| The Incal (L'Incal) | |
|---|---|
 2014 hardcover trade collection ofThe Incal. | |
| Main characters | John Difool |
| Creative team | |
| Writers | Alejandro Jodorowsky |
| Artists | Jean Giraud,Zoran Janjetov,José Ladrönn |
| Colourists | Yves Chaland |
| Original publication | |
| Published in | Les Humanoïdes Associés |
| Date of publication | 1980–2014 |
| Language | French |
| Translation | |
| Publisher | Marvel Comics,Humanoids |
| Date | 1988 |
| Chronology | |
| Followed by | Before the Incal(1988–1995) After the Incal(2000) Final Incal(2008–2014) |
The Incal (/ˈɪŋkəl/; French:L'Incal) is a Frenchgraphic novel series written byAlejandro Jodorowsky and originally illustrated byJean Giraud (a.k.a. Mœbius).The Incal, with first pages originally released asUne aventure de John Difool ("A John Difool Adventure") inMétal hurlant and published byLes Humanoïdes Associés,[1] introduced Jodorowsky's "Jodoverse" (or "Metabarons Universe"[2]), afictional universe in which his science fiction comics take place.[3] It is an epicspace opera blending fantastical intergalactic voyage,science,technology,political intrigues, conspiracies,messianism,mysticism,poetry,debauchery,love stories, andsatire.[1][4]The Incal includes and expands the concepts and artwork from the abandoned film projectDune directed by Jodorowsky and designed by Giraud from the early 1970s.[1][2][5][6][7][8]
Originally published in installments between 1980 and 1988 in the French magazineMétal Hurlant, and followed byBefore the Incal (1988–1995, withZoran Janjetov),After the Incal (2000, with Jean Giraud), andFinal Incal (2008–2014, withJosé Ladrönn),[9][10] it has been described as a contender for "the best comic book" in the medium's history.[11] From it came spin-off seriesMetabarons,The Technopriests, andMegalex.
The story is set in the dystopian capital city of an insignificant planet in ahuman-dominatedgalactic empire, wherein the Bergs, aliens who resemble featherless birds and reside in a neighboringgalaxy, make up another power bloc. It startsin medias res with Difool thrown from the Suicide Alley to the great acid lake below by a masked group, luckily saved by a police cruiser. During the questioning he denies that he received the Light Incal, a crystal of enormous and infinite powers (it guides and protects those who believe in it),[12][13] from a dying Berg. The Incal is then sought by many factions: the Bergs; the corrupt government of the great pit-city; the rebel group Amok (led by Tanatah); and the Church of Industrial Saints, commonly referred to as the Techno-Technos or theTechnopriests, a sinister technocratic cult which worships the Dark Incal. Animah (an allusion toanima), the keeper of the Light Incal, seeks it as well. During the journey Difool and Deepo (Difool's loyal concrete seagull) are joined by Animah,The Metabaron, Solune, Tanatah (sister of Animah) and Kill Wolfhead, with a task of saving the universe from the forces of the Dark Incal, and the Technopriests manufacture and launch into outer space the sun-eating Dark Egg. As the darkness is overcome, Difool is brought before Orh, the fatherlike divinity, who tells him he must remember what he witnessed. As Difool falls away, he finds himself where he was at the beginning, falling down the shaft.[12][3][4][7][14]
The story is a considerably more straightforwardnoir tale of boundless urban corruption with the relative absence of spiritualistic elements, which dips deeper into exploring the urban fabric of the world ofThe Incal. The story follows young Difool living indemimonde. He soon finds that his prostitute mother devoted herself to growing amorine, a drug that restores the ability to love. His father, Olivier Difool, breaks the law in wearing a fakehalo that is the mark of anaristo. Justice is harsh for such transgressions of class — a legal clause "allows the condemned man to choose between a tablet at themorgue-wall, where he'll sleep away his thirty-year-and-one-day term", or "remodeling", which means having his entire memory wiped. His father chooses remodeling. Difool soon begins to investigate the mystery of the disappearance of prostitutes' children, something he shouldn't find out.[7]
