31 December
ANSIART.COM? (lord scarlet)
Ok.. i have a proposal for everyone out there.. would there be any amount of interest for getting a domain (say ansiart.com) and charging like $1 a month for 5 megs of space? and offering pop email accounts? or even $12/year for people who don't wanna pay monthly? i found a great service to use if i have enough interest, and would be willing to deal with the handling of it if enough people are interested in doing it.. (prices and space amount are only toss ups,don't quote me on them.. it could get to $2 or $3 :) )

29 December
NEW DIRECTION (Ronald Warunek)
There is a new direction in art powerful in it's complexity and bold in it's vision. It is nothing less then the quest for life, a micro universe and total sensory work of art. This press release reflects the first step towards the future of art, science and technology.

Where complexity is the central unifying theme and chemistry, physics, electronics and the visual elements of art are the tools of the trade. Within this direction painting is capable of change and transformation; and flat two dimensional paintings achieve three dimensional space. All this and more can be viewed at my web site WWW.Warunek.com.

All new ideas if they are to succeed require the help of the news media. Your participation can insure success. If we succeed complexity will replace simplicity and a new direction shall take hold.

Sincerely, Ronald Warunek: Fusionist

28 December
AZRAEL BACK (dangermouse)
Back from his Military schooling and life, Azrael has rejoined the underground art scene. He reportedly will be joining Avenge.

27 December
NEW ASCII ARCHIVE (black jack)
Hey yo, uhMMmm, there's a public ascii scene ftp up now at christ.ddns.org. It has like, most/all ascii packs ever, and you can upload to it. It also has amiga collies. Over 70 megs of ascii zips.

KARMA #7 OUT (mankind)
"the seventh smash from the blunted.", the christmas release. Get the pack from here.

26 December
ACID #75 OUT (rad man)
Another milestone set, our 75th Acquisition Update was released on Christmas day and is available now at...

artpacks.acid.org, where else? :)

ftp://ftp.artpacks.acid.org/pub/artpacks/artpacks/1998/acid-75a.rar
ftp://ftp.artpacks.acid.org/pub/artpacks/artpacks/1998/acid-75b.rar

Happy holidays...

25 December
MERRY CHRISTMAS!! (dangermouse)
Have a great Christmas and a drunken happy new year from the whole acheron staff!

QUANTUM #1 (palmore)
The LONG awaited quantum asciimag was released with a smash.All bugs have been fixed and runs on all platforms. If you experience problems run it with the
parameter '/b' for bland mode and it'll run just fine

Quantum is the bi-product of Cyberia and Massive Emags both GREAT sources of information on the ascii scene now joined to form the premier ascii Emag

check out ftp.cdrom.com /ftp.remorse.com for the latest issue!

NEW STAFF (dangermouse)
As the new year approaches, so does a new section on acheron.org. Following the latest trends, we thought it might be prudent to release a reviews section not unlike our sister site hirez.org. So if you want to sign up, we need an ascii reviewer, a hirez reviewer and a rip reviewer.. If you think you fit the bill, then by all means email us.

CHRISTMAS PACK (big yellow man)
Here it is =) POFFELIPOFF CHRISTMAS.. the ultimate xmas greeting..

PROJECT V (argon)
Our fledgeling lit group is currently looking for quality writers, perhaps a few artists, and other support. The group is currently in development and will not release for at least a month. Right now we have a small but talented lineup of writers, which promises a terrific debut. If you're interested, e-mail me at argon@fnet.net

24 December
BLACK MAIDEN IN NEW OUTFIT (poti)
Black Maiden have redesigned their one-year-old homepage and launched the new one 24th of december. Our little xmas-present to you :)

[ed note: That is one bloody nice homepage -- good work guys -- nice layers btw]

CONNECTED AT 2400 (STUFFS) (filth)
Hello, i'm sure you read a little while ago about connected at 2400. well i thought i'd specify that it doesn't matter how long you've been in the scene. i've gotten feedback from people saying they didn't think we wanted their stuff becuase they've been in the scen a short time. but well, it doesn't matter if you've been in the ansi scene 4 years, or 4 months, we want your imput. besides you new guys are important to keep the scene a goin. so get out, and write.

