"Sometimes, beautiful drawings appear because you have drawn from mysterious, disturbing sources. It happens to me when I'm drawing, I ask myself if I'm not going crazy. You really have the feeling that you are losing your mind when you start drawing things which don't have a recognisable point of reference. You find that you are out of touch with yourself. You see yourself doing something you don't understand, as if you were suddenly speaking a foreign language. It's frightening and very exciting at the same time, because with time you discover a kind of confidence. You know you won't die in this unknown world. There is no more fear. You think you're in danger but in fact you're not so you have to go on. You absolutely must have confidence: I'm on my way!" - jean giraud (aka Moebius) Comic art has always had an influence on my work, though rarely intentionally. This particular mandala seems to me to have a particularly comic feel to it. I started as a child with superhero comics (my favorites were Flash, Green Lantern & Hawkman in the DC stable & Silver Surfer & Dr. Strange in the Marvel realm), Mad magazine & EC horror comics. Then, living in Berkeley in the late 60's, I discovered Zap Comix & the whole underground comic movement (as well as psychedelic poster art, much of which had strong comic art influences also). In the 70's, I discovered Metal Hurlant & it's American counterpart, Heavy Metal. I consider some of the artists who developed during that era (such as Moebius, Druillet, Caza & Bilal) to be the most creative & talented to have ever worked in the comic form. Today, I occasionally check out the comic scene, though it has exploded so much that I don't really follow it closely any more. Many intellectuals & pseudo-intellectuals still look down on comics as lowbrow art - too bad for them, the're missing out on some fantastic artwork that has it's own unique qualities....