The story from the unfinishedAfter the Incal was rewritten to provide a separate narrative for this volume.[9] The story starts afterThe Incal climax, in which John Difool encountered a flowing-bearded divine being named Orh, witnessing a universe-shaking event, hurtling towards certain death in the acid lake. DiFool forgets about the cosmic encounter, and recovers his memory as the universe faces the threat of a metallic virus.[7] The Prezident was cloned in a metallic body, equipped with both chemical and brutal weapons, but also an altered mind — operating under the influence of the "destroyer of all living things", the Benthacodon (equivalent toThe Incal's Black Egg). He unleashes a destructive organic virus called the Biophage 13-X with the purpose of forcing the population to abandon their natural bodies in favor of robotic ones.[14] The only way to counteract is to reunite John Difool with his truelove, Luz de Garra (fromBefore the Incal), and theElohim (a force of goodness) makes four John Difools from different realities to encounter each other on a quest to find her. The egos of the allegedly evolvedguru Difool and the super-evolved "angelic" Difool are ridiculed, and the least enlightened Difool, the ugliest and most craven, is selected to save the universe. In the end, the cosmic humanity manages to become onecollective consciousness, as true love saves it from turning into a collection of unfeeling metallic beings.[8][14][15][16]
"I dreamed I was flying in intergalactic space. A cosmic being formed by two superimposed pyramids, one black, the other white, was calling me. I moved toward it and found myself submerged in the center. We exploded. And that’s how my subconscious mind introduced me to "El Incal"".
The center of the concept is Difool's fantasticspiritual journey (or initiation[12]) on a cosmic scale, which he is reluctant to accept; he constantly wishes to return to his own ignorant reality of simplehedonistic pleasures. It is an allegory for thesins repeating, the futility of complacency and the necessity for individual transformation.[3] As the story progresses he keeps changing, becoming more heroic, even physically more handsome.[10][18][19] The original six installments begin and end by DiFool falling from the bridge; he descends, ascends and later re-descends in "closed" circularity.[20][12]
The universe is split into two galaxies, a human (with 22,000 planets), and a Berg (featherless birdlike aliens), and the story is set on four planets in the human galaxy: Ter21, Techno-Gea, Aquaend, and the Golden Planet.[1]
On the planet Ter21 there are two social classes: the fortunate (common and aristocrats), who reside at the top, and the others (including the mutants led by Gorgo the Foul, who represent the poor living in misery, on the fringes of society, minorities of all kinds[10]), who live down in the pits. At the top, it's a near-panopticonical dystopia with standard TV program (with the same presenter Diavaloo) depicting filmed violence for public consumption, and indoctrination. Seemingly no one works anymore, and all life is mediated through the TriD (TV), even people's dreams.[21] People are addicted to "love drug" amorine, while the president is engaged in repeated body transplants.[7] The masculine role is ridiculed by mass-produced holographic prostitutes.[22] The technopriests represent the most damning, avaricious human drives.[15]
John Difool is based uponThe Fool fromtarot with his name being a pun upon "John, the Fool".[17][23] Animah's name is based on theJungian concept of theanima, the feminine part of every male's psyche, as well in Latin "anima" means "psyche".[17] The series has no taboos, an attitude towards sex, violence and general social stigmas that may be avoided in more conventional comics.[4] They includeblack-and-white dualism[14] or the conflict betweengood and evil,[15]mystical symbolism,archetypes,metaphysics, tarot and other influences.[24][6] In the story there's often a conflict between life or nature and dead technology (even uniformity and diversity[15]), as "glasses enable you to see, that's technology. But happiness is not that, it's not your glasses. It's what you are able to see. If you have wonderful glasses but don't know how to see what's in front of you, then that technological tool is useless". The series also showcases religion, economy, politics and warfare, all mixed together.[10]
