The crossroads...
...where teenaged boys meet a growing art form, both of which are not necessarily exclusive--teenage boys have creativity too, it just strays towards boobs, videogames, and beer. And what ties all those together? NEWGROUNDS. Newgrounds, where one can express the inexpressable; where one can tap into the infinite and abiding idolization by the masses of NES characters; where one can laugh at the absurd, distasteful, and grotesque literally until dawn, through devious use of the "search' panel. Newgrounds is the stomping ground of everyone from junior high--highschool internet addicts to graphic arts undergraduates to professional artists, animators, and programmers. Part of the reason Newgrounds gets so many crappy submissions is that everyone wants a piece of the Flash pie--which is also what makes it great. There's no censorship; you are entirely at the mercy of your peers, not some mod. Anything goes. The same way ten years ago every teenaged boy wanted his own death metal band, today every kid wants to be able to live off of the proceeds from their computer-generated cartoons. You get animations ranging between arguing over pirates vs. ninjas to displaying the finer artistic points involved in animation, and some that do both. Some flashes suck, some are awesome, and everyone and anyone can express themselves totally, because what MAKES a flash awesome is almost totally random, and the only scale of greatness is how much soul someone put into it. Look at Numa Numa--it's critics call it a fat guy singing a crappy song into a low-quality webcam; most call it amazing. Why? Because you can't help but respect and laugh with a guy blatantly making fun of himself, his friends, and that song in joyful, random, childish abandonment. This sketchbook should be published and sold on the site; I know I'd buy it, if only to chronicle what I can't help but think of as an ephemeral phenomena that is one of the cornerstones of internet culture in its most developmental, impressionable stages. But who knows; maybe Newgrounds will turn out like Google; a reviled and simultaneously worshipped monopoly of flash animations and games that makes or breaks artists based on how many 'front-pages' they have. Sorry I'm a little wordy tonight. To cut to the chase--this book is awesome, though the image quality could be better, and it makes me happy to see so many classic NG animators making an effort to create a more traditional art project, in a more flexible media.
