Integrity - NicheInterests/mistfunk GitHub Wiki

When iMPERiAL collapsed in mid-1994, its former ANSI artist Darkforce had something in mind. He undertook the vertical transition, joining UNiON based out of central Canada, but didn't stick around for long. Maybe he got tired of the long-distance coordination, but he clearly had in mind regaining what he had in iMPERiAL and being a part of a crew that was primarily local-to-him, in area code 604, for greater camaraderie and less alienation. His time was too valuable to waste frittering it away on the IRC. Already having been in on the ground floor of the establishment of [SONiC EQUiNOX] (his BBS the House of Style initially acting as its WHQ) that seemed to be travelling in a direction in which his talents were not called for, he initially threw his weight behind RAiD in the iMPERiAL succession sweepstakes. Despite its auspicious abundance of would-be ANSI artists, for whatever reason RAiD didn't have staying power, and by the end of 1994 it seemed as though Mist Classic might get to enjoy having the 604 as its private artscene fiefdom. Well, that wasn't the case for long!

Shooting out of the start gate in January of '95, Darkforce launched Integrity (if it had launched in '94, he would have had to call it iNTEGRiTY), featuring the skills of a handful of his local former iMPERiAL colleagues (Havoc, Prophet, Grateful Dead) who had sat on the RAiD sidelines along with him, plus the gifted Inquisitor (briefly of Mist) and his handler (long-serving as senior staff from his lair SysOping Point of No Return) Pestilence. If a group has a reason to exist (many don't, but most of them don't stick around or make a mark), its reason was: a focus on quality ANSI art, featuring compelling subjects for discriminating teenage boy audiences -- the latest and greatest comic book heroes and the shapeliest of babes (which were rumoured to be enforced by a strict ratio, dictated from its WHQ, rebranded "the Ho-Zone"! Elite Integrity didn't have distro sites, so the only way for a BBS to be part of its club was for its SysOp to be a dominant ANSI artist.)

As their star rose and Mist alumni were drawn to its light (eg. Eerie), they grew in prestige and status and attracted long-distance talent (eg. Grimlock) but always with an eye toward skimming the cream of the practicing ANSI artists in their own backyard... all of whom were currently holding Mistigris membership. With mentorship from the accomplished Darkforce as an Integrity member perk, and Prophet on deck prepared to finish scrollers with logos, Int membership was a compelling option for local artists, and we said farewell to Mage, Questor and Nitnatsnoc as they debarked our train and boarded the Integrity express. More concerning, they eclipsed us as a destination for emerging local talent, so Mist merged with the first flush of Fire Graphics in an attempt to achieve an injection of computer art from a place (Atlanta, Georgia) Integrity wasn't actively reaching into. It was a nice idea but following three months of disruption we were back to square one while Integrity continued steamrolling.

Integrity was basically dominant for the first nine months of 1995, from its beginning to its end, and I guess Darkforce felt he had other worlds to conquer -- perhaps he had graduated high school a few months earlier and it was time to upend his online life in the transition to university. Either way, its membership merged wholesale into ACiD Productions (briefly, as these things go: most artists, upon reaching the top of their hobby, would sooner or later drift off) and area code 604 was never the same again.