TheFinal Incal is kind of a call for revolt to organize life in a different way, because as individuals people are mortal, but as humanity itself they are immortal. To learn that others exist, to live together and give, that there is continuity only as part of humanity as a whole.[10] It demonstrates that "love is the ultimate purifier; a force that can cleanse, renew and revitalize".[16]
The series capture worlds with cityscapes, huge spacecraft and lands populated by technopriests, rubbish-dwelling mutants, doppelgängers, giant jellyfish, chiming forests of gems and jostling, old gurus floating on crystals, an underground rat army, flying leeches, "necro-panzers", a selfish humanity among others.[25][23][26] Some touches are borrowed directly fromDune: the Emperoress, a "perfect androgyne", or Aquend, a planet composed entirely of water which is Arrakis's seeming opposite, and a "mentrek" who betrayed his former master.[7]
Jean Giraud's (also known as Moebius) artwork andYves Chaland's colouring fromThe Incal were well praised. Jodorowsky initially didn't have a script, but recounted and mimed the ideas to Moebius who sketched the scenario, recorded their conversation on tape, and they jointly altered the plot.[5]Jon Evans considered resemblance to theDe Stijl school of art inspired by artists likePiet Mondrian andVilmos Huszár.[4]
Moebius refused to doBefore the Incal, thus Jodorowsky foundZoran Janjetov. Although Janjetov had his own style, he was influenced by Moebius and imitated him. Finally, Moebius decided to doAfter the Incal, but beside his illness at the time he had a different style, and Jodorowsky was not satisfied by the overall work.[10] He depicted the nightmare of the tech-world with a more abundant sense of optimism, something peppered with light and hope throughout.[27]
José Ladrönn's rendition of the worlds that Moebius originally designed in the rewritten sequelFinal Incal is much darker and grittier; the streets are emptier, less colorful, more muted. He excelled at drawing, but as if he has studied not only Moebius but also the movies that Moebius influenced, directly or indirectly (likeBlade Runner).[8][15][27]
The Incal was initially serialized in French between 1980 and 1985 in the magazineMétal Hurlant, which was published byLes Humanoïdes Associés.[1][28] An English translation was serialized in the magazineHeavy Metal (published byNational Lampoon) from 1982 to 1984.[29][30] Concurrent with its serialization inMétal Hurlant, Les Humanoïdes Associés collected the series as six hardcover volumes:L'Incal Noir (1981),L'Incal Lumière (1982),Ce qui est en bas (1984),Ce qui est en haut (1985),La cinquième essence – Galaxie qui Songe (1988), andLa cinquième essence – La planète Difool (1988). In 1988,Epic Comics (a division ofMarvel Comics) publishedThe Incal in three volumes as a part of their "Epic Graphic Novels" line, with translation byJean-Marc Lofficier andRandy Lofficier.[25]
Later, between 2001 and 2002, was republished a series ofThe Incal andBefore the Incal in a twelve-issue limited series, with the former in two parts,Orphan of the City Shaft andJohn Difool, Class "R" Detective, between 2002 and 2003, while the first in two partsThe Epic Conspiracy andThe Epic Journey softcover trade format byHumanoids Publishing. The Humanoids Publishing initial version (of bothThe Incal andBefore the Incal) was recolored in a more modern style and had the nuditycensored. Jodorowsky did not like the change of the series to seduce a young audience.[31]
In December 2010, Humanoids released a limited and oversized hardcover edition ofThe Incal, with 750 copies printed. It was sold out and soon the series was out of print in the United States.[23] In 2011 more hardcovers were released byHumanoids Publishing in the US andSelf Made Hero in the UK. Smaller than the oversized hardcover edition, they resemble it in that they restore the original colouring and remove the censorship.[26] In 2012 Humanoids Publishing released 9.4 x 12.6" limited deluxe edition ofBefore the Incal with a foreword byJosé Ladrönn, artist on the upcomingFinal Incal. Between January 2013 and 2014, they released a sold-out 12 x 16" limitedcoffee table edition ofThe Incal six volumes.
