Interview with Marshal Law by iCE Staff for iCE PACK 8/2002
Converted to ASCII text by RaD Man of ACiD Productions (www.acid.org)
HTML version available at http://www.ice.org/interviews.php?interview=9

                                          
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iCE: for starters, please tell us about yourself.  first name, age,
     occupation, hobbies

Marshal Law: Darron, 31, Code jockey (massive oversimplification) for a
             Financial Services Firm.  If I had some time, I might get some
             hobbies.  I make it to the gym regularly but I don't know if
             that qualifies.  I just finished a season of summer league
             lacrosse.  I do some recreational coding in my spare time and
             I enjoy the occasional romp on the PS2.  I recently finished
             the new Tom Clancey novel on the daily commute and I can still
             be found sketching on those days when I am more right-brain
             dominant.
 
iCE: cool. where were you born?  still live there?

Marshal Law: New Jersey.  Still a resident of the Garden State.
 
iCE: How and when did you join iCE?

Marshal Law: The iCE archives may have a better idea of exactly when, it
             was a while ago.  If I remember correctly, the first time I
             became a member of iCE was because the group I was in merged
             with iCE.  It was a pretty competitive time with respect to 
             ansi groups and they provided greater exposure than an
             individual could attain by themselves. Of course in the
             beginning, and in the end, I was never really in it for the
             notoriety but rather because it was something that I enjoyed
             doing.  The scene provided me with access to a great group of
             individuals from all around the country.
 
iCE: What other ANSi groups have you participated in?  Which one was your
     first?

Marshal Law: If I remember correctly, they were iCE, ACiD and RPM.  If I
             can find my archive of work, I could probably answer that
             question more accurately.
 
iCE: Force Ten will be mad if you forget about GRiM.

Marshal Law: Oops. and GRiM. I was a part of a number of groups, some more
             than once.  There was really no rhyme or reason to it.  A lot
             of the time it really just had to do with who I had more
             contact with at the time.
 
iCE: hehe. Which one was first?  RPM?  I don't think i've seen any RPM
     packs, if you can dig them up that would be awesome.  Were you in ACiD
     before or after iCE?  Did you release with them?

Marshal Law: The chronology is really hazy but I think it went iCE ACiD iCE
             again.  If I find the files on the old PC then I could answer
             these questions better.  I think I killed off some of the brain
             cells that I needed for this conversation in college a few years
             ago.
 
iCE: hehe.  Any files you can dig up would be awesome additions for the iCE
     archives.

[note: ML's old PC, and all the ansi goodness contained within, is gone
       forever.]
 
iCE: So, what first got you interested in ANSi art?

Marshal Law: I think it was all the chicks that the guys got.  Just kidding.
             I did some thinking about this one and what I have been able to
             patch together from a few memory fragments is...  A sysop of a
             local warez board was trying to start an ansi group.  I've
             always had some basic artistic talent so on a whim I threw
             together a couple of meager ansi's (at the time 25 lines was
             the norm) and applied.  I suppose it had something to do with
             the challenge and the desire for warez.  It's not as mystical,
             exciting or noble as I would have hoped but what are you gonna
             do.
 
iCE: Would you say you had any artists influence your ANSi style?

Marshal Law: More than any one artist, I think that it was the competition
             at the time that had the most influence.  When I started, the
             artwork was pretty basic.  As time went on, the caliber of
             artists involved increased dramatically.  So it was either sink
             or swim and luckily I can doggy paddle.  The scene existed
             before I arrived, but it was while I was a part of it (and not
             the reason for it), the scene took off.  It was an age of dial
             up BBSs.
 
iCE: What was your opinion of the WWiV "PD" artists of the time?

Marshal Law: Sorry, not familiar with what you mean by WWiV "PD" artists.  I
             have been away for a while and I almost feel like you guys know
             me better than I know myself.
 
iCE: PD as in public domain..  WWIVNet was a message net that had ANSi
     artists such as George Ramos and Ebony Eyes.

Marshal Law: Oh yeah.  I remember EE.  I can't say that I remember any of the
             artwork though.

iCE: So, what made you stop drawing ANSi?

Marshal Law: Life.  I had a lot of things on the table.  Graduating college
             etc. (25 credits in the last semester) It was really taking
             alot of my 'free' time and something had to give.  It's funny
             though because the start of one of my senior project coincides
             with the end of my participation in the scene.  The project was
             Internet-based, before the Internet was widely used beyond
             acedmia.
 
iCE: Where did you graduate from college?  What is your degree(s) in?

Marshal Law: Stevens Institute of Technology.  NJ, Bachelor of Science,
             Computer Science.  It's a pretty highly regarded enginerring
             school.
 
iCE: How did you first discover BBSing?

Marshal Law: When I got a Commodore 64.  Got into some warez leeching and
             then some years later, refound the scene but with a PC.  From
             there I got on some local board where (its starting to come
             back to me) where the guy was looking for some artwork for
             d/l credits...  the rest as they say is history.
 
iCE: hehe.. I think a lot of us started drawing for file credits

Marshal Law: Thats the truth.  Artwork == access.
 
iCE: Did you periodically check in on the scene in the 90s, see how things
     were going?  What do you think about ANSi art being created these days?

