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L'Incal. Integrale

(L'Incal (Collected Editions) #1)

Alejandro Jodorowsky,

Mœbius (Illustrator)

Valérie Beltran (Colorist)

Marco Farinelli (Translator)

4.19 · Rating details · 5,904 ratings · 548 reviews

In un distopico futuro ipertecnologico, un improbabile detective privato trova un oggetto misterioso e incredibilmente potente: l'incal. Iniziano così le straordinarie avventure di John Difool, alle prese con bizzarri extraterrestri, tecnoscienziati fondamentalisti, culti intergalattici e robot psicopatici. Un antieroe destinato suo malgrado a salvare l'universo. Una

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Paperback, 1st edition Alta Fedeltà, 324 pages

Published September 2008 by Edizioni BD (first published 1981)

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Oct 25, 2018 Dan Schwent rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

Shelves: 2018-comics, 2018

Down and out class R detective John DiFool has a powerful artifact, The Incal, fall into his grasp. But what is the Incal? And what will other people do to get it?

Yeah, that's grossly oversimplifying it but The Incal throws so many concepts at you it's hard to simplify. Do I mention the far-future, near dystopian setting where most of humanity spends most of its time watching TV? Or the giant flying space jellyfish? Or the dark eggs? Or The Metabaron, the biggest bad ass in the galaxy? Or the ...more

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Jul 14, 2014 Alex rated it liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: comics-graphic-novels, sci-fi

I think that seeing the documentary Jodorowski's Dune helped prepare me for this book, since I knew what I was getting into. In a lot of ways, The Incal does what Jodorowski wasn't able to do with his film adaptation of Frank Herbert's novel.

As far as I can tell, The Incal is about...proto-scientific neo-spiritual existentialism? That sounds about right. In a weird way, this story reminded me of C.S. Lewis's Space Trilogy--not a connection I was expecting to make as I read this.

My suggestion ...more

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Oct 31, 2012 Sean Francisco Yau-Smith rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

Shelves: graphic-novels-my-criterion-collec

When Jean Giraud or Moebius passed away, the international "comic book" or "graphic novel" lost the last of the 4 great giants who shaped the medium (the other three being Osamu Tezuka, Will Eisner and Jack Kirby)- geniuses who combined an innovative and unique look and feel, with a tremendous breadth of work. While American exposure to Moebius actual comic book work was limited- his overall effect in terms of design and mass media can't be understated - first through the translations of "Metal ...more

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Apr 18, 2013 Nate rated it it was ok · review of another edition

Great art, awful writing.

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Jun 09, 2017 Jerry Jose rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

I loved this book a little too much that I will refrain myself from reviewing it.

This is Kilger Trout in graphic novel format with one of the most unique and most amazing artwork ever.

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May 23, 2014 Andrew rated it really liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: comics, classics, wishlist

This book drips in pure sci-fi creativity. It seems like every page has a new, cool concept put forth; all within a cohesive narrative. (I won't give any examples, as I think that would take away from the enjoyment of reading this book).

Moebius's art is fantastic. The new reprinted of The Incal respectfully retains the original coloring (which is especially nice since many reprints seem to replace the original color with some awful modern rendering). I see so many artists that I love within ...more

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Sep 21, 2014 Blake Ellis rated it liked it · review of another edition

Moebius: Great at art. Genius of western comics.

Jodorowsky: Great concepts, but has the biggest, dumbest lead foot when it comes to execution. At the very least, can someone call a cease-fire to his out of control use of exclamation points? If you expect character development, coherent plot, robust and convincing dialogue, and any respect for subtlety at all, apply elsewhere. In fairness to Jodo - his films are amazing when any pretense of these elements of storytelling are bypassed completely. ...more

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May 19, 2017 Max added it · review of another edition

Wild, expansive, profoundly weird space opera fairy tale replete with Dune-like bits. Lots of union-of-genders-mystic-tantra stuff here, too—definitely bears the mark of being written in the 80s. Amazing art, vivid, fast-moving action. As Brian Michael Bendis points out in his forward, it's painfully obvious that some people have spent their whole careers ripping this off, I mean, creating vivid homages.

