It’s a world of goo

By now, it should be no surprise that we love that little game called World of Goo. Going around the office and asking our staff about it, I was not very surprised to find out that everyone else shared my opinion. The conversation went something along these lines:

ME: So, what do you think about World of Goo? Like melted gold raining down my face.

MAX: That game is God!

LUCAS: Yeah, it’s the best game of the decade!

And the conversation went on from one hyperbole to another. Martina didn’t share an opinion because, as we all know from TV, girls don’t play video games.

But, with this being a blog about animation and all, I couldn’t just drop the ball and start its first post speaking only about a video game. I needed to find an excuse elegant enough to cheat my way out of this conundrum and get away with it. The obvious answer to the dilemma, of course, is to speak about the game’s art, and the first thing that came into my mind was Invader Zim and, immediately after that, the probably more accurate Lenore, The Cute Little Dead Girl. It must be the uneven big eyes or the cute-creepy design of the characters. Anyways, I kinda have a story with these two.

Some years ago, when Invader Zim began airing here in Argentina, I became a huge fan. I had to hunt down each episode throughout Nickelodeon’s irregular schedule but every time it felt like a blast. At that time, I was studying deep into literature and post-modern philosophers and having breaks watching this cartoon filled with such anger the likes of which I’ve never seen before was a great relief for my stressed out studies. I came to love the unstable psyche behind such monstrous creation and blame you (yes, YOU, Jhonen Vasquez, wherever you are) for lighting once again my passion for animation. After that, I took the habit of watching cartoons here and there in my time off and going through blogs to see what was new.

I also started to go through his earlier works, such as JTHM, Squee! and the sorts and it was upon looking for info on the internet that I stumbled upon Lenore. I don’t remember the details, but I remember a PDF file falsely titled “Jhonen Vasquez” that contained two or three drawings of the aforementioned undead girl, with no other name or reference. I knew it was not Jhonen’s but I couldn’t shake off the idea that I’ve seen it before.

Months later, a friend of mine went to a party wearing a shirt with the following picture:

And I haven’t seen an episode or read an issue, but she is constantly present. Stalking me. Taunting me. Lurking through the margins with the ominous smile of an unavoidable fate.

But let’s give credit where credit is due, and recognize Kyle Gabler’s talent to give a unique look & feel to his games. You should check 2D Boy’s site. In case you didn’t know, they have a fun little flashgame over there called “Robot and the cities that built him”.