“My plight is the plight of the aspirant who does not renounce.”

Jim Woodring is one of the most influential artists working in underground comics and while there is no other comic strip that comes as close to depicting the various moods, images, and ideas that can arise during an LSD trip, Woodring does not consider himself a psychedelic artist. Nevertheless, despite his medium of comics and his use of classic cartoon tropes such as the anthropomorphic cat named Frank, Woodring stands within the great tradition of visionary artist. Below is an email correspondence between Woodring and myself, portions of which appear in my new book Too Much to Dream. Woodring’s most recent books Weathercraft and Congress of Animals are both available from Fantagraphics Books.

PB: Can you tell me a little bit about the visions you had as a child?

JW: I wouldn’t call them visions; that word has a spiritual connotation. They were hallucinations and apparitions, neurological misfires perhaps born of my intense confusion and occasional bouts of paranoia. The paranoia was absolutely horrible. I was convinced my parents were going to kill me and I delayed the moment of falling asleep as long as I could so I could escape when they came into my bedroom to do it.

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