旼컴컴컴컴컴컴컴컴컴컴컴컴컴컴컴� � 輹 覆婦 � � �� 輹輻� � �賽����� 긋倂�賽�倂��� 같� 複賽�複 �薩霜 �複賽�複 같� 굇����蔔幡�栢� 굅� �栢�賞白����굇  ��賞白갚栢���� � ���賞旁겨栢��� �栢��겡賽��蔔昉 꾼白��賽方�栢�� �賞幡� � � 賽栢� �栢賽 �� �賞幡  � 栢�� 栢幡�� �賽栢� �栢� �  긁栢�� �賞幡� �賞幡� ���栢�   ��賞�����栢���  �栢栢� � ........ � �栢栢� � � �複�三�같 MIST1218 � �꿉複�� � 껑 �賞栢� � ........ � �栢幡� 굉 昉 栢複����複栢 꾼 栢 �栢幡�� � � � � ��賽�같� 栢 �� ��複��� 같같같같같� ��白��� �� �����複���� 굇굇굇굇� ����複����� ��� �같栢幡 께같굅�께 賞栢같� ��� �껑� �栢��� �갚꾼껑�� ��栢�� �굉� ���� ����� 賽��賽��賽� ����� ����  �굅켐� �M i S T i G R i S� 袴�갚� �賽賽賽賽賽賽賽�sM � � .Season's Greetings To All!. � 읕컴컴컴컴컴컴컴컴컴컴컴컴컴컴컴� __ _ _[@]_  /\ _|_ _. ._ __ | | _|_ _) / \ /| (") /--\ | (_| | (/_ \/\/ (/_ | | |_ (_) /_ \_/ |(_:_) In some way, all releases mark milestones of one kind or another -- whatever happens, every time we can say: this is our first release since... our last release! But as a lot of the outside world does follow the resetting of the Gregorian calendar rather closely, this moment on the cusp of the grand odometer roll-ver always provides another opportunity for reflection back over the past 12 calendar months (an impulse we haven't indulged since... our own anniversary collection released a month ago 8) While 2017 marked the first year in which Mistigris successfully achieved monthly releases largely courtesy of a slow drip dispensing portfolio material from prolific artists' back catalogues, 2018 saw us achieve more of a regular stride thanks to themed collections featuring a really varied crew of regular, active artists -- it felt like every month we made another great discovery and these discoveries have been more consistently winding up as renewable resources from which we could harvest art sustainably, rather than just acting as vaults we could plunder then need to abandon and move on. Pixel_Art_From_The_Heart makes for an interesting case study in that latter case, discovered just in time to not only appear in our 2017 winter artpack but for his last-minute inclusions to instantly become the most widely-celebrated materials we'd shared all 2017... since which time he's been essentially dormant. I'd rather work with active artists hitting doubles and triples than defunct ones good for one home run only. (And I'd really rather never use a sports metaphor in an infofile ever again, my god what was I thinking there?) Anyhow, I'm very glad to have successfully cultivated our regular crew of 2018 -- it's felt at times since reviving (and OK, also to a certain extent during the Mist Classic era) that we were doomed to be tied to an eternal exhausting recruitment/burnout cycle (pro tip: don't recruit burnouts 8) but happily more and more of the highest spots in our accounting of the top-50 (I know, that's a weird cutoff, but let's say top 10% of all contributors) most-active Mist members of all time (about which you may have to take my word for it, as I'm the only one with access to the spreadsheet, but I can report that Horsenburger has once again pulled just ahead of his neck-and-neck deadlock with Crowkeeper and his unfair two-decade head-start) are being held by currently-active contributors rather than purely inhabited by names from legend and ancient history. So good on you, new regular crew! But instead of celebrating you by name here, instead I will take you for granted (j/k, you're irreplaceable!), put my impressive ledger away (well, my mom thinks it's impressive!) and follow my now-rote newsletter formula to instead call out a couple of new contributors appearing for the first time in this month's collection: greetings and hats off to the improbable ASCII art wunderkind PZ, emoji comic strip artist XTComics, and a crucial guest appearance from ANSI art (and RIPscrip!) OG Smooth of Fuel (, ACiD, and of course TeklordZ!) I hope that we see more of you in the future! (Freeze64 is just last Christmas' Vinny Mainolfi of C64_Endings, moved on to another Commodore gaming venture.) Populating these winter-themed artpacks is always a bit of a curious exercise since their contents are sourced through the first half of December, whereupon they are released -- supposing that viewers will be more interested in Christmas art leading up to Christmas rather than after it's done. But the artists keep making Christmas art right up until the big day... all of which goes into the following year's Christmas artpack slushpile. Consequently some of what you find in here is very fresh, and some of it is eleven and a half months old, in which time a lot of water can go under the bridge. But that's all invisible to you! It's probably not vital that I document the experience of making this artpack because nobody cares but me, and I already know 8) So what else can I share, here? 2018 was a fun year for Mistigris, and November-December has been a fun month. We chased the achievement of our first thousand Instagram followers in March with attaining a thousand Twitter followers in December (as well we should have, we've been there longer and we're more active there!) Either way, it's critical that we experience growth on those social networks since it looks like what little following we may have on Tumblr, Google+ and Flickr are on their way out the door somewhat permanently! If you like Mistigris and would like to learn more about our illustrious nearly-quarter-century history and life behind the scenes, well, if you're the type to read these infofiles you ought to already be well up to speed... but if you're new to these sprawling missives, you can get caught up with a sprawling four-page interiew we conducted in the pages of the latest issue of Paleotronic magazine. I'm sure many of our members are up to all sorts of interesting things (heck, I contributed a room to the recently-launched Cragne Manor text adventure exquisite corpse, but there's no real point in mentioning it since none of you will successfully make it that far into its 80+ rooms... fortunately for me, since its fragile implementation falls apart if you look at it funny 8), sales of their wares and other seasonal hustles, but all I have to report at this moment is that the latest installment of the Vancouver Chipmusic Society's Overflow concert series takes flight December 27th at the Fox Cabaret and, for locals, is not to be missed. I'm not religious and was never that grounded in holiday family life. On more than one occasion I've been caught remarking that to me, Christmas was just a chance to log in to all the BBSes and massacre all the other dormant players sleeping at the Inn in Legend of the Red Dragon, distracted by visits with beloved grandmothers, so it's very curious that I've ended up stage managing all this Christmas business on behalf of others. I'm not Grinchily absolutely bereft of Christmas spirit, it was just never a big deal to me, but since the rest of you seem to be enjoying yourselves having a merry little time of year, why don't I paraphrase the late, great Leonard Cohen and place my paper hat on my concussion and dance? It's been a grinder of a year. Speaking of which, stay tuned -- we just might be able to squeak in one more appearance before the ball drops, knock on wood!  |  - * -  |  ___    ___ __ __ __ (("))/(")\{')\  {')\  {')\ ((-)) ,,o,,,, |\^/||-\ \  |-\ \  |-\ \ | @ | \___/  | o |G| \_\ F|  \_\ M|  \_\ |___| /\ /\ |___||___| |___| |____| ldb SAUCE00 Mistigris 201812 9s+P� IBM VGA