How'd you like this design on a teeshirt, mm?  We're w
orking on it...

Wow.  Two years.  How many of you have been in a group
when it
celebrated its second anniversary?  A not outstanding number...
now how many
of you have managed to spend two years in the same group?  Twen
ty-four months..
Only seven hundred and twenty days?  It seems
at times that I've just started
the group four weeks ago, and at times, with our ever-shifting
memberlist, that
is basically what I've done.

If you want to skip all of this rambling philosophical
bullshit and get
down to the soft porn at the bottom I won't blame you.

Before I do any more nostalgic reminiscing, I'd like to
thank the
people who have made this trip interesting and endlessly challe
nging:  Fab One,
Darkforce, and Halaster.  A group stag
nates without a conflict and I'd like to
think that by outlasting the first two we have emerged
improved from the
experience, but it is through the last individual that it reall
y got
interesting - competing with a co-conspirator.  Hal, to give yo
u credit, I'd
have to say that somehow Fire profited more from the merger tha
n Mist did in
the long run.  I haven't the slightest idea in hell how you man
aged to pull it
off, but you get the big gold stars next to
your name in my book.

(Somehow, Ithink that it has something to dowi
th a charismatic ansi
artist leading the group.  Sigh.)

Anyway, in the two years I've been left here to fen
d for myself, I've
gotten to know so many of you - no one can view the scene like
a group leader
does - keeping track of former members as the years pass.  If
Nit had phoned
him up four days earlier, Eerie would never have been i
n Relic.  At one point,
almost the entire Senior Staff of Fire was run by former mist m
embers - Hal,
p#1, Surreal Logic, The Extremist, and Sir Lancelot.  Dark
was directed by
the 4th Disciple - aka Tribe - for quite a long time.
Even if Mist hasn't
managed to leave too solid a mark on the scene on its own, it s
eems that
the experience of having been in the group is a benchmark of it
s own.

Though it's hard not to feel personally slighted when a
member leaves,
it's difficult not to feel an inkling of pride as your former m
embers ascend to
the higher eschelons of the scene and peak as members
of Acid, Ice, Legend, and
whichever other groups are highest at the time.  So I'
d like to thank Mage,
Questor, Nitnatsnoc, and pretty much everyone else who was
in Integrity for
inspiring me to keep guiding new artists towards their aspirati
ons.

It's hard to sit alone, effectively crippled by politics an
d a poor
career choice early in my scene life, watching everyone else as
cend and pass yo
uby and eventually burn out and disappear.  It's sad to
watch former idols and
mentors drop out of the scene and disappear forever.  But even
as I've lost so
many friends to the ravages of time, in two years I've managed
to make so many
more that almost everybody knows who I am, even if they've neve
r even heard of
my group.  I'd just like to thank here everyone who have manage
d to endure sinc
ewe started this whole silly thing - Mavrik, th
ough we've had conflicts, for
... observing the whole phenomenon since the very beginnings ou
t of the ashes o
fiMPERiAL, maintaining KitschNet, makin
g the first issue of Kithe, and, well,
letting me know when my aspirations are a bit too lofty.  N
itnatsnoc, though I
eventually managed to drive you away from me out of di
sgust, for maintaining Th
eScreaming Tomato, our WHQ, since even before the g
roup was founded and for
keeping a long track record of my broken promises and fudged vo
tes.  Dr. CPU -
we're still using your application generator, which is merely a
tweaked version
of the Imperial one, which is in itself an adaptation
of the NWA one, from the
Poison one, and the Dax one... that application generator is ol
der than I am 8)
Beatle, for hanging around to gauge my pending
eliteness and returning to
inspire me to use all of the available mediums.

I'd also like to thank all of the small groups who

so nearly related with so many times- from the

merger
offer from The Guardian of Shiver
(before he████████▓▀turned

a pervert) two days after the first pac
k was    ▀████▀released

through to Magellan and Storm, ts a
nd TekLordz,███████with whom w
e've
nearly merged so many times, Halaster and Fire
,████████(no, wait,  we
DID
end up merging, if only for two months)
... █████████Jashik, Prizm

Icon, Heat Wave and Divine,
Vapour, Egoteq and█████████A
dment,
Hennifer and Septic, Inferno and Blind,
and █████████later Tran
ce,███and
well, everyone else.

