And so it begins...
Yesterday I bought a copy of Jerry Beck's coffe table book "Not Just Cartoons- Nicktoons", and when I first heard of this book project, I was AMPED! I heard through the grapevine that this book would feature interviews from the creators of EVERY Nickelodeon show! My friend Kelly informed me that Mitch Schauer had done an interview for this reading. I was thrilled. Mitch created the cartoon series "The Angry Beavers", a show I've been a fan of since it debuted in 1997. A very underappreciated, overlooked, gem. Other Nicktoons that I love are Ren & Stimpy (first season, anyway), Rocko's Modern Life, and the eccentrically dark Invader Zim. It was going to be awesome hearing all the cool stories and interviews from all these fantastic cartoonists about how they got their shows up and running, and things of that nature.
Yesterday I went to Borders to pick it up. I skimmed through it, but today I actually sat down and read most of the interviews, and factoids, and admired the beautiful publicity artwork, model sheets, etc. BUT my overall opinion on the book, honestly? I would say that it is a....
...... one big disappointing letdown.
Now DON'T GET ME WRONG.... Beck did a wonderful job on this book, and it was worth his time and effort to track down these amazing artists and squeeze out their memories.... HOWEVER, I still am overcome with a feeling of biasness on Jerry Beck's part, or at least any Nickelodeon publisher that may have hovered over Jerry's shoulder during production. My main issue is the focus on shows like Rocko, Beavers, and Zim, as well as other cult-favorite Nick shows. On the more popular Nick shows like Rugrats, Spongebob, Thornberries, El Tiger, all have material that cover 7 to 8 pages. While Beavers, Rocko, and Zim are reduced to only 2 pages worth of interviews and concept art. Now, it's no surprise to me that the more popular cartoons would get better treatment (after all, Lincoln never said "cartoons are created equally"), but I got a real sense of biasness in the crew who put this book together. When reading the Rocko and Beaver stuff, it felt like, the overall attitude was, "Let's put a LITTLE bit of stuff here, and then quickly move on to the better show, and save us some time." Hell, I was expecting more on Invader ZIM as Jerry has said in the past that that's his favorite Nicktoon. I guess It's Nickelodeon's doing for making Jerry have the book show more of THEIR favorites, as opposed to the general public. I also feel that the interviews were severely chopped and edited. Hardly any talk of how the crerators got their ideas for their shows is touched upon, or any funny behind-the-scenes stories. Spongebob has a few listed.... oh that's right, Spongebob's more popular therefor readers would be more interested in HIM... GAH!
Okay, the book is fine and all, I'll admit it... but next time, Jerry, when you do a book like this FIGHT HARDER to get ALL cartoons the same amount of spotlight. The book really isn't worth the 40 bucks (luckily I got it for 35 at Borders). What the book IS worth is having me remove the pages focusing on MY favorite shows (what little there is) and dumping the rest of the book in the trash where it belongs.
Or I could send my "reformatted" copy of the book back to Jerry Beck as an early Christmas present with samples of my own feces crammed between the pages (Hey, he made shit for the mass audience, why can't I return the favor?).
Folks, if you're a die-hard Nicktoons fan, and love almost ALL Nicktoons, than yes you will enjoy this book, but if you only like a select offering of Nicktoons, than this book is not worth your time and hard-earned money. Spend your money on the Looney Tunes Golden Collections. At least Jerry Beck knows what he's doing when he produces THOSE.