The Incal

The Incal is a set of science fiction comic book series written in French by Alejandro Jodorowsky and illustrated by Moebius and others. The Incal takes place in, and introduced Jodorowsky's "Jodoverse", a fictional universe in which his science fiction comics take place.

The story

List of main characters

• John DiFool, a P.I. and occasional bodyguard. DiFool has no interest in being a hero, has mood swings and suffers from self-doubt and temper tantrums in which he threatens to walk away and assume a comfortable life, preferably with Animah. He has a fondness for cigars, "ouisky" and "homeosluts" (gynoid prostitutes).
• Deepo, his loyal and good-hearted "concrete seagull", who is generally smarter and more resourceful than John himself. Early in the story, the Light Incal gives him the power of speech.
• Animah and Tanatah, two sisters charged with guarding the Light and Dark Incals, respectively. Tanatah hired the Metabaron to kill John DiFool and bring back his body and with it the Light Incal. Animah, who originally safeguarded the Light Incal, has psychic powers. Tanatah is also the head of the rebel group called the Amok.
• The Metabaron, the greatest bounty hunter, mercenary and fighter ace in the known universe and adopted father of Solune. The Metabaron is originally sent to kill John DiFool by Tanatah. The Metabaron returned John in a frozen state without killing him, knowing that Tanatah was not going to keep her part of the deal.
• The androgynous messiah Solune, the adopted child of the Metabaron and the biological child of Animah and John DiFool. Like Animah, Solune has immense psychic powers.
• Kill Wolfhead, an anthropomorphic wolf mercenary in Tanatah's employ. He holds a grudge against DiFool because the latter pierced his ear with a gun while he was having sex.

Plot and setting

The story begins in the dystopian capital city of an insignificant planet in a human-dominated galactic empire. (The Bergs, aliens who resemble featherless birds and reside in a neighboring galaxy, make up another power bloc.) DiFool receives the Light Incal, a crystal of enormous powers, from a dying Berg. The Incal is then sought by many factions: the Bergs; the corrupt and decadent government of the great pit-city; the rebel group Amok; and the Church of Industrial Saints (commonly referred to as the Techno-Technos or the Technopriests), a sinister technocratic cult which worships the Dark Incal. Animah (an allusion to anima), the keeper of the Light Incal, seeks it as well.

Themes and tone

The series mixes space opera, metaphysics, and satire; a counterpoint to the grandiosity of the events is always DiFool's base, even cowardly nature. Every major character in The Incal is based upon Tarot cards – for example, John DiFool is based upon The Fool with his name being a pun upon "John, the Fool". (A small friendly companion, like Deepo in The Incal, accompanies the Fool on his journey.) Animah's name is based on the Jungian concept of the anima, the feminine part of every male's psyche.

The Jodoverse

The Incal was the first comic set in what became the Jodoverse or Metabarons Universe. The ones translated into English are John DiFool avant l'Incal, a prequel to The Incal with artwork by Zoran Janjetov, La Caste des Méta-Barons (artwork by Juan Giménez), which relates the history of a dynasty of perfect warriors prior to The Incal leading up to the Metabaron is the metabaron from the Incal stories, Technopriests with artwork by Zoran Janjetov, and Megalex.

Legal issues

Moebius and Jodorowsky sued Luc Besson, director of The Fifth Element, claiming that the film borrowed graphic and story elements from The Incal, but they lost their case.^[1] In a 2002 interview with Danish comic book magazine Strip!, Jodorowsky actually claimed that he considered it an honour that somebody stole his ideas. Jodorowsky believes that authors do not create the stories they tell as much as they make personal interpretations of mythemes shared by the collective unconscious.

The albums

The Incal

1. L'Incal Noir ("The Dark Incal") (1981)
2. L'Incal Lumière ("The Light Incal") (1982)
3. Ce qui est en bas (1984)
4. Ce qui est en haut (1985)
5. La cinquième essence – Galaxie qui Songe (1988)
6. La cinquième essence – La planète Difool (1989)

Before the Incal

1. Adieu le père ("Goodbye to father") (1988)
2. Détective privé de "Classe R" ("Class R Detective") (1990)
3. Croot! (1991)
4. Anarchopsychotiques ("Psychoanarchists") (1992)
5. Ouisky, SPV et homéoputes ("Ouisky, SPV and homeowhores") (1993)
6. Suicide Allée ("Suicide Alley") (1995)

A prequel series to the first Incal series, published after it.

After the Incal

1. Le nouveau rêve ("The New Dream") (2000)

Final Incal

1. Les Quatre John Difool (2008)
2. Louz de Gara (2011)

The Incal in English

The Incal was published in three volumes by Epic Comics (a division of Marvel Comics) as a part of their Epic Graphic Novels line, and later by Humanoids Publishing. The more recent Humanoids Publishing version was recolored in a more modern style and had the nudity censored. Humanoids also published The Incal prequel Before the Incal in its first English edition, initially as a twelve issue limited series and later as two graphic novels. In December 2010, Humanoids released a limited edition oversized hardcover edition of The Incal. There were only 750 copies of this comic printed. In 2011 more hardcovers were released by Humanoids Publishing in the USA and Self 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.

To date After the Incal and Final Incal have not appeared in English. They are, however, expected to be released by Humanoids Publishing in 2013.

Film

Nicolas Winding Refn announced that he will adapt the comic book as a live-action film.^[2]

See also

• Metabarons
• Technopriests

References