HALLUCIGENIA'S DECEMBER PACK! (etana)
The shopping is done, the lights are on the tree, the cookies are laid out for Santa.. the only thing left to do now is to curl up with this month's Hallucigenia pack, hal1298.zip (2Meg).. soon to be fully viewable online at our website

22 December
ACRYLIC WEEKLY TO RELEASE IN 1999! (dangermouse)
Sodium wandered into #ansi proclaiming that yes he is serious about restarting his popular and short-living ansi related mag. Look forward to hearing more.

21 December
VIVID (paranormal intensity)
ViViD a local art group in Ottawa, Ontario, Canada decided to go internet due to lack of intrest in 6i3. We are releasing our seventh pack and we have been out now for a year or so. I know we suck and the only reason were in Ottawa is because 613 (ottawa) has no art scene at all. There used to be rOOt, but they quit. So give us a break were trying our hardest... Catch us in #613vivid. Please leave me feedback and comments at paranormali@sprint.ca

TYRONE TO COME BACK (dangermouse)
Empty has announced that his popular ascii emag, Tyrone, will be coming back sometime in the new year. It is yet unknown what articles will be going to press, but it's sure to be a stonker issue.

ICEVIEW BETA (dangermouse)
iCEVIEW beta for Windows was released a few days ago for comment and is looking pretty damned cool and the moment, even though it's only a shell. Can't wait until the full release. Mr Mister is working on the project.

20 December
HRG PHOTOCOMP (bon)
Just released the first HRG Photocomp, devoted to just photography (not photocompalations, just to draw the difference). Anyway, it's not much, just some photos I took. This is really more of a promo to get ppl to submit for the next one (you can either be in the group or outside of it, dosn't matter). If you have any photographs of your own, send em' along.

I'm also still waiting for submissions on the HRG Anime pak, if anyone out their has ANY anime or manga material that they would like to submit, don't hesitate SEND IT NOW!!!! hehe :/

bonse@rogerswave.ca
http://bonse.rogerswave.ca/hrg/packs/HRG_phot1.rar
ftp://ftp.cdrom.com/pub/artpacks/artpacks/1998/HRG_phot1.rar

19 December
CONNECTED AT 2400 (gutter staff)
A new year is almost upon us and we here at gutter have noticed a lot of
nostalgia in the scene lately. we thought it'd be a nifty idea if we all got together, and wrote all those memories down into a whole bunch of quaint little articles. specifically, we want everyone in the any bbs/art related scenes to write an article about their favorite moments in the scene. the first elite bbs you got on, the first time you unzipped an art pack, the first time you installed vision-x, the
first time you read gutter, etc. when we say everyone, we mean everyone.. we figure there's 200 plus artists types out there, 500 plus modders, coders, sysops, hax0rz, whatever who are all down with this ereet scene of ours...

We want all submissions for a special "CONNECTED AT 2400" section in gutter emag in time for the january issue of gutter (ish 9).. that means you can give them to us until the end of january.

So get it all together and give it to one of the gutter guys (jack phlash/filth)
on irc, or email tippergore@hotmail.com.

So pitch in.. we know everyone's got something to write about!

16 December
TONE #1 OUT (seltorn)
tone artpack is out!!! leech it at: artpacks archive

FOS PACK UPDATE (inazone)
OK, I've had some good response to the FOS reunion pack/remix idea. But the deadline is nearing, and I haven't received much art yet. If you are remixing something (or are a FOS member and are working on something new), please email me to let me know what you have coming! I've moved the deadline to December 29 since I'll be getting back from my Christmas vacation then, but earlier is better!

Hope to hear from all of you soon!

14 December
THE LEGION 1998 (kiomatsu)
Hi! We, (Reanimator, Kiomatsu and the rest of legion) need some serious help here. Legion need new fresh artists, not only pic artists. We want everyone w/ some fresh skills to apply for legion membership. Reanimator (leader)
is the one to talk to.

