The files characterized by the names Mall001.gif through Mall033.gif are
Copyright, 1996, Doug Winger. These files are freely distributable thru
electronic media/commercial network services provided that no charges
other than for normal operation and/or services is incurred, and no
alteration to file is performed.

COMMERCIAL RIGHTS RESERVED. From the Mall series.

Right, what is all this, then...

Recently, I was cleaning out my harddrive, tossing old and obsolete files
and archives in order to make room, and allowing me to optimize a bit.
There were a number of archives in Stuffit format on it (a Mac compression
format), most of them containing garbage from past desperate attempts to
squeeze another meg of two out of an overstuffed drive by the simple
expedient of stuffing _everything_.

As I was opening, checking, closing and tossing, I ran into one archive...

Several text files, a few old-style PhotoShop TIFF files and a LOT of old
Illustrator 88 format EPS files showed up in the listing of that somewhat
hefty archive. I pulled a few, and checked them.

Back in mid-'88, I was contacted by a guy name Tim on one of the semi-local
BBs I frequented. He had heard tales of the Great Poodles From Hell Massacree,
and seemed mighty anxious for me to read some stuff he had written.  I agreed
to read the things after he practically drooled on my feet in mail. Thereafter,
for the next few days, I started finding very large text files in my personal
mail space there every time I logged on...

Mall was originally twelve sections of extreme delving into personal fantasy,
the two sections surviving that I've included being the _smallest_ of the lot.
There were also a large number of long side-stories in the same setting. They
were all _terribly_ written, but grabbed me nevertheless. It was self-consistent,
extreme, and simply filled my head with images.

Until the beginning of '89, I would put aside time on the weekends to pencil
roughs, then on slow nights, do two or three EPS graphics using the pencils
as guides.  I wound up with over 150 of the things- and a few indirectly
related as well. I met with Tim twice (I never did find out his last name)
in a nearby diner to talk over what we had wrought, he planning on writing
more, and discussions of a possible publication surfacing. Yow.

It was then he dissappeared. I asked around- nobody knew anything. I waited.
Nothing. The only lead I have is that there was a fatal car accident involving
a Mr. Timothy (something) and a drunk driver that I read about in the local
paper. It might've been him, but I can't be sure. Work ended, and they lay
on various drives, stored away in digital darkness until now. I'd almost
forgotten them completely, and it was almost like seeing them for the first
time when I pulled them out. And don't think I wasn't amazed at what I had
wrought, thinking to myself what a sick little monkey I'd been back then.

Onwards, then. After a testing, allowing a few trusted souls to see these in
advance, and seeing no signs of calls to burn me at the stake (I got some
surprising feedback, showing that Mall's background fantasies are not
uncommon, and sometime amazingly paralleled), I'm releasing these to alter
brainchemistry in creative fashion. Be warned that some might find them
extreme, as these are personal fantasy let out to romp and play and
interpreted graphically by someone with a very odd aethetic sense.

Call them proof that I'm a sick puppy.

On a technical note, all these files are original Illustrator 88 bezier art,
rasterized in Adobe Photoshop 2.01. Range of finish is from raw first-draft
bezier, preliminary grey with finish tweaking  of outline through mostly
finished, with color and blending. I don't consider them very good, but then
I wasn't spending a lot of time on them, and tended to let mistakes slide by.

Enjoy or not as is your wont- and you have been warned! Mwhahahaha! - Doug