For  The Charts' 'New Talents' series,
here  is  an interview with one of the
most  promising  artists of the scene,
the  responsible  for the 'Honey Comb'
slideshow   by   TRSI,  released  some
months      ago.       Ladies      and
gentlemen...roar an applause for:

        F I V E R  of  T R S I

Yeah,  I'm Fiver (oh, really?) My real
name is Thomas Mahlke and I'm 19 (born
05.01.1976)  I've been in Acrid before
of  staying  in  TRSI, the group whose
I'm  actually  member of.  I`ll finish
soon  school  and  then  do  my "civil
service"  (hm,  that`s  not  the right
word  for  it...) and after that - hm,
still  don`t  know...I`ve  been in the
scene  since  the  PartyII  and active
ever  since  but it took me nearly two
years  to  get a coder to use my works
(the  gfx for my Slideshow "Honeycomb"
were completly ready in January 1994 -
thanx   to  Orbix  (name  changed)  it
needed  one  year to get finished...).
But finally I now have several groups,
who use my work.

______________________________________

Please  tell  us  something  about the
making   of   Fishfood,   your  Party4
picture.   Why  you  chose  it for the
compo?
______________________________________

Well,  it  is  always  a  hard  job to
select   a   motiv  for  competitions.
Especially  as  an unknown scener it`s
difficult  to get the attention of the
audience.   For  this  party I decided
not   to   do   another  fantasy  pic.
Personally  I  liked the motiv of Fish
Food  very  much  and so I did it.  In
the  end it took me the whole December
to  draw  it (the last pixels were set
on  the  PartyIV)  but  I think it was
worth  the  work.   Unfortunately  the
result  in  the competition was not so
very  succesfull  but  I got very good
reactions later on...

--------------------------------------
The fish Fiver made for The Party 1994
was  of  high  quality but the rest of
the  picture couldn't live up to that.
Dead background and the water looked a
bit too static.
---------------------------Mount------
______________________________________

You  placed  only  9th  in the Party 4
gfx-compo.    Was   Peachy  the  right
winner  of  the  Party4 gfx-compo?  If
not, who was the right winner?
______________________________________


I   think   the   biggest  problem  at
GFX-compos  is  always that the voters
can  only  judge by the motiv - not by
the  quality  of  the  picture and the
average    quality   of   this   years
competition  pictures  was rather bad.
"Helge Schneider" or better "Kommissar
00  Schneider"  was  undoubtly  better
than  most  other  pictures  but it is
recognizable  that  it  was drawn in a
little  hurry.   However,  it  was the
perfect  motiv  for  a GFX-competition
and  as  there  were not many pictures
which were really better, I think that
he  deserved  to  win.   Personally  I
think    the   pictures   by   Cougar,
Devilstar,    Bridgeclaw    or   Facet
deserved   a   (far)   better  result.
Beside RA`s eagle, which deserved it`s
final  ranking,  I would have selected
those to top the competition.

______________________________________

How  you  rank  yourself in the todays
graphical scene and who's actually the
best graphician in the german scene?
______________________________________

Hm,  how  I  rank myself in the scene?
Hard  to  judge  by myself.  All I can
say  is  that  there are many pictures
around  these  times,  which  are of a
very  average  quality  and  yet get a
good   reputation.    Personally   I`m
always trying to make my pictures good
enough   to  stand  a  "second  look".
That`s  also  what  I  like  in  other
grafician`s  pictures  but  which I do
not  see  very  often.   But one guy`s
work  has  always  impressed  me.  His
name  of course has to be RA.  He is a
real  ARTIST as he is not only able to
draw  good copys but also is excellent
in  creating  logos  etc.   Beside him
there is Cougar, who is in my eyes the
most   perfect   "pixel-artist".    Of
course   there  are  others,  who  are
really good but those two are probably
the best.

______________________________________

Among  all  the pictures you've drawn,
which  you  think  is the best one and
why?
______________________________________


Fish  Food  is  by far my most perfect
picture.   Personally  I like it, if a
picture  looks  still  good, if you go
into   details.    And   that  was  my
attitude in Fish Food.  Plastic Scream
is  probably  the  best picture if you
consider  that  it was drawn in Summer
1993.   My  personal favourites are No
more secrets I/II (I just love stylish
clowns).


--------------------------------------
FIVER's    Honeycomb   slideshow   was
certainly not the best commercial.  So
many   crappy   non-AGA   (not  enough
excuse)  pictures  with  far  too much
dithering  and  too  little smoothing.
Even some AGA pictures looked like the
graphics  standard 3-4 years ago.  But
on  a couple of pictures, the two kids
buying flowers and a head in a plastic
bag  were  so  good  that I can forget
about  the  rest.

The  picture with a man in a sack used
in  Tron's  Green Day demo was overall
of a very high standard.  If Fiver can
keep  that  standard he is a promising
graphician.
---------------------------Mount------

______________________________________

Do you like to draw 'logos'?  Which is
the best logo you've drawn and why?
______________________________________

I  did not draw too many logos so far.
Lately  I`ve done one for the Greenday
demo,  which is also my best one.  The
last  ones  I  drew  lecked  of a real
concept    and   coordination.    I`ll
probably  do  some  more in the future
and  try  to improve my skills in this
category,  too  (some  are  already in
work/ in my mind...).





