Week / Book 20: The Incal

2024/05/23

Week / Book 20: The Incal

Written by: Alejandro Jodorowsky
Illustrated by:  Mœbius

Well, it took two weeks, but I finished The Incal. And... what a wild ride. But it was not easy.

I’m not a huge science fiction reader or viewer, but I like the genre. Prefer Star Wars over Star Trek. Enjoyed watching The Expanse but didn’t really like the alien organism component. Enjoyed the latest Dune movies, but never read the books. So, when I say that The Incal was a little hard to comprehend, it’s not because I don’t like the genre, it’s just that there is a lot of weird situations and plots to this book, and a lot of world building.

The book is dense. Wider pages than a typical western comic, and a lot of panels per page, with a lot of dialogue and exposition, and not always a clear linear reading path that leads the eye. It has an overwhelming amount of information, characters, alien races, political and messiah themes, and a new planet almost every chapter, plus science fiction names for almost everything, that it’s just a lot.

This isn’t to say the book is bad, far from it. The book is amazing. It’s so creative, and outlandish, and funny. But I think it will require a re-read, on occasion, to fully grasp the full story.

The story

The story is about our protagonist, John Difool, who receives a mysterious object called the Light Incal. This object, this being of light, has given John some strange abilities, and it is also highly sought after by almost every other faction in the galaxy, including an alien race called The Bergs, the corrupt government, the rebels, and the Techno Church. Before all this, John Difool was a Class R licensed private investigator and sometimes bodyguard. Living a fairly normal life of drinking, smoking and whoring.

But after coming into possession of The Incal, our reluctant hero gets chased, captured, beat up, decapitated, falls in love, is forced to compete in a death race to impregnate and father 57 billion children with an alien queen, subsequently disintegrated, and then reincarnated, all throughout this journey to save the universe from the forces of Dark Incal. All the while, all he wants to do is run away to a paradise planet. It’s a lot for one guy.

In the end, with the help of the Light Incal and many others, John overcomes the darkness and saves the universe. He then meets a divine god-like figure of gold, who tells John to remember what he has witnessed. As he falls into the void, the book’s final page repeats the first page from the start of the book. And the story is just a loop.

Between the pages

This book was originally published in French in installments between 1980 and 1988. This book was then followed by a prequal, Before the Incal, 1988 – 1995, and then followed by After the Incal, from 2000, and then a final definitive sequel in The Final Incal.

The art and colour is consistent throughout, and the version I have, published by Humanoids, has the original colours from the original publication, restored and corrected.

The book is gorgeously rendered by Jean Giraud (aka Mœbius). The story behind the book is that Alejandro Jodorowsky was working on a film project to adapt Dune. When that project was abandoned, the two collaborators took the concepts and artwork and made The Incal. Mœbius would sketch the scenarios of the ideas recounted by Jodorowsky, and from that would work on a plot and script. Mœbius did not work on the prequel, but worked on the first version of the sequel, but this had a different style which Jodorowsky was not satisfied with. The sequel was then rewritten and illustrated by another artist, Jose Ladronn, as a proper sequel.

Thought balloons

So, as I mentioned at the top, the book is great. A lot to absorb, which means it will be a rewarding read again some time. But I am also excited to tackle the prequel and sequel, hoping that they expand on the world. The writing is really good, aside from my one complaint that I felt the dense page layouts were, at times, a little hard to follow the intended path.

John is a great character, as the reluctant hero. He’s not easy to like, as he doesn’t really have a lot of great human qualities, and he mopes and complains about having to go through this whole world saving ordeal, but that’s what I like about him. I relate to that. If I had my way, I’d rather do nothing, too.

//

Next read:

Head Wounds: Sparrow
Developed by Oscar Isaac & Jason Spire
Written by Brian Buccellato
Art by Christian Ward

Previously read:

Week 19: Hexware
Week 18: Fafhrd and the Gray Mouser
Week 17: Superman: Men of Tomorrow
Week 16: The Sherrif of Babylon
Week 15: Injection Vol. 1-3
Week 14: Neverlands + Justice League: No Justice
Week 13: Cover
Week 12: Something is Killing the Children – Vol. 1
Week 11: Blue Book 1961 – Vol. 1
Week 10: Powers – Book 1
Week 9: The Dark Tower – The Gunslinger Born
Week 8: Who is Wonder Woman?
Week 7: The All-Nighter
Week 6: The Nightly News
Week 5: Farmhand Vol.1
Week 4: Ex Machina Vol. 1
Week 3: DCEASED Vol. 1
Week 2: The Other Side
Week 1: DIE Vol. 1