Three 2 Kingdom Heavenly Wars
In Britain in 1971-1972, I immersed myself in Wm Blake’s poetry and books. This may have been when the idea of my making books was born. As opposition to the Vietnam War grew, I read and reread Songs of Innocence and of Experience and, of course, the British newspapers. One morning, I was inspired by a photograph in the Guardian to supplant “Tyger Tyger” with the Harrier Jet as the new symbol for evil. I cut a stencil of the jet and for a third of a century it has served as evil’s sign. There is a line from “The Tyger”—“And when the stars threw down their spears/And watered heaven with their tears” which refers to the remorse of heavenly angelic remorse as Lucifer and his angels were deposed at the conclusion of the War in Heaven. A seven volume graphic narrative of Three Kingdom battles easily fused their imagery with Blake’s vision and then my version of the eternal battle between good and evil.