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May 25, 2012 Jeff Jackson rated it liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: graphic-novels

***1/2 stars. I can see why this epic has inspired so many other sci-fi and comix creators - it's spilling over with fascinating ideas about media and technology, compelling adventure scenes and detailed cityscapes, and Moebius's eye-popping graphics. It was a fun read though also a bit clinical. The characters are all one-dimensional archetypes, there's no emotion generated, and the scenes about convincing entire galaxies to meditate had an awkward New Age feel to them. But if you're a fan of ...more

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Jun 10, 2012 S.A. Hunter rated it liked it · review of another edition

I kept picking up this graphic novel, reading a few pages, only to then put it down again. I could never get into it. The story zooms everywhere and is very epic, but the characters are not really developed and the dialogue is at times kind of preachy. I don't know if it all reads better in the original French or not. This story is heavy in metaphysics, and it felt like a lot of the supposed profundity of the text whizzed over my head, or maybe Jodorowsky tried to jam too much into this one I kept picking up this graphic novel, reading a few pages, only to then put it down again. I could never get into it. The story zooms everywhere and is very epic, but the characters are not really developed and the dialogue is at times kind of preachy. I don't know if it all reads better in the original French or not. This story is heavy in metaphysics, and it felt like a lot of the supposed profundity of the text whizzed over my head, or maybe Jodorowsky tried to jam too much into this one story. Like I don't understand why he felt the need to introduce the five humors of John Difool, portrayed as funny little cartoon imps, when they didn't seem to add anything to the story or maybe that whizzed over my head, too. But there is a lot going on in this book and stuff is introduced on the fly that seems to be really big, but we don't get to spend any time on it. I thought maybe I wasn't really reading the first in a series and some of the characters were developed in previous stories, but though Jodorowsky wrote some prequels, this was supposed to be a standalone story. There are so many characters that we don't get to know any of them, except possibly Difool, and he just barely. Though I felt like I wasn't getting much of the story, I persevered because I'd never read a work drawn by Moebius and wanted to keep looking at his artwork, and I had to read to understand what the artwork was portraying.

The introduction to this book was by Brian Michael Bendis, which consists of him beseeching the reader not to rip off this book. I admit many of the elements in this story were familiar from other stories, notably The Fifth Element. Jodorowsky and Moebius sued the director Luc Besson for copyright infringement. They didn't win their case, but I think they had plenty of cause, and I think Jodorowsky and Moebius' estate may want to take a hard look at the past series of Dr. Who because there are a lot of things that are very similar. I recognized the microscopic spaceship and possibly the protoqueen/the flesh as being from this book. I'm sure there are more. ...more

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Mar 04, 2018 Monsour rated it really liked it · review of another edition

So this what they call the contender to be "For the best comicbook in medias history" huh

Its alright actually. Pretty good

Incal is not you're average Sci-Fi, hell you cant even call this a Sci-fi at all. More like a weed trip in space actually. Its basically Space Opera(means technology logic don't apply on this as much) part spiritual journey(means hipster people will love this) and also a littlebit of satire(like your employer have sex with a werewolf/you're bird becomes a prophet/fighting a ...more

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Dec 27, 2016 Tiago rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

Shelves: graphic-novels, sci-fi, psychedelic, european-comics

The comic book magnum opus.

EDIT: Just got it as a early christmas present, time to finally re-read and dive into the spin-offs!

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Sep 19, 2016 Dan rated it it was ok · review of another edition

I should have known that this would be weird knowing that it is written by Jodorowsky. It was nice to see the art by Moebius. I just didn't like this.