We want legiOn to turn into something more like Fire was during 1996, alot of ansi, rip and other cool stuff.

Look for Reanim8or and/or Kiomatsu in #ans on efnet.

MAILING LIST (AWE) (the night angel)
I don't really think this belongs here, but I'd just like to invite Awe Members to subscribe to the new mailing list, because the other one died, or something. Go there: http://www.onelist.com/subscribe.cgi/awe Thank you.

DRAW FOR BEAM ARTCOMPO #2 (shine)
hi! beam #2 is out (http://kaoz.org/beam) and so is our second artcompo... so draw something about 'television madness'! deadline is 10th of jan '99 (and not 1/1/99 as given in beam 2)

12 December
TWO YEAR ANNIVERSARY ACHERON SPECIAL (dangermouse)
If anyone wants to write or submit any articles or interviews to acheron for the two year anniversary update, then by all means contact me via the above address.

11 December
REQUEST LINES CLOSED (airbrush)
Okay boys and girls, i am going to have to close all request lines, due to the extreme ammount of email I've recieved in the past 24 hours. I am already way over my 10 logo limit, so I may not even complete all those. The ones I have completed however have generated very positive results, so look forward to me
offering free services again!

Merry Christmas all!

Sincerely, Count Zero's VGA counterpart,
Airbrush

MIMIC HOMEPAGE IS BACK! (black jack)
Check out www.mimic.ca for the latest ascii news, packs, and links. Not to mention all kinds of information on the group itself. Also see ftp.mimic.ca/pub/mimic/ for releases & other downloads.

LITT, ISSUE #1 OUT! (black jack)
Lost in the Translation, Issue #1 is out! Grab this new ascii emag from from the link on www.mimic.ca!

10 December
FOS #12: INSTORE NOW! (inazone)
Fistful of Steel's 12th issue is out now, so run to the local porn shop and pick it up along with something special for Mom. This is Ice Community Service Month, so those naughty little gnomes Count Zero and Mass Delusion were busy writing lots of "adult fiction". Palidor interviews Tung Lo, I spew forth lots of one-sided rhetoric, and Spirit of Rage wins our Hermaphrodite of the Month award! This issue (and most back issues) are available from ftp.cdrom.com/artpacks.acid.org, from me on IRC or by requesting it from the email address above. Next month we'll bring you the first (and last) FOS *artpack* in almost 2 years, so loosen your belts, drop those pants and grab your ankles...it's gonna be a wild ride!

VGA LOGOS UP FOR GRABS! (airbrush)
Well, I've got all my Christmas shopping done, all school assignments handed in, and nothing else to do but draw. So thus, I am offering free VGA (or hirez) logos to a limited ammount of people. Just email cperry@cperry.com with a detailed description of what you want. Only the first 5-10 logos will be accepted.. or.. i'll just do the ones that will be funnest to draw :) Anyway, let's see how this goes.. what do you have to lose?

09 December
HIREZ.ORG LAUNCHES (mongi)
I've been announcing now and then for a couple of months now how hirez.org will be up soon. Well, wait no longer, because now it IS up! Go have a look! See the reviews, top 10, join the hirez discussion board, go visit your mom, do whatever you want!

07 December
WOEZINE #10 IS OUT!@!@ (pogue)
Wassup ppl! its the amazing woezine which has been released again. "WHERE IS WOEZINE?" it was supposed to be out 5th december.. but hey.. i had too p00p;).. So 2 days later here it is... This time we want to tell you how to become a GOOD asciipic artist, we will tell you who ripped this month.. we got some news about the latest bbs softwarez.. we got interview with dangermouse, tung_lo and the mystic bbs author.. we can teach you how to code.. we learn you how to do sex the right way.. mucho p0rn in this issue.. pUNTS?? what the fuck is pUNTS?!?.. we also tell you about the dead groups, and a group which is gonna die.. awards98 is canceled... we are simply one step infront of YOU;)heh...Check it out.

get woezine issue #10 (its a suprice inside)

Scene wize all the way... merry xmas ppl, and read the next issue which will be out in january99.

