A recurring theme in Jodorowsky's work is that the road to salvation runs inevitably through tragedy and despair. Whether he's writing science-fiction, satire, or western, his heroes and anti-heroes are the product of unfathomably cruel circumstance, typically stemming from childhood trauma. This is all too often used to invoke a visceral reaction in his readers, but more over, it's the source from where his characters gain strength to overcome the challenges set before them. In Jodorowsky's world, enlightenment is not so much a spiritual journey as it is a spiritual gulag.
Nowhere in Jodorowsky's vast body of work does he explore these themes with such depth and gravity as he does with THE WHITE LAMA, an epic six-volume series breathtakingly rendered by Georges Bess. In SECOND SIGHT, the cycle of destruction and rebirth begins in earnest for Gabriel Marpa, a white child who may very well be the living reincarnation of the Grand Lama. Here, Gabriel is thrust into Jodorowsky's spiritual meat grinder for the first time when he's sold to a corrupt monastery after his adopted Tibetan father is slain by a violent beast and his mother is indebted to a life of servitude. For most authors, this would be enough angst to set sail a dozen ships. To Jodorowsky, it is merely breakfast.
Peter Aaron Rose is a writer, producer and technologist who lives and works in San Francisco, CA. Under the pseudonym "Peter Siegel", he recently authored Killing Demons, a graphic novel available from Engine Press and Platinum Studios.
