Hi JSL, nice to have you interviewed. Feel free to introduce yourself a bit ...
Hello all.. the name is JOHAN JANSSEN, age 31, and live in the southern part of Holland, graphician on the sixty four in Protovision and Covenant, and the reason why people say I am that active in c64 scene is I'm jobless and can pixel about every day, I do visit some paint courses and thats about..
Let's start smooth ... start with your handle: What does "JSL" stand for and how and when did
you came up with this?
Actually I am born with it, JSL are my birth-initials, namely JOHAN SYLVESTER LEONARDUS, in March 2000 I first had name Cobra, because I had that name all the time on my amiga years, but there was already a Cobra (Fraction) so I renamed to JSL, lateron Cactus told me there was too another JSL, namely TG JSL, but I kept this name tough, no matter what they said..
You do a lot of artwork on the c-64, such as screens for TND-games oder even Diskcovers. Where
do you get your inspiration from?
well. the about 20 diskcovers I made : I have alot of fantasy books (e.g. boris vallejo) and there are some things stolen from them, even in some of my c64 pictures, I made also alot myself and lately doing more of myself as most of these books already have been made on some platforms, some- times i see some nice graphic in a comic book (like WOLVES at Willow 2004) and imagine a background around the main image (those wolves came from I believe ELF QUEST) but many of us graphicians did steal a bit of something, I can talk endless about the things I stole or did myself, for example the upcoming EVIL DJINN picture at Primary Star 2005 is from Boris Vallejo, the 2nd picture for their gfx compo CURLY SQUIRREL is stolen from a crisps bag (Nibbits, here in Holland).. As for logo-work the first logos I did (my first collections, and the're five!) we're much stolen from PC fonts, typing the name, print it out, pixel it on 64, color it in, but my last collections I am imagine myself the logo-worx, and it's damn hard these days inventing some nice chars/logo, as I'm on about 350 logos done since my rejoin c64scene in March 2000...
About that TND games again ... some sceeners think that the best thing about the games of Richard
Bayliss are the Pictures drawn by you - what do you think about this?
true. ;) (but some games are nice to play!)
There is one thing that is so remarkable and tight linked to the name "JSL": It is Basic Demos.
You did quite a few and keep on announcing more. Those Demos have been commented differently at CSDb;
which one did you enjoy most while programming/watching after having programmed it and why?
Band of Brothers was much work, more than 300 blocks of Basic.. Visitors 4 was fun to do, you see there my first SMOKE animation (which I used now more often, like BOB) and I like most doing blood-scenes, I like horror (so watch my Resident Evil), the demo I am working now on is a bit boring so I might continue on something else than INDIANA JONES, but do check the CSDB all my demos I will upload there, and the XXX ones (which I did alot, I believe RTR LOVES PUSSY 1-19) are coming on the GIRLS OF 64 site.
Talking about Demos: everyone is voting his/her "demo of the year 2004" at CSDb. Which ones would
be your hottest TOP5?
1.cycle/booze design 2.execute overdrive/smash d. 3.plastic kiss/resource 4.halfway there/dkd 5.demode/chorus all-time-demos: 1. our darkness/smash designs 2. execute overdrive/smash designs 3. 2n reality/smash designs 4. cycle/booze design 5. arcanum/xenon
You're also a member in Protovision and as some of us may have seen, you're involved in "Tanks 3000".
Any more Contributions planned? What game are you pixeling for next?
I believe I made about all graphics in Tanks 3000 and the halve of the levels, I guess you all know the protovision website, so check it out what projects we're working on (www.protovision-online.de) but now TANKS 3000 is finished I love to work on the next game, probably a one-player game, from Courage/PTV, I don't know what is in his mind, we'll see. The projects now running from Protovision I had in several my hands in it, Pac It, Reel Fishing, Wor Wizards, I cannot tell what new projects are coming, it's a secret.;)
Can you think of supporting "Enforcer 2" graphically? I'm sure that I'm not the only person waiting
for this one ...
Enforcer 2 was put on ice, mainly because a very good graphician left protovision, and recently also left scene, namely MERMAID/Creators, at the moment FINN showed interrest in doing this project, I don't know if I am going to work on Enforcer 2, sometime back I tried the Enforcer 2 Editor but stumbled upon a problem and didn't got much support from (at that time still a member) BIGUSER/PTV so I lost interrest in this game, at the moment I love to pixel everything what comes on my path, perhaps in the near future I might re-start on Enforcer2 as there's not much to pixel in c64 scene for me now.
Last but not least: What can we expect in the immanent future? I'm sure you have some more Basic-Demos
in petto to be released soon ...
well, currently after the CSDB uploads like Band of Brothers, Anaconda and others, I am working on a new Basic demo, again after a movie trilogy, namely INDIANA JONES, but right now I have the feeling this hero is bit predictable and would never die, so it might be a boring demo, and I am not sure if I continue it, an inbetween demo I made is to be found on Kai Spitzley's GIRLS OF 64 website, namely the XXX version of the fairytale SNOWWHITE AND THE 7 DWARFS, as normal I try to make more Basic demos from movie's (as I have an DVD obsession), next is I won't pixel anymore (I think) for the diskmagazine ARACHNOPHOBIA, I made about 47 logos for this magazine and I am bit burned out with this name, I made 10 Sceneworld logos so far, so in their coming issue's I will support them.. My own group Covenant is currently still working on the 2nd demo DEATH OR GLORY which is near completion, we try it to release at the RCC party this year, but some parts are diffecult to code (like a game-part) and we are not sure we reach the deadline, we in Covenant are also working on our third demo and doing the Invitro for the primary star party 2005.. As for the graphics part, I am not working on something, I do have two older pics for the PS party in September (gfx compo) which are worth to look.. In reallife I am busy with an comic-book, a crew of five people doing an space adventure, together with another painter, we plan to print it alot and it will be selled on some art-manefestation and comic-show here in Holland the book will named "Daystar Chronicles", sadly for you, it is all in Dutch language, it counts about 35-40 sheets.. btw. Some JSL stuff have been uploaded to the CSDB, on it you'll find for example an Amica Paint course I made for fun.
Ok, so far. Thank you for your time and your answers and keep the pixels burning. Any last words to
the folks out there?
keep doing the 64 stuff, and keep the scene alive!