C0'S SECOND ANSI GIVEAWAY (count zero)
Alright, boys. c0's got a free pic for ya. Here's the deal. Whoever comes up with the best contest idea for my next ansi giveaway will get a free c0 pic+logo. Mail your submissions to mikeshea@hotmail.com. Dee1 is not eligible, as he won the last contest I had, and I wanna be fair here :). This contest will remain open until midnight of December 18th. General hints: Try to be funny. Proper spelling and grammar are looked on favourably. I have selected a panel to judge this contest that I think consists of a legitimate cross-section of North American culture. The panel consists of: Michael Shea. I would like actual *plausible* contest ideas here. If the winning entry is good enough and workable, I will use it as the basis for my next contest.

06 December
WOE CHRONICLES DECEMBER 1998 IS OUT!@$@ (pogue)
The time is here again, when we hoe's are releasing some kinda pack again. This is our december contribute and now you people can get out of your cave, to get this chronicles. Its kinda big..its kinda good(?).. i dunno.. just get it and decide for yourself..

woe chronicles 1298 (01/02) hirez Pure eyecandy for your imagination.
woe chronicles 1298 (02/02) musicdisc Pure earcandy for your hearing.

So... MARRRRY XMASSS everyone..and WOE are currently seeking members or ppl who does ansi/ascii/hirez/music.. apply to us at: .

hirez equals hirez...

peace out

REMORSE #28 RELEASED (whirr)
Another month, another release from the most beloved group of egotistical bastards and snobbish sons of bitches in the world. That's right, RMRS-28.ZIP is coming at you with another dose of utterly orgasmic delight. So get your hankies ready, and go grab the pack at ftp://ftp.remorse.org/pub/remorse/current/rmrs-28.zip.

GUTTER 7 (filth)
hello, i care about each and everyone one of you, and well i thought i'd paste something that someone wrote to me about gutter...

"... i was just like any other kid. i'd goto parties, i'd hang out, you know, the usual teenage stuff. well i was at this party, and these kids were smoking pot, and they tried to get me to, but at first i said 'no' ya know? so they all ditched me, and made fun of me. i was alone, until i found gutter. inside it told me that
it's ok to do drugs, and that it will make me popular. now i'm the coolest kid in school. so i want to say thanks gutter, for helping me through these tought times!"

uh, anyways, gutter 7 is out. get ready to change yer undiez - www.angelfire.com/pa/gutterbong

05 December
BASIC TRAINING MONTHLY GUTTER SECTION (klumzee)

Introduction -
Ansi...we all love ANSI. Sometimes, you hear people complaining, that ansi has gotten boring, or styles look completely the same, or that generally nothing innovative is being produced. Well, on to my proposal.

Proposal -
Tutorials. We've all seen tutorials. Maybe you've been through the infamous '14 steps to scene domination' by hennifer a dozen times, or the numerous halaster tutorials, or the dangermouse logo tutorial, or half a dozen other tutorials.

Well, maybe you're in total disagreement with the concept of tutorials, perhaps because they 'produce clones' or they 'don't incourage originality', but I ask you this, what if a tutorial was released MONTHLY? Monthly you ask? That's obsurd, how could any one person have time, to write a comprehensive, worthwhile tutorial every month?

Well that's the key of my proposal, what if say...2 or 3 artists, each month (or more), produce a series of articles/picture tutorials, displaying different techniques (new and old) that they have experimented with, and what works and what doesn't? Along with basic training in shaping, coloring, and shading from various artists.

Now, you may be thinking, why can't we just learn for ourselves? Well...I don't want to ramble on about how the scene is dying, and how ansi in general is dying...but face it people, why spend years perfecting our styles, and trying to develop our own PERSONAL styles, when we can openly share ideas, techniques, and our past experiences/knowledge with each other in order to further improve our individual styles? I believe that a lot of people could benefit from this tutorial I tentively named 'basic training'.

