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As an artistically-inclined kid, I was entralled by absolutely ANY product that had a cartoon character associated with it. It didn’t matter what type of merchandise the ‘toon was pitching.
Of course, I indulged in grocery store manipulations, usually inspired by Saturday morning commercials. I’m not the first child to force my mother to buy Quisp cereal, while slathering like a zombie.
In fact, I still maintain a very soft spot for the Sinclair logo (though technically not a cartoon). The Hamms bear, however, was a thornier issue. In my personal arithmetic, a cuddly spokes-animal equaled kid-friendly product. Even if it was beer.
Krazy Kat, Zen Master
The point in detailing my early comics obsession is that it led me, ultimately, to George Herriman’s Krazy Kat by the tender age of twelve.
Peanuts was my first and “bestest” childhood crush, but Krazy Kat… This was unbridled teenage love, raw and unattainable. As unknowable as that Kat’s ever-shifting gender. As enlightening as a Zen koan.
Herriman began with a perfect love–hate triangle (mouse, cat, dog), then stirred in the rhythms of jazz and vernacular patois, and served it all upon a disorienting canvas inspired by surrealism. Genius.
“I ain’t a Kat… And I ain’t Krazy”
—Krazy Kat
For me, the above denial is a perfect expression of no-mind (the Buddhist concept in which awareness of the moment supersedes the artifice of thought). Krazy Kat intuitively knows that his/her true essence cannot be named or limited by rational thought.
On the Trail to Kamakura
Which leads me to back to Kamakura, an ancient holy city in Japan. I haven’t been there yet, but a dear friend of mine visited there six years ago. She brought back a beautiful meditation bell as a gift. And her story.
For years she had dreamed of the Buddha, sitting in thought among the trees. As she crested the hike up the mountain at Kamakura, she encountered the exact Buddha [pictured at the top of this post] from her visions. In that moment, transcendence occurred between the present and eternal, the sensible world and some greater mystery.
Within the koan and Krazy Kat and Kamakura, inspiration awaits. The experience of living in an awakened state (and how that relates to the creation of my comic, Rinky Dink) is what I will try to describe in this blog. Thank you for joining me on the journey.