Marshal Law: I hit ice.org a few times over the years to see how things were
             going.  I can't seem to totally shake the desire to toss one 
             more out there but the reputation is probably too much to live
             up to at this point.  I checked out the packs for the last few
             months today and they are impressive.  I hope that the artists
             today get the same kind of exposure that we did years ago.
 
iCE: Your reputation these days is definitely as high as it can go.  Marshal
     Law, Tempus Thales, and JED are pretty much the 3 icons of the ANSi
     scene.  Back in 1992-1993, did you think the ANSi scene would be around
     10 years later?

Marshal Law: I would say that I thought that with the Internet and all that
             it would die out.  I am pleased to see that it is still kicking.
             It's strange being called an icon and to be compared to those
             guys, Tempus especially.  He could pump out 3-4 quality ansi's
             a month while I doing maybe 1, 2 max.  Its extremely flattering
             to be remembered at all and to be held with such regard is
             icing on the cake.
 
iCE: Do you have a personal all-time favorite ANSi by an artist other than
     yourself? What about a favorite that you did?

Marshal Law: Sad to say, I can't remember all of the ANSi that I did.  Just
             a little while ago Magneticm showed me one that I forgot all
             about.  Personally, there are things that I would love to change
             in alot of my ansi's that I saw on ice.org.  But I am partial to
             the Pitt one that I did for Cybercrime, I think its the shadows.
             As for other people I am sure at one time that I had a favorite
             or two.  It was a time when ansi was big and there were some
             really talented people involved in the scene.  I like to
             appreciate each ansi on it's own merit, regardless of the
             creator.  Like other industries, we do have some one hit
             wonders.
 
iCE: I know its still a little fuzzy, but do you have any old ANSi scene
     anecdotes that were too interesting or funny to forget?

Marshal Law: I will have to think about that one.  If anything though, the
             one thing that I do remember is a great group of guys.  I won't
             name names becuase I wouldn't want to insult anyone by leaving
             them off the list, I definitely don't have anything but good
             memories of the time that I spent as part of the whole scene.
             I didn't get involved in any of the group rivalries, I was just
             interested creating some art and they (iCE management) made it
             easy to do.

Marshal Law: Ahh,,, Wait..  I had done some ansi for someone out in Michigan
             and he calls me one morning like 6:00 AM and tells me that he
             just got busted for credit card fraud the day before by like
             the Secret Service and FBI and I am wondering what the hell
             this guy thinks I can do for him, I just put ascii characters
             on a screen and now I am thinking, shit are they bugging this
             guys phone and am I going to get a knock on the door..  none
             came thankfully.
 
iCE: I was going to mention before, you said you just did the art for art's
     sake, I think that's awesome..  Thats pretty much the only reason people
     still draw ANSi anymore; it's an artform.  It's great to see one of our
     icons did it for the exact same reason.

Marshal Law: Yeah. Its definitely an acquired taste.  Beyond some minor
             leeching, there really wasn't much you could physically gain
             from doing ansi (although I do remember some people charging
             $$$ for their work) so you had to like ansi for ansi's sake.

Marshal Law: The whole icon thing always feels pretty funny.
 
iCE: Trust me, you've inspired more people than you would imagine.

Marshal Law: Still hard to believe.  You'll see.  Someday someone will tell
             you how much they loved the last piece you did and you are
             happy that the time and energy you put into the work is
             appreciated.  I hope that those artists today can still enjoy
             some of the same recognition that we did at the time.  I
             realize its a different scene now, but I am sure the
             motivations (artists) are still mostly the same.  You can
             create something cool, but its not the same until someone else
             thinks that it doesn't suck.
 
iCE: Telnet BBSes are making a comeback, including The Sanctuary.  Syntax 
     Error will be the sysop, and I'm co-sysoping, doing artwork and 
     organizing other art for it.  Tempus Thales will also be a co-sysop,
     and will be telnetting in to participate in the message bases etc.  Do
     you think you'd be interested in telnetting in occasionally?

Marshal Law: Sounds interesting.  Besides getting the chance to talk to
             some old-timers it sounds like an opportunity to talk to some
             of the new hot-shots.  Could be sweet.
 
iCE: You mentioned you code for a living now, did you ever dabble in coding
     loaders back in the day? Happen to do any VGA?

Marshal Law: Back in the day I did some assembly coding just to see if I
             could do it, but I never released anything.  Same with VGA.
 
iCE: What's your favorite sport?  Favorite automobile brand?

Marshal Law: Favorite sport would have to be lacrosse.  I have played it
             for a number of years.  It's got all of the best elements of
             all of the other sports.  Favorite auto brand would be a toss
             up.  I love Ferraris and Lamborghinis.  I root for the Ferrari
             F1 team although I will take an exciting race over a particular
             driver any day.  I pass a Ferrari dealer each day to work and
             had the pleasure of driving a Ferrari 355 Spyder for a few days
             while I was in Hawaii a few years ago.  What a sweet machine.
             Doing 100+ along the North Shore was a blast.  Almost rented a
             Diablo but had other things to do.
SAUCE00Interview with Marshal Law         iCE Staff           iCE Advertisements  200209064   P                              