a battle of the little kiddies who have not yet received their dose of testosterone(puberty).

To sum things up, I say put an end to thisact of foolishness, and try and act a little mature. Really, guys.. .

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Artist Prostitution
by meatpod

It's not exactly prostitution. That would involve sex, and sex happens
to be scarce, for some reason, in the realm of the doodleboys. Maybe I should
call it artist Mormonism. The Mormons, as most of us know, are allowed to take
more than one wife. However, I am fairly sure that whatever the angel Moroni
said to Joseph Smith when he appeared out of the ether, it didn't apply to the
ascii art scene. Put simply: THE SCENE ISN'T A MORMON MARRIAGE, AND IT SHOULDN'T BE.

Here's the problem, people. We are fast approaching a point where there will be more groups than artists. What's more, these groups are formed, release, and die all in the span of a few days, like a sad, sweet little butterfly. This scene-wide problem is two-fold.

Fold number one: Artists join way too many groups. One artist will be, at any time, in 2 to 6 groups, and only have enough work for one -- the physics of the scene and the human body dictate that one artist will be able to draw between 1 and 5 pieces of work in an average month (multiply this number by 10 for oldschool artists). This is plenty of work for one group's release. This is not plenty of work for 2 or 3 groups. As a result, packs become rather sparsely populated, or worse, the same work goes out to all the groups. That's boring. If anything can hurt the scene, it's boredom.

Why does this happen? Why do artists marry themselves to several groups? It does nobody any good at all. Is it for your egos, guys? Don't you bigamists feel it at crunch time, when you have to put out and have trouble making ends meet? Here's a solution: pick one group, and stick to it. Yes, quit all your other groups. Two examples of former scene groupaholics are Pariah and Discyple. If these guys, the worst offenders, can clean up their acts, I think we all can. I'd also like to commend ACiD's ascii division, Remorse, for their new anti-dualing policy.

The other side of this problem lies in the spur-of-the-moment formation of art groups. Twice in the last week I have been approached by founders with join proposals (not to brag, of course). What's the deal here? I'm in a group already. You want me to dual, you say? That hurts everybody involved. I have to work harder than I want to, and both groups get less work. Oh no, wait, you want me to permaguest and I don't have to release anything ever -- just be on the member list. To me, that seems even more ridiculous than dualling.

Why do you want to form a group? That question is pretty relevant, and will probably determine how long your group will last. Are you looking for prestige and fame? Likely, the road to such spoils is long and difficult -- you cannot simply jump in and expect everything to be skittles and beer. "Gosh, I killed my group because it was harder than I thought it would be and everyone thought we sucked." Maybe you're doing it because of some altruistic drive to "help the scene." In that case, you should really think about what's going to help the scene. Here's a hint -- rounding up existing artists and assembling them in different member lists isn't going to do it.

Okay, this article has been very weird and meanderi ng, but here's what my point boils down to: DEDICATE YOURSELVES. Sure, the scene is just a bizarre ephemeral thing, you can do whatever you want, but if you want to prolong its existence, I recommend you pay attention to what you're doing, and pay specific attention.

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ARE YOU A VICTIM OF THE SCENE?
by John / Mass Murderer

To tell you the truth, it is kind of funny to see some of the aspects of the scene today. I can safely say the majority of the scene is sitting back bitching at each other all day long, making marks on one's flaws, and lack of the so-called 'eliteness'. You ask me, I say it is all basically a bunch of bullshit. NOBODY in this precious scene has the right to tell anyone how or what to draw, art is an expression of someone, therefore if you are drawing the way someone else wants to see your art, are you really enjoying what you are doing? (That questions is quite rhetorical)

It is pretty obvious when you view the art of artists such as The Prodigy and Discyple that they can care lesswhat is artisically accepted in this scene, because these guys are drawing for the sake of art, not for the sake of being MR. ELITEASSARTIST. Now, dont get mewrong, many of us artists enjoy the fact that we can compete and try and topple over eachother with our ascii skills, but in reality, can we really compare two unique pieces of art?

It just gets to me to see these guys come around and rip off others artwork, its quite humorous to tell you the truth. What are these guys trying to accomplish by ripping off anothers artwork? Fame? Oral Sex? Well,whatever the hell it is, im sure as hell interested. While im bitching and moaning here, id like to get into the whole dispute over what kind of charactersartists should draw with.

OK, my view on the topic, WHO GIVES A FUCK. Just go out there and draw, don't let others discourage you and try and limit you to a certain character set, draw what you want to draw how you want to draw it. So what I am basically getting to here, is to listen to noone but yourself. Fuck politics, fuck limitations, shut up and draw. I love you guys.