Leslie Karnowski

Susan Cope Becker/Heart Throb

A failed business in 1982 left Susan hard-pressed to smile again. “I couldn’t look in the mirror,” she recalls. Sketch pad in hand, she drew what she felt was her own upside-down heart – then added feet, eyes, and a heartbeat that gave life to “Pibbles.” “Pibbles” instantly pumped life back into Susan as a cartoon in six daily newspapers. “These characters represent your feelings. They’re your best friends,” Susan explains. 10,000 fans (pre-internet) shared the cartoons in letters, lunchboxes and suitcases. One 80-year-old newlywed cut out “Pibbles” and put it on his wife’s plate each morning. “That’s how they shared their feelings,” Susan says. “And when you communicate your feelings, you’re happier.”  Susan revived “Pibbles” after nearly a decade and renamed them “Heartlings.” She’s back to scribing big feelings into little tiny words and naming characters Wozzie the Wizard and Boco the Dreamer. “If you believe in your feelings,” she maintains, “You have all the power in the world.” heartlings.com