You might be saying..."I don't have time to write for this tutorial stuff", but as FILTH so wonderfully pointed out, working for 'basic training' is as easy as pie, IF you draw on a regular basis, then you can simply use SEQUENTIAL saving, press alt-o (in aciddraw) scroll down a bit, select yes for sequential saving, and continue drawing, it's THAT easy. Sequential saves of a picture, or of a logo, can demonstrate wonderfully how the respective artist uses certain techniques in shading, shaping, and coloring.

Begging and Groveling -
Even after reading my proposal, you don't seem to understand my idea, or see how it can help a lot of aspiring ansi artists, and even help veterans to improve, I urge you to give my idea a chance.

Check out the artists who have already signed up for BASIC TRAINING -

Klumzee
Zerovision
Filth
Seltorn (he will be running a section of the tutorials, dedicated to ascii art, so if you are an aspiring ascii artist you to can join up :)

Conclusion -

Further information, or suggestions upon my idea can be sent to: klumzee@mailcity.com

Or you can catch me on irc, in #ans or #purg (efnet) and we can converse there.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Catch the first installment of 'BASIC TRAINING' in the popular e-mag, GUTTER, it will appear in issue #8. (next month)

HRG #22 : MELANCHOLICA (shere khan)
so, ladies and gentlemen, here it is, and you absolutely must get a look at it, because it's our creation, and we don't make bad packs :) plus, this one has a lot for you to savour. get it at ftp://ftp.cdrom.com/pub/artpacks/artpacks/1998/hrg-22.zip

ROOM 208 NEEDS MEMBERS (el nino)
We need members, catch me or oolite at irc and apply (#room208).

04 December
AWARDS 98 CALLED OFF (dangermouse)
Due to a few people cheating the system, no names mentioned, I have decided to call off Awards 98. If I was continue with it and release the results the possibility that the winner has cheated or others have voted for them more than once (multiple voting) would be quite high.

I am sure you all understand why I am doing this.. I have spent the best part of two months or more organising this, and it still wasn't accurate. You can all blame those people who cheated the system..

FLASHPARTY 98 (dangermouse)
Check out http://members.xoom.com/theflash98/ for more information on the Flashparty 98, which is being held in Argentina.

CIA ROXERS YOUR BOXERS (58) (napalm)
Hey boys and girls, your pal nappy here to remind you to always take eye candy from strangers and make sure you get into any unmarked vans you see after school as long as they say that your mom called them to pick you up. Speaking of strangers, unmarked vans and .. umm, candy, check out CIA CONSPIRACY NUMBER FIFTY-FUCKIN-EIGHT!

Here's your News at 10 Rundown:

cia58-a.zip - Ansi, Ascii, Info, Viewer, Candy
cia58-b.zip - Vga, Info, Sheep
cia58-c.zip - Vga, Info, Free Buttered Popcorn
cia58-d.zip - Vga, Info, Pictures of Dangermouse Nekked
cia58-e.zip - Scrollz Literature, Bluedevil's tonsils.

Yes, Act now and ALL this can be yours for the LOW introductory price of: ftp://cia.dynip.com/releases/ !

Be sure to copy to your floppy and get drive it hard.

[ed note: I was drunk at the time]

FOS REUNION PACK - THE REMIXES (inazone)
OK, would-be "oldschoolers", here's a little something to entertain you! As posted earlier here and mentioned in past FOS issues, a Fistful of Steel reunion artpack is scheduled for release in the first week of the new year. Originally intended for past and present FOS members, I've decided that everyone else can
participate if they want. Here's the deal:

I'm looking for a few brave souls to "remix" artwork from the old FOS artpacks, released from 1995-97; these packs are on ftp.cdrom.com with the "fos-mmyy.zip" naming convention (ie. fos-0995.zip) or by request from me. I'd love to see some new renditions of old FOS art since most of the old crew have long since left the scene. I will be doing one or two remixes myself in addition to the new work being released. Anyway, this is open to ANY artist, regardless of skill level or medium. The only requirements are that the remix show obvious Changes from the original (while still having the original artist's name in addition to your own) and that it only be released in the FOS reunion pack.