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Jan 22, 2017 John Pistelli rated it really liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: twentieth-century, comics

This classic 1980s science fiction graphic novel is the tale of John DiFool (i.e., the fool of the Tarot, representing humanity's freedom and stupidity) and his journey to save the cosmos in the company of his sometime lover Animah (i.e., his Jungian anima, or female aspect) and some other probably allegorical figures on behalf and with the aid of the titular Incal, a device incarnating the animating spirit of the universe. Rising from the ruins of Jodorowsky's abortive Dune adaptation, The This classic 1980s science fiction graphic novel is the tale of John DiFool (i.e., the fool of the Tarot, representing humanity's freedom and stupidity) and his journey to save the cosmos in the company of his sometime lover Animah (i.e., his Jungian anima, or female aspect) and some other probably allegorical figures on behalf and with the aid of the titular Incal, a device incarnating the animating spirit of the universe. Rising from the ruins of Jodorowsky's abortive Dune adaptation, The Incal is both ludicrous and sublime as a half-satirical and all-visionary tour of variously cosmic locales, from dystopian noir pit-cities to sea planets patrolled by giant jellyfish.

Moebius's art weaves intricate grounds with cartoonish figures into a dense texture that accomplishes for the novel what the sometimes thin writing cannot—the creation of a world, or, in this case, a universe. Moebius is a giant, and I would not disparage him casually, but I would say that he is perhaps—in contrast to someone like Eisner or Tezuka—a great comics artist without necessarily being a great comics storyteller; his layouts here are often more muddled than delirious, and he even once resorts to arrows to lead the reader's eye across the confusingly arrayed panels.

The writing often has a similarly counterproductive effect. I actually appreciate Jodorowsky's casually imaginative "never explain, never apologize" approach to his settings, which I prefer to elaborate expository "world building," but the characters are just as sketchy, some of them not even rising to the level of caricature or symbol. Given the length and complexity of the saga, the indifference bred by his approach to the characters sometimes makes it difficult to want to pick the book up again for any other reason than Moebius's delineation of the settings. Jodorowsky, like some other writers who want to communicate occult or magical beliefs (I would also point to Grant Morrison), too often substitutes archetypes for characters. But it easier to have a visionary experience with a work of fiction, in whatever medium, if we can inhabit the narrative by having a convincingly intersubjective relation to the fictional figures. We should come to care about the metaphysics because we care about the characters or narrative, not the other way around—as Dante understood. (My citation of Dante aside, Jodorowsky would no doubt regard my criticism as weak, bourgeois, American sentimentalism: "I shit on the United States of America!" he declares in the BBC Moebius documentary, referring in particular to American comics's need for heroes and their pathos.)

Finally, I am puzzled by Jodorowsky's metaphysics as such. Over and over again, the novel invokes the union of opposites—dark and light, masculine and feminine—yet at the conclusion we meet a great-bearded father God. (Perhaps no surprise, given this book's treatment of sex and gender.) The possibility of progress and evolution is held out, but eventually we discern a bitter cycle in which The Fool cannot move forward. Finally, what are these characters' journeys even worth intrinsically if they have been so aided and motivated by the deus ex machina of The Incal?

The grandeur of this book makes all my carping and caviling look petty, though. The Incal has been enormously influential on the science fiction and fantasy of our time. Even if I am right that it is lacking in certain particulars (characterization, philosophy), its landscapes and seascapes and spacescapes and psychescapes are so indelible, its mingled tone of scabrous misanthropy and visionary hope so distinctive (this is the basis, I assume, for Pascal Ory's comparison, in his afterword, of the book to Don Quixote), that The Incal will remain a classic. ...more

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Jan 30, 2016 C. Varn rated it really liked it · review of another edition

Jodorowsky's "The Incal" is a decidedly unique hard book to write about because it is an experience that is deeply engaging, profoundly uneven, narratively frustrating, and dripping with Jodorowsky's almost maniac and gonzo ideas. Jodorowsky's comics are as enigmatic as his films but often with less subtly in its symbolism. While certain characters do have some narrative consistency such as the Metabaron and John DiFool, most the characters seem to have total personality changes depending on ...more

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Jun 09, 2019 Brandon St Mark rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

Shelves: comics-manga, 2019-reads-comics, humanoids

Finished this a couple of days ago but apperently I forgot to add that to goodreads. Anyway, really enjoyed this, althought it feel like there were 4 different endings to this book but Jodo kept going "and now THIS!". Which I suppose my be okay for some people, but it got to the point where I really identified with John Difool about being tired of it all lol. But there were a lot of great elements in this book that make up for it. Would definitely say to check it out!

