The Sci-Fi masterpiece by Moebius and Jodorowsky about the tribulations of the shabby detective John Difool as he searches for the precious and coveted Incal. John Difool, a low-class detective in a degenerate dystopian world, finds his life turned upside down when he discovers an ancient, mystical artifact called The Incal. Difool's adventures will bring him into conflict with the galaxy's greatest warrior, the Metabaron, and will pit him against the awesome powers of the Technopope. These encounters and many more make up a tale of comic and cosmic proportions that has Difool fighting for not only his very survival, but also the survival of the entire universe...
Better known for his surreal films El Topo and The Holy Mountain filmed in the early 1970s, Alejandro Jodorowsky is also an accomplished writer of graphic novels and a psychotherapist. He developed Psychomagic, a combination of psychotherapy and shamanic magic. His fans have included John Lennon and Marilyn Manson.
This is a rare one. For any of ya'll who are familiar with Jodorowky of that documentary called Jodorowsky's Dune, this is the same guy. The guy who almost got Bowie to play Feyd in an earlier version of Dune before Lynch! The guy who got H R Geiger to make all that trippy art pieces for the sets reused later on Lynch's 1984 version. :)
The weird guy. :)
Okay, so this comic came out in 1981 and it's just as good now as it was back then. Think quality, think the artist Moebius. Add trippy writing and VERY imaginative settings and KEEP the WEIRD coming! :)
I'm reminded of Heavy Metal meets Lynch's Dune with Zardos and an incompetent detective getting thrown into a space-opera revolution. Think about a god-like entity called the Incal doing trippy things inside this guy, think about body factories, super tall towers with acid at the bottom, wolf-men, angelic (evil) nobles, cloning presidents, spaceships, and Shadow Eggs.
Nah, skip that. Just try to figure it out for yourself and above all, ENJOY THE RIDE. :) So cool.
After rereading this for the first time in many years, I'm bumping my rating from three to four stars. It's better than I remembered.
This is your basic “ordinary guy caught up in events beyond his comprehension” tale. What makes it sing is the synergy between Moebius’ art and Jodorowsky’s story. They seem to be spurring each other to new heights, and the result is a heady cocktail indeed.
John DiFool is a class-B licensed private investigator. Hired for a ridiculous sum to escort an Aristo on a pub crawl and ensure she makes it home by midnight, he ends up fleeing for his life into the sewers when things go wrong. An encounter with a dying mutant ends with him receiving a mysterious object of unknown power called The Incal. And there are entities who will stop at nothing to possess it …
Of course it wouldn't be a Jodorowsky project without layers of symbolism to pick at. DiFool’s name would seem to be a nod to the Tarot deck among other references.
That said, if you want to take it as a fairly straightforward SF adventure yarn, it works on that level too. Moebius’ visual imagination is in top form, with all sorts of stunning visuals and memorable characters.
It's hard to tell exactly how much I'm going to enjoy this, as it's only the first third of the story, but so far, so good. Jodorowsky's narrative is as wacky as his films and the art of Moebius is as phenomenal as ever. The blend of the two is spectacular, so I'm looking forward to the subsequent volumes.
I suspect this was exceptional for its time, but it's either influenced everything that came after or the plot was always a bit weak. The setting and the artwork is definitely what stands out, but I'm not sure it's enough to keep me following DiFool's antics. A nice history lesson though.
I had this book for a year or so before I found the time to go beyond the gorgeous art and I was surprised to find an interesting story. After watching "Jodorowsky's Dune" (documentary) I found myself wanting to read "The Incal." I thought it was a great futuristic ride that felt similar to the "Heavy Metal" movie and as Dune has inspired a slew of sci-fi movies dating prior to Star Wars. Moebius' work shows a clinical eye for character design, action and great storytelling. The colorists for this series also have to be commended because the work here is exceptional and I haven't seen anything colored this way pre-computers. A lot of airbrushing and watercolors, but with colors that seem more vibrant than traditional medium could produce which is hard to imagine. I haven't seen the new releases of "The Incal", but I bought the rest of the Epic (Marvel) series recently because I don't trust the reinterpretation of the color and art especially since it's hard to get a hold of the original artwork after more than 30 years. I'm pretty sure they only have the printing transparencies at this point which you can only do so much with.
I can't wait to read the rest of the series. Jodorowsky comments in the introductions that it took about 10 years to finish this series. After glancing at the other books there seems to be some differences in the art though still very exceptional.
This didn't do much for me at all. Maybe it's my lack of familiarity with the European comic market this originated from, but this relatively short volume just left me bored. A low rent detective stumbles onto a mysterious artifact and gets thrown into all kinds of jams because of it. Then a guy gets hired to hunt the first guy down, and the story switches to his perspective. There's some decent action and the artwork is intriguing and does a good job setting up a distinctively different world. But there isn't any resolution, and frankly I'm not invested in it enough to try to find the rest of the story anywhere else.
These are quite possibly the best science fiction themed graphic novels ever made. The style is very European and definitely adult. Great story though. Combined with the beautiful artwork of Mœbius it's a Science Fiction feast for the mind.
I first read this years ago, when I was discovering Euro comics, and loved its gleeful insanity, its wild freedom, and how different it was to British or American comics. Rereading it now, though, it feels like an incoherent experimental mess that never quite gels.
Overall a fantastic pseudo-metaphysical/esoteric sci-fi romp that will leave you breathless at the end. I was annoyed with it at times (the quite wild cosmic journeys), but it did come together at the end. Superb visuals and I grew to enjoy the dry humor.