If this sounds like your "bag", please let me know! The idea here is to have a little fun and get creative! Like I said, anyone can do a remix, although I'd like to see some time put into it so it looks nice. The deadline is December 30, 1998. If you want to get involved, get in touch with me!

[INFLICTION] HITS THE STREETS (cubeblue)
infliction hirez/ansi/ascii pack one released, grab it at www.infliction.com. infliction is looking for distros, members, and hq's.. infliction art is a new direction for underground art, you'll never understand it until you see it...

SHADOWBOXERS WEBSITE (androc)
The Shadowboxers Introduction page has been upgraded to a small web site showcasing various bits and pieces, and will eventually be scaled into a regular feature-filled group gallery.

The URL is http://www.interlog.com/~xmtrx

03 December
BLACK MAIDEN NOT DEAD! (poti)
It seems to be a quite common mistake to mix up 'Maiden Brazil' and 'Black Maiden'. These two groups have nothing in common (except that they are both releasing artpacks). Maiden Brazil is from Brazil whereas Black Maiden is originated in Europe.

Furthermore Maiden Brazil is no longer (we are really sorry to hear this, Rorshack) but Black Maiden is about to release Book #19 in January with your favourite artists (like Avenger, Leonardo, Konami, Shine, ...). We are not dead. Damn.

GAME AXIA RELEASED (pyromanic)
I don't know if you have heard, but a few old school art and demo scene guys in groups such at ICE and Rennaisance and some other local groups have released a game called Axia. Its the ultimate in old school shootem ups! So support your fellow sceners and download the game at http://owl.frc.wmich.edu/axia

02 December
NEW GROUP CALLED TONE (seltorn)
heya. a new group is being founded. it's called tone. the applications are still accepted but limited quantity of members will enter. catch me on irc as seltorn on #ans or email me

WOEZINE ON THE WEB (pogue)
Woezine is on the web with a small temporary page. Check out www.thuglife.org/woezine for more info.. You can even sign up for the mailinglist.. Check out the page for the latest releases from the woezine crew.

PURG 11/98 RELEASE (tee_are)
Purg Productions released our 20th pack on November 29, 1998. Snag it from #purg on EFNet or from: ftp://ftp.purg.com/incoming/purg-20.zip

AWARDS 98 VOTING OPEN! (dangermouse)
The awards 98 voting booth is now open, so go forth and by merry.

>> awards 98 voting

ICE 11/98 RELEASE - 12/1/98 (massd)
iCE has released our 11/98 pack (12/1/98 release date) full of eye candy, ready to cause dangerous amounts of salvitation!

Check it out for yourself by getting it on IRC in #ice, OR, do the faster thing and use our FTP site:

ftp://ftp.ice.org/pub/icepacks/1998/ice9811a.zip
ftp://ftp.ice.org/pub/icepacks/1998/ice9811b.zip
ftp://ftp.ice.org/pub/icepacks/1998/ice9811c.zip

Ansi disk is 303.03k too!

Enjoy - Mass Delusion, iCE Senior Staff

01 December
ACID RELEASE (rad man)
ACiD is proud to announce the release of our 74th Acquisition update. Available at artpacks.acid.org, where else?

ftp://ftp.artpacks.acid.org/pub/artpacks/artpacks/1998/acid-74a.rar ftp://ftp.artpacks.acid.org/pub/artpacks/artpacks/1998/acid-74b.rar

GLUE RELEASE (quip)
Glue has a new pack out. It's a goodie. They even got a whole bunch of new members. http://glue.cjb.net

MAIDEN BRAZIL DEAD (rorshack)
Founded on september 1996, Maiden Brazil has raised to be what became the greatest South American Ansi/Ascii group ever.

Now, with 16 packs released, it's time to say goodbye - Maiden Brazil stoped releasing on november 4th. It was good while it lasted, but it's now over.

Sorry posting this message here - but I had to say the bad news to someone. And, since the acheron news editors ignored my emails, I decided to post it
here.

Long live ANSI and ASCII ART.

[ed note: we did not ignore his e-mails]