why i love hello kitty®

[johncomic]

some folx (e.g., my kids) think i am a complete weirdo for liking hello kitty®, or that i'm kidding or something... but i'm dead serious. i love that cat, but for my own particular reasons.

ideally you should be able to see her over there right now. the thing is, i think this is the greatest cartoon character design ever. better than garfield®, better than snoopy®, better than mickey mouse®. this drawing is pure, divinely-inspired genius....

like the famous smiley, that face is so simple that even a baby can "see" it. that face is so blank, so "expressing nothing", that it ends up expressing everything. you can look at hello kitty® and you will see in that face whatever you want/need to see. that face is sad, or happy, or supportive, or... whatever you put into it. the way that drawing so effortlessly gets you to invest your own psychic energy into it... which you then perceive as "the spark of life" belonging to the character itself.... nothing less than genius. and of course the rest of the drawing is the perfect minimalist complement to that magic face.

for me, the airbrushed or photoshop-colored fancier hello kitty® pictures, statuettes and toys and whatnot, are not quite as successful or appealing... because the cartoonier, flatter and simpler hello kitty® is, the more you have to participate actively in the creation of her as a living entity... making the experience that much more powerful. imho, at least, anyhoo...

but god i wish i had created hello kitty®.... or that i might someday create something as amazing and wonderful.