The Royal Chambers of Brahma

History:

Jack Kirby: This is actually the second version of Brahma's Exterior. The first drawing Jack did for me on this subject is presently called "Brahman's Supremacy,." Jack's concepts of (God) Odin-like omnipotence -- but I was after a much more specific design. Look at the perspective here! I said to Jack, This, to me, had to represent "God's Office." I mean, if such a thing really existed physically, what would it look like?

What we came up with finally is one of the most astounding drawings I personally believe Jack Kirby ever created.

I had to work hard to come up with the concepts which Roger Zelazny only alluded to but which didn't exist in the novel. With both Brahma Chamber Exterior and Interior drawings, I literally had to invent, in the broadest mental brushstrokes, buildings which were alive with their own consciousness yet would dramatize the full nature of the Beings who built them. It couldn't be weird, it had to be real. Once "built"in my mind thus, I could take the nascent visions to Jack who truly acted as my mage and master coconspirator in the final development of the designs we now have. Thusly did Jack and I interact, as father and son, as developer and designer, continually changing places as master and student, and, ultimately, as partners in exploration:

"The omnipotence of Brahma reflected by the lotus canopy, holographic walls made up of his Eight Heads (Mystic Powers) which change shape as they revolved in opposing directions to his multi-scented, always summer, cantilevered, Floating Gardens of Delight, where Brahma kept a cool tan...."

Lord of Light:  In the Novel, there is nothing called the Royal Chambers of Brahma - Interior or Exterior. There does exist a meeting of Brahma and the rest of the Gods and I thought, well, these guys just don't meet in a bar! So I got the idea of the pomp and circumstance of Brahma's Chambers! Additionally, in the novel, Brahma does allude to his Pavilion of Joys as the ultimate pleasure palace to take Kali and explore her charms, in exchange for extending Sam's life. But Brahma -- and all the rest of the Gods, have had to live somewhere fantastic! So I came up with this stuff and brought it all to Jack.