(Hee hee... if Mist, Fire, Teklordz and

managed to merge all at once, as was possible,
we thought ███of
naming the resultant group MisFiTS.  Still

pos.

Mistigris: Bitter since 1994

Yes, 100 lines is a good cutoff point for my ever-in
creasing series of
ranting greets.  No, this isn't really soft porn, thoug
h thanks to the efforts
of Nuiwanda, Magik Elvis and Livewire (and the h
idden agenda of Candide), we
have managed to deliver much less-than-moral stories to you.  I
nstead, I'll be
thanking everybody who contributed as guests to this p
ack, while showcasing
various FILE_ID.DIZes which didn't cut it for
+ we are not █ from here +some reason or anot
her this month.  It's going
to be our last ch
ance to show them to you for a

so we decided not to waste the
hard work of th
e individuals involved.  Enjoy,

gh your butt off, or whatever.

Guests in this pack inc
lude:

E-Motion and SynerG-E
of the Immortal

04-based music group and

he 604 music disk project.
We've been friendly wit
h the members of this grou

ey offered us a one dollar discount at

Media '94 demoshow for being mist members

(Hey!  Bill Gates' face is twis
ting around!)

i       ▀▀▄They both bring some music t
o our mega-release.
s
mistigris t octoberNext is a picture of perfect c
harity from Everlast
1 9 9 6of ACiD (no, no
t the Legend guy, the other one) as he
furnishes us with an ASCII logo with which to promote
mistigris 4vah..▄▄███▄ourselves.  See?  Being

the Secretary does give

me some special

connections and

priviliges 8)

Feral of Trance

duplicatesthe deed a

he provides us with two

ieces of old-school ASCII of

is own.

imoffisn't really in a

group right now, but his logos ar

in Iori Yagami's pic, so credit goe

where it's due.

happy birthday mist!Merlynisn't big into the
art scene (though one of
his rants DID appear in a pack about a year and a half
ago) but he IS a big fan of Dougl
as Adams, as are many of
us here at mist. (Well,
I am, at least.)  As such, how coul
d         ▒      ▒we turn down such a st
erlingANSI as his Don't Panic

echnically perfect, but you
can always just put on
your peril-sensitive
sunglasses before looki
ng at the pack.

Onyx of Sonic Equino
x was apparently once a Mist
member.  No one rememb
ers, however, including

e left, though, he's kept busy mor

singlehandedly running SE's music division.

use of one of his 60 or so spare
songs that were lying a
round the hard drive,

Penn of Rune
donates a super pic of (er.. to) us
in a rare gesture of i
nter-group support.   Yay.

Questor is a peculiar ca
se.  He started drawing ANS
I █▓  ▓█            ▓█  ▓█back for Misti
gris' very first pack.  (No, Calvin

e then went on to soar to the top

Integrity, and the last group that he was
officially affiliated with was the
original
incarnation of Legend.  Since th
en, however, he's
er.. 'lent' us a few p
ics of his as his need for
a running supply of wa
rez surpasses his distaste of
ANSI drawing.
Seeing as he hasn't officially
rejoined, we can't list
him as a member (although
we'd love to) so instead he j
ust gets a really
mistigris - 10/96long descriptionhere.
A fair trade-off?
two year anniversary pack
Don't worry, only a few more guests 8)...
diz by neophyte
Mage of Fire did the spiffy abstract inte
rface for
this colossalissue of Kithe.
mistigris 1096, feelin the flow
$$$$ $ⁿ░ ⁿⁿⁿⁿⁿ ⁿⁿⁿ$s$$$$$$$░ $$s $$We also featu
re guest writingby Heather
$$░  sss$$$$$$$$sss ⁿⁿ$$$$$$$$  $$ Hollingdale
, a very nicewoman who works
s$$$$$$$$ⁿⁿⁿⁿⁿⁿ$$$$s $ⁿⁿ sssss ⁿat Starbu
cks(among others)and who is a
$ $$$$$ⁿⁿ sss$$$$ss ⁿ$$s s$$$$$$$$ regular on th
e readingcircuit.
sss$$$ⁿs$$$$$$$$$$$$s ⁿ$$ⁿ ssss ⁿ s
$$$$$$ $$$$$$$$$$$$$  s   ⁿ$$ⁿ$$ $$Also, we have a lit
from Clarisse.
ⁿⁿ$$$$ ⁿ$$$$$$$$$$$$ⁿⁿ     $s $$s $ (See
the poem for more info.)
$ $$$$$s ⁿⁿⁿ$$$$ⁿⁿ░ss$$$ssⁿⁿ$$ⁿsⁿ$$
$s ⁿ$$$$$ss ssⁿ s$$$$$$$$ss$ s$$Finally, Zinc
, the onetime founder of the
$$   ⁿⁿ$$$$$$$$$$  ⁿ$$$$$ⁿs$$ⁿ $$$$ORIGINAL
Radiance music group (ie not the
$$$$ssrv!  ⁿⁿⁿⁿ$$$ss    s$ⁿⁿⁿⁿFire-
sanctionned knock-off 8) and who is
ⁿⁿ$$$$$$$$$ssssrevenge!mistsss$$$sscurrently in
Chill, gives us two songs.