In 2014, Humanoids released 7.9 x 10.8" hardcover trade collection ofThe Incal and its sequels,After the Incal andFinal Incal, in one complete collection calledFinal Incal, as a 9.5 x 12.5" deluxe slipcase hardcover, as well limited and numbered edition 12 x 16" coffee table format.[9] In 2015 they released a 7.9 x 10.8" hardcover trade edition, but withoutAfter the Incal.[32] All four volumes were digitally released by Humanoids Publishing in 2014.
Humanoids released three prequel graphic novels as part of the Incal Universe project, to which Alejandro Jodorowsky gave his blessing:Psychoverse byMark Russell andYanick Paquette,Dying Star byDan Watters and Jon Davis-Hunt, andKill Wolfhead by Brandon Thomas andPete Woods.[33]Psychoverse was released on November 15, 2022, whileKill Wolfhead was the English-language debut ofKill Tête-de-Chien, released on November 17 2021, in France.
The series was translated from French into more than eleven languages, selling millions of copies.
Left unfinished but The New Dream is remade and expanded in the first volume of Final Incal.
Rolling Stone magazine in "The 50 Best Non-Superhero Graphic Novels" list placed the original volume as #30, calling it "one ofthe great comics team-ups".[34] Patrick Hess from Nothing But Comics placed it as fourth out of seventy best comics list, as "there are very few comics ever created in the history of the medium that are this imaginative, this thoughtful, this heartfelt or this good".[3]
Mark Millar called it "quite simply one of the most perfect comics ever conceived and probably the most beautiful piece of graphic literature ever drawn".[23]
Anthony Paletta fromLos Angeles Review of Books considered that "The Incal isn't only a parade of thrilling grotesqueries: it also has a spiritual core that ... reflects Jodorowsky’s abiding idiosyncraticBuddhism", while "Moebius’s work is simply some of the most beautiful not merely in his catalog, but in the comics world at large". He noted that the "echoes ofThe Incal can also be found in the work ofHayao Miyazaki,Katsuhiro Otomo’sAkira, the decaying futurity ofRidley Scott’sBlade Runner,The Matrix, and even depictions ofCoruscant in theStar Wars prequel films.[7]
Daniel Kalder fromThe Comics Journal noted that the drawing by Moebius inAfter the Incal was of lesser ability, also saying: "Moebius was and always will be The Man but he was not the man for this story: Ladrönn was. And so whileAfter the Incal is certainly an intriguing footnote, a glimpse of a path not taken,Final Incal is the real deal".[8]
Hugh Armitage fromDigital Spy noted that Moebius'sAfter the Incal "delivers some typically breathtaking scenery, but his characters take on a cartoonish,Sergio Aragonés-like style that is both atypical for the artist and at odds with the dark story. [Valérie] Beltran's colours leave the images looking flat and uninteresting", and praised the Ladrönn's artwork inFinal Incal.[15]
The publishers suedLuc Besson, director ofThe Fifth Element (1997), claiming that the film borrowed graphic and story elements fromThe Incal, but lost their case.[2][26][35] In an interview given to Chilean newspaperThe Clinic, Jodorowsky claimed that neither he nor Moebius actually sued Besson, but instead that the lawsuit was filed by the editor of the comic series. He further claimed that the case was lost because Moebius "betrayed them" by working directly with Besson on the production of the film.[36] In a 2002 interview with the Danish comic book magazineStrip!, Jodorowsky considered it an honour that somebody stole his ideas.[2]
In the 1980s the Canadian animation director Pascal Blais created a short trailer forThe Incal (i.e.Dark Incal), but the movie was never made. In 2011 and 2016, his studio made updated versions of the original trailer.[37][38]
In 2013, in an interview byFrance Inter,Nicolas Winding Refn was reportedly working as a director on a live-action movie adaptation ofThe Incal,[39] but it appeared to have been a rumor that Winding Refn dismissed in 2016.[40]
US black metal band Bihargam released the albumOve Tenebrae as a musical adaption ofThe Incal on October 16, 2020.
In 2021, Jodorowsky officially announced a big screen adaptation directed byTaika Waititi, from a screenplay he co-wrote withJemaine Clement and Peter Warren.[41][42]
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