My Problem with "Problem Solverz" aka OW MY EYES!

This past Monday Night, Cartoon Network premiered their latest animated series "Problem Solverz". The series is about three strange characters solving various problems for people. It's simple enough that you can use if for as many episodes as the network will give you. Sadly, it's not a show I'll be watching much at all, because I can't bare to look at it for more than 5 minutes at a time.

Now, unless you're blind you can tell almost immediately what my issue with this show is just by looking to the left of this very text: the color palette is so literally painful to look at. Never in my entire life have I seen a cartoon aired on television that hurt my eyes so much. Compared to two of the shows that air right before it, Adventure Time and Regular Show, both of which are colorful, but in a way that doesn't assault my senses as if they have some ages old vendetta against me. Not so with Problem Solverz. No, this show has a color palette that hates anyone can see and wishes to cause them pain, no matter the cost. And sadly, that cost might just be high enough.

Of course, my quarrel with the aesthetics of this cartoon are twofold, because I could get past the color blitz if I felt like there were enough redeeming qualities to make the save. Sadly, there aren't because this cartoon looks like it was animated with as little effort as possible. If you want proof, look at the video above. Characters in this series look like those Leprechaun's they'd give you to color in back in elementary school. You know the ones; the three sheets of paper, on with body, one with the limbs, and the other with the head. This is obviously the method they use in Flash. Make each part of the body individually, save them all, then paste them into each frame in whatever way you need them.

If this was a Newgrounds animation circa 2005, this would be acceptable. Sadly, this is a televised series in 2011. This is not acceptable. When a series gets picked up to be aired on television, than I expect a certain level of effort be used. This is nowhere near that level and if they aren't putting the effort in to animate this, why should I waste my effort watching it? And yes, effort is required to get past that color palette. Hell, even a handful of the cartoons on the Newgrounds put more effort into their animation than this series. And even a well known series that this is animated in a very similar way, South Park, makes up for that aspect in various other ways, from interesting animation sequences to not having an offensive palette.

I think the worst thing about this whole show is that there seems to be a genuinely good idea hidden underneath it's two irredeemable aspects. The writing wasn't all that bad, it's just not enough to save everything else. Sadly, this isn't a show I can continue to watch or even suggest to anyone I know. Cartoons are a visual medium and the visuals here are atrocious. Truly, that's quite a problem.

Captain America: The Fighting Avenger: The Book That Will Never Have a Chance

It really sucks that this is my first post of the new year; I've really been meaning to find something to write about, mostly because I'm sick of blabbing on and on about the same really good books coming out every week over and over again with my reviews. And with news like this I almost want to quit entirely because I almost don't even see the point any more, but that's defeatist talk and it's not like I started this blog to get a reader base anyway.

Anyway, it's better to just get straight to the point with this post; last year, Marvel released Thor: The Mighty Avenger. It was an instant home run in terms of critical reception and it seemed to be winning over a lot of people with it's charm and overall fantastic story. At least it seemed that way at first. Sadly, it wasn't to last as the book soon became cancelled due to poor sales, the last issue just having come out last week.

Now, I've already gotten my issues with that book failing off of my chest; it sucks that we live in a world where this one fantastic book couldn't sell while piles upon piles of mediocre crap continues to live on. I had made my peace and I was pretty much moving on. However, I just found out today that Captain America: The Fighting Avenger, a book that seems to be much in the same model of Thor TMA, is getting downgraded from an ongoing to a one-shot. That's right; this book isn't even out yet and it's getting the boot because a very similar book failed.

Now, I know I haven't even read this book because it's not out yet, so I can't go around ranting about this amazing book is dying. That being said, this is a book written by Brian Clevinger that looks to be very funny, but still action packed that takes place in World War II. Oh wait, that sounds just like Atomic Robo Volume 2, which was a fantastic book. Oh, and the art is going to be done by Gurihiru, the artist who does the art for Power Pack books that everyone loves so much. With a team like that, the odds are in the favor of this book being pretty good.

Still, quality isn't really the problem that's making me angry; I'm angry that this book isn't even getting a chance simply because another book didn't do well. That's crap. But I can't be angry at Marvel for this one; at the end of the day they're a business and they can't go on something that looks like it'll fail for them. This isn't they're fault. No, this time I'm angry at the fans.

Now, let me clarify that I'm not angry at the very few people who actually bought the book. I'm angry at the scanners and the droves upon droves of people who download books for free through whatever means they choose to do so. If you downloaded even a single issue of Thor: The Mighty Avenger then you're part of the problem here. You've not only damned one wonderful little story, but you've robbed another of it's chance at being told in full. And if you scanned a book and put it online, then I hope you're happy with yourself. And I'm sure you've got your justifications about how you're offering a taste for potential buyers or whatever crap it is you're shoveling out. It doesn't make a bit of difference at all because you're part of the problem. You're the reason why people can choose the alternative of getting the book for free illegally instead of buying them legally.

And scans aren't some small problem; there are tons of people downloading comics out there for free because they have that alternative. Hell, go on 4chan's comic and cartoon board for an hour and see how long it takes for someone to make a "story time" thread for a comic. And that's not even counting whatever 4chan clones there are out there where people are posting more links or making more "story time" threads. Chances are Thor TMA had a story time thread. And odds are, there were a link to download the scans somewhere in the thread so that anyone who didn't want to wait for all the images to be posted could read it all. That's a whole bunch of readers who probably aren't going to buy that book now, because they've got it for free.

And I could probably go on for so much longer about this. But it won't change a goddamn thing because Captain America: The Fighting Avenger is dead and you've all had a hand in it. I hope you're all happy.