"still kickin it back in your face"In return, we
showbad ascii drawings he
made of cow's udders in Kithe.  That's
gratitude for you, i
sn't it?

Gee, we have a bit of
room left over here

run out of guest artists to lis

o I guess that I'll have to tell a bad

d.
mistigris   10    /   1996

Q:  Why did the pervert cross the road
?     " time for a new beginning "

A:  He was stuck in
the chicken.

(yuck)

Having listed all of the guest artists, I'd like to proceed
to induct
the following people into Mist's current roster.  First off, I'
d like to...

Sentience

NO no no!  I said "INDUCT", not "ABDUCT
"!Sheesh.  Give a guy a flying
saucer and damned if he won't try to steal your cow.
(Yes, that's supposed to
be a cow.)  Anyway... where was I.  Ah yes.

I'd like to draw your attention to the scene debut of H
andiboy, who
displays a previously unknown knack for drawing silly things in
ANSI, but who
was originally recruited (and is still appreciated) for his ski
ll in creating
computer music.

Also appearing for the first time anywhere is Silent Kn
ight, a comic-
book artist who is experimenting with the computer medium (and
high-resolution
VGA graphics in particular.)  Enjoy his new style, but be sure
that you talk
loud enough for him to hear you, otherwise he tends to get kind
of irate.

Though the following people aren't in fact new
mist members, their
creation is either so alternately noteworthy or just plain rare
that it deserve
special mention here:

Check out the collaborative poem between Bast a
nd Crowkeeper on the
subject of delicacy.

Pay attention to Beatle's and Flying Fish's
lyrics today, because
you might be hearingthem on the radio tomorrow.He
y, I'm serious here.

Check out the re-release of GoldView - nothing'
s changed since the old
version (well we were to have released a new version several mo
nths ago but the
ETO's hard drive crashed, then he switched lan
guages, blah blah, etcetera) BUT
since many are under the impression that Mist has no viewer at
all we just
thought that we may as well correct that misnomer while releasi
ng a ludicrously
large pack.

Maeve Wolf has managed to drag herself away from he
r e-mag chronicling
the Australian art scene - OOZE - to give us a piece of
high-resolution
insanity.

Weird deserves credit for managing to get so much o
f her unique ASCII
stylings while managing to run her own complete group, kRAP
.  Mr. Flibbles will
attest to its successes.

Finally, I'd like to point outwriting from four ve
ry old-school Mist
members who have been absent for far too long - Eoanya,
Zamfir Worshipper,
Silver Angel and D'Artagnan.

Before I sign off, I'd like to further exploit my
powers of infofile-
writ-ation by giving final deserved greets to the following peo
ple:

thanatos - for singlehandedly rebuilding mistigris' hig
h resolution department
the pope - for doing the same with mist's music departm
ent
zamfir worshipper, eoanya, but above all, coyote and bast
- for showing
me how to include real sentiment in artistic expre
ssion
mage, prisonernumberone and other recurring guests - th
e encouragement was
needed, and as this shows, may have actually counted for s
omething
jughead, neophyte, the extremist, pedantik- for show
ing me that if I can
change someone'smind, maybe I can change the world

schtroumpf and cenobite - keep the word alive
nootropic et al - for helping me start new things

"Mistigris 1996 - we ain't no damned catfood."