______________________________________

Is  there  a  graphician with whom you
would like to draw a picture together?
______________________________________

Phew,  I  think  it  is  very  hard to
combine  the  skills  of two different
graficians.   It would be important to
select  someone  with a similar style.
I would prefer Cougar, Hof or J.a.d,e.
but I think we would not match.

______________________________________

Is  there  a picture done from another
artist,   that   you'd   liked  having
pixelled?
______________________________________

The  intropicture from the Motion demo
by   Suny.    Especially   the   first
impression is AWESOME.

______________________________________

The quest for artists -using scanners-
has  always  been  an actuality in the
scene.

Now, just imagine yourself not to be a
part  of  the  scene and therefore not
involved   in   any   kind   of  scene
activities.  If you should necessarily
choose   a   name   among  these  five
artists, regarding the eventual use of
scanners  or  other similar hardwares,
who  could  be  the one that you think
would  probably  hide  a handy scanner
inside his drawer?

FACET
FAIRFAX
RA
COUGAR
R.W.O.
______________________________________

Watching  RA`s usage of colors I could
not  believe that this was done by any
human  being and R.W.O.`s logos are so
much worse than his pictures that it`s
easy to believe him to scan.  Actually
none  of  those  artists  really  does
scan.  RA`s pictures are just too good
to be scanned and R.W.O.`s - well...




______________________________________

Always  regarding  those five artists,
just   mention  for  each  of  them  a
quality that they have and that you'll
be glad to 'stole' them.
______________________________________

FACET:    his feeling for design
FAIRFAX:  his   attitude   to  do  the
          "perfect  picture"  (hm  - I
          already have it)

RA:    his  virtuosity  in  using  his
       pixels

COUGAR:   his professionality
R.W.O.:   her overrated chart-position


______________________________________

Tell   us   the  names  of  some  past
graphicians that you admire and why.
______________________________________

J.A.D,E.   -  I simply liked the style
he  devoloped  towards  the end of his
scene  career  and  watching  his game
"Banshee" it`s a real pity that he has
not   done  anything  "sceny"  lately.
H.O.F.   has  always  been  one of the
very     best     graficians     ever.
Unfortunately  I  never  saw  a single
real  fullscreen  picture from him but
every   piece   I  got  from  him  was
brilliant and stylish.  One of the few
whom`s  style  was always recognizable
from  the  masses.   SCUBA - the first
one   who   tried   to   draw   in   a
photo-realistical  style, which I like
very  much.   RANK - his slideshow was
simply  fantastic.  Unfortunately this
was the only lifesign from this guy.

______________________________________

Tell   us  the  names  of  some  today
graphicians that you admire and why.
______________________________________

RA  and  Cougar  because  of  all  the
reasons  I  already mentioned.  Beside
them  I  like  Suny, Danny, Devilstar,
FadeOne  or  Fairfax  most.   Suny and
Fairfax   because   of   their   great
technique.    Danny  because  of  this
certain  atmosphere  in  his pictures.
Devilstar  mainly  because of "Daddy`s
dearest"  -  this  picture  is  really
fascinating:    easy   to   draw   but
difficult  to  construct.   And  as  I
believe it to be a non-copy picture it
is very nice.  As his earlier pictures
where  much  worse  than  this one, he
seems to have improved his skills very
much  lately.   I`m looking forward to
more...   And  I like Fade One because
of his cool logos.

--------------------------------------
Fiver  recently released his slideshow
"Honey  Comb"  which featured a lot of
work  -  both  new and old.  The older
pieces  are  generally (and naturally)
of   worse   quality  than  his  newer
creations.

Also  this  fellows'  pictures are but
redrawings  -  actually many!  motives
have   been   copied  by  other  Amiga
artists as well - and this puts him in
the  same division as e.g.  Tyshdomos:
Artists  who  make rather good looking
pictures  as  they  have comparatively
sophisticated  techniques but who lack
the ability to draw something by their
own.    Though,   Fiver  is  a  rather
interesting artist as he in some cases
chooses to draw relatively 'difficult'
motives   as  the  brilliant  "Plastic
Scream".    Other  pictures  worth  to
mention  are "Dating Kids" and his 9th
placed The Party IV picture "Fishfood"
that  all  supposedly  are  copies but
still   interesting.    The   'plastic
phenomenon'  can, to a certain extent,
be  seen in Fivers' (AGA) pictures but
I'd  say  he  knows  how to handle the
power  of  24  bits  after having seen
"Plastic Scream".
-------------------------Electron-----


______________________________________

Shall  we therefore expect a sequel to
'Honeycomb'?   Are you already working
on some pics for it?
______________________________________

Well,  definately.   Yes.  A sequel is
to  come.  It will be called "Efrafa".
In  Honeycomb  I  announced  it  to be
released  at the end of 1995 but I did
not  expect  so many other productions
to  cross my way this year.  Therefore
the  release  of the slideshow will be
delayed.   But  as already mentioned I
will    work    on    several    other
productions.   The  latest, "Greenday"
(code   by  Tron,  music  by  Virgill)
already  was a success as it even beat
Chaos`  "Roots II".  But there is much
more to come in the (near) future!  So
you  won`t  have  seen  the last piece
from me.  For sure.
                       CU in Efrafa,
                          Thomas (5R).

          warum weint clemens?

--------------------------------------
Fiver  is an artist on his way up - to
the  top  and  to an own style.  If he
starts  to  draw own motives and maybe
shows what he can come up with when it
comes  to  logos, he'll soon be one of
'the big ones'!
-----------------------Electron-------