Official Apology to Chaos Doom

Official Apology to the Spriter once known as "Chaos Doom"

Preface: Spriting is an amateurish form of Pixel Art meant to imitate the art style of 2D videogames in the pre-3d era.


A very long time ago, in my teenage years, I got into an Internet feud with a Spriter who went by the handle of Chaos Doom.

Me and Onikage Wolf, my IRL friend who got my hooked on the Spriting subculture, formed an artistic team known then as Onikage Comics. The name was my own creation as I was a huge Wapanese loser back in my preteen days. I began Spriting when I was 12.

We shared our personal avatar sprites with one another as Spriters typically do who work collaboratively as teams on sprite comics. And then he began editing my avatar, poorly I might add, and using it as his own.

I asked him to stop but he wouldn't, he even mocked me for being protective of my personal avatar. In the Spriting world, it's akin to having someone very blatantly "biting your style" and showing up to school wearing your same outfit.

In return, I hacked his email. I hacked his MSN. I even hacked his website and forum. Doom was a bit of a regular and personality in the RPG Maker scene, and this was back during my active days as a hacker. When computer vulnerabilities were at a high and hacking was still a relatively easy thing to do. I ruthlessly tore his entire online presence to shreds within a few days. I deleted gaping chunks of code from his website and forums, the damage was permanent and the code unrecoverable.

I gloated about it and felt he got what he deserved as I'd asked him nicely not to plaguerise my work and he'd blatantly refused and then did the opposite simply to spite me and my feelings on the matter. He was not a particularly talented artist, and had the ignorant attitude of "it's just the internet bro" and that I was over reacting. I felt differently of course, having put many hours of hard, solid work into my art. Much of it completely original, as opposed to the simple edits or pallette swaps of other Spriters.

I did this when I was 12. I was young and stupid. I am now 26. I have no idea of where or what has happened to this guy since I've seen him last. But I'm old and mature enough now to see what I did was also wrong. And two wrongs do not make a right.

At the time, I believed in Spriting, quite literally as a popularity contest. Spriters and sprite comic authors all vied for the attention of other Spriters and Pixel Art critics. Being young and very obsessed with the Spriter Subculture, I took his plaguerism as a serious threat to my ability to thrive in the art world and receive my proper dues.

In recent years, I declared my official retirement from Spriting and moved on to catch up on all the IRL beauty I had been ignoring most of my life. To focus on my real life and discover myself, so to speak. I released all of my work to the public domain for other Spriters to use and edit and learn from as they see fit, seeing as my new Pixel Art Clique, "The Pixel Punks" had a very productive, very well received run with our collaborative comic "Dungeons and Dumbasses". Far too often I receive the sole credit for this work. I may have done the core of the writing, type setting and graphical layout. But it would have never been possible without the other two members of the Team, Porgon and Kahou. Without their direct and indirect support, the project never would have achieved the smashing success it did. I still have them on Facebook as Gabriel and Kris, respectively, and count them among my closest friends. I had my 15 minutes of Internet fame, and our comic even reached the top 100 comics on The Duck Web comics, among tens of thousands. The trophy still sits on my profile. And there is no other small, pixelated image on an Internet site I am more proud of than that trophy.

Since then, many newb Spriters have taken my avatar and my works and "remixed" them so to speak with my blessings. And I must admit, it pleases me to no end to see a pallette swap of my character / avatar "Senretsu" taking on a life of his own and inspiring an entire new generation of young pixel artists to get in touch with their creative sides, and express themselves in new ways. I have long since stopped Spriting, yet my legacy lives on. My old avatar still parades across the pages of Web comics on the Internet, without my direct input!

This puts a huge smile on my face and fills me with a deep sense of satisfaction and pride. As I was once a young Spriter, learning from the works of the more greatly established artists, I now have come full circle as a mentor myself. And I've discovered an entirely new, rewarding aspect of my old works have begun to take root and form.

I think back now, more than a decade later, of my petty jealousy and self interest that led me to shred an entire website of code to pieces in my youth. And am filled with shame.

I realize now I thought of Art...
As a competition.
And I can be extremely competitive.

I felt threatened by his desire to learn and grow. I felt there was not room for the both of us to thrive simultaneously. I was wrong.


What I did was wrong because I intentionally stifled his creativity out of my own self interest. I realize now being an artist is NOT a competition. The joys of painting and drawing and CREATING should be free and joyful for all. And that imitation is the sincerest form of flattery.

I don't know where you are anymore, Doom, or how your life has gone since I last seen you, some 14 years ago. But my internet handle never changed and I'm sure you remember what I did to your website. And I am deeply sorry. You are more than welcome now to help yourself to any and all of my artwork. In fact it would please me if you did. And once again, I am very sorry.


Ive realized now that "Spriting" and "Pixel Art"  are two entirely different things. Spriting is amateur pixel art, and is highly derivative and experimental. While Pixel Art is this same concept, only refined and completely original.

I have retired from Spriting for good.

But I have only just begun my pixel art journey. As well, I have heavily gotten into Programming, Bass Guitar, Animation and 3D polygonal modelling. I have returned from my period of self discovery and I do believe I have discovered myself. And I declare this, my intent to start fresh and anew and better than before.

And in keeping in line with the best interests of the Spriting community and inspiring a new generation of artists, and of being a good mentor, again reaffirm that all my old sprite work is in the public domain, and that I am extremely pleased to see the new generation using my work. Through this my legacy continues marching on without me.

Vive La Pixel. And long live the Artistic Dream.
 - Senretsu, AKA, Clark K.
 Retired Spriter & Hacker. Professional Artist.