Oh yes... I almost forgot to mention!  Mistigris now ha
s an official
mascot, Mistigris the cat (so named because, we
ll, there is a brand of cat food
named Mistigri, (ah, that motto makes so m
uch more sense now...) and when Xavie
rgot his new cat he thought that the name wouldb
e fitting.  Presented here in
the infofile are three artists' renditions of the cat, but we h
ave been assured
that Etana's on top is the most authentic (although th
e REAL Mistigris the cat
has a nose that is pink, not purple

Someone said that we should make a new division for our
first feline
member but then some genius reminded us that Genocide Kitte
n used to be in
Mist.  And Bast still is.  So... um.  Well, so we didn'
t because that would be
silly.  (Like that ever stopped us before...)

ONE LAST THING!  -  (in keeping with traditional infof
ile leanings) - READ
KITHE!  Yes, even though we haven't released an issue of ou
r e-mag since ...
March?(well, we did release the cookbook last month
, but that was silly.)
- anyway, we've still been writing articles for it.  Well, this
is where the
pot boils over.  We've coded up everything which was to be in i
t over the past
... eight months? eek... and are finally on hand to pre
sent it to you.  So chec
kit out - its rear end is even smoother than The Produc
t 2's.

Okay, I lied.  I have a few more things to say.  Be sure
to check out the
portrait that Silent Knight drew of ME,
Cthulu.  Er... portrait?  Caricature
more fits the bill, but I actually do look like that.  Just in
case you'd ever
wondered.

One more bit of administrative clearing up such stuffs he
re - actual info
in an infofile - fancy that!  The anniversary pack whi
ch you are currently
viewing was released with the file format MIST2YR#.ZIP
where # indicated a disk
volume.  YES, this is a multi-volume release.
(no, they're not just for acid
and ice anymore.)  So be sure to pick up the other couple of di
sks for some
amazing high resolution art (in disk 2) and some pre
tty mean music (disk 3) as
well.PICK THEM UP!  Sure, it'll add a half
-hour to your download time, but
you can't very well say that the Mist anniversary pack licked b
onch without at
least having seen the whole thing!  (And by the time you
do, you'll have fallen
asleep.  Moo hahahhaha.  So our sinister pl
an unfolds...)

One last last last final thing - in case some of yo
u are wondering...
this is our 18th pack.  However, our 2nd anniversary should hav
e been celebrate
din JULY.  Mull over that for a little while.
Done?  All right, it's like this.
Mistigris was formed in July 1994, after the death of
Imperial.  We took three
months to prepare our debut pack, and the time was well-investe
d.  Since then,
though we have made many side releases of outside projects and
music disks and
the like, we haven't managed to always release a pack every mon
th (particularly
in the later stretches of 1995.)  I don't want to say
too much here,  but this
might be the last time that you see a Mist pack for a long time
as well, at
least in this half of 1996.

Okay.  That's all I had to say.  Having thoroughly confused
you, now for the
credits!

Top cat by Etana of Mistigris(not in fact by Hanna-Ba
rbera as we had all
previously thought.)
Middle cat by Happyfish, who doesn't really draw ansi too often

Bottom cat by Neophyte of Plain

FILE_ID.DIZes by, sequentially, neophyte, Mega!, neophyte, reve
nge!, neophyte
and Handiboy.

The one that we actually used in the pack was by Platinum 8)

The flying saucer was by, as the sig reads, Sentience of mistig
ris.

Providing that strange stuff happens between the writing of the
infofile and
the release of the pack, we may also feature daintily some ansi
work by Mavrik
of Fire, and regardless, we will be showing his expertise in Ki
the coding.

Finally, Trinity has returned, in changing his handle to Reveng
e!, and then
Bandicoot.  So no, he's not ripping anyone 8)

(just decided I'd sneak that in there.)

All of this silly text was by my left pinky toe, who has delusi
ons that he is i
nactuality a giant with the head of an octopus who goes
by the name of Cthulu.