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May 13, 2016 Wes Benchoff rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

Sci-fi mysticism, visualized LSD, tarot symbolism, and nudity

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Mar 20, 2016 Doyle rated it it was ok · review of another edition

Shelves: euro-comics

This would have been better as a silent art book. Moebius's art is astounding, but Jodorowsky's story is trash.

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Jan 28, 2013 Byron Georgalas rated it liked it · review of another edition

I am sorry, but I couldn't like "The Incal" as much as I wanted. Its art is what an epic space opera should be. Colossal scale but with attention to detail, really beautiful exotic environments with the necessary disregard of physics and it succeeded in immersing you in that degenerate galaxy. Being true to the sci-fi genre, it also dealt with pressing social subjects, like the indifference of the individual and the media manipulation by the leading elite, which allowed (in my view) the Darkness ...more

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Jun 28, 2013 David Gallin-Parisi rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

Shelves: videogames, comics

The legendary, always-mentioned-but-rarely-seen, influential, and illustrious Mobius and Jodorowsky work is a must read for anybody interested in the following things. Bear with me, this is a long list. Check this out if you find yourself in any of these listings: fantasy lover, sci-fi dreamer, trip-mode druggy adventure, video games, Star Wars, art comics like Ben Jones' or CF's contemporary works, comics like X-Men or X-Whatever, desert dystopias, blade runner dystopias, rainbow industrial ...more

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Jun 30, 2017 Vikram rated it liked it · review of another edition

Jodorowsky - i started reading only because of this name and what an excruciating pain it is to finish reading. If sci-fi is all about writing mumbo jumbo technical words, then anyone can write too. This is bible meets edge of tomorrow/ source code. The only positive thing about reading this graphic novel is the illustrations and the color. So imaginative and vivid it is. Should think twice from now on before picking anything from hyped up writers. Phew!!

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Mar 03, 2014 Tamahome marked it as to-read · review of another edition

EDIT: Getting it for Christmas!

Proposed animated movie trailer, very good: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c4Vkyz...

Saw this in 1001 Comics You Must Read Before You Die. Holy crap.

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Oct 29, 2019 Jemppu rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

Review? Perhaps eventually, once I feel worthy... This was rather phenomenal.

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Apr 16, 2019 Lukas Sumper rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

Shelves: favorites

This is kind of a must read. I know that phrase is overused but for this book it just holds true... this pretty much is the best sci-fi graphic novel I've read (by far) and I don't see that its gonna be topped, just because of its crazy cultural importance across multiple mediums!

I mean the list of people that got influenced by this book is staggering and they are no unknowns, George Lucas, Ridley Scott, Luc Besson etc. and you can see why, this is one awe Inspiring book.

The first half I ...more

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Jul 24, 2012 Rick added it · review of another edition

The complete collection of the Jodorowsky/Mœbius classic recounts the extraordinary (mis)adventures of the inept private investigator John DiFool. He seemingly stumbles upon the Incal, an entity of immense power. Through bizarre and often metaphysical means, DiFool finds himself as the most important being in the universe. Jodorowsky and Mœbius include several fascinating companions as DiFool follows his unwanted destiny: Deepo, a sentient concrete bird; The Metabaron, the most powerful fighter ...more

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Aug 13, 2016 Sam rated it really liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: scifi

An absolute riot of art and Scifi adventure. The story is good but it's Mœbius's stunning art that makes it so interesting. Just what I needed to take my mind off of a sprained neck and shoulder. This is actually six volumes in one formatted and translated into English.

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Mar 01, 2019 Relstuart rated it liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: sci-fi, humanoids

First read of this book. I've heard of it over the years and had it described as a classic. The first issues were published in 1981 so it's been around for a while. Having read it I do have an understanding of why people call it a classic in the sense that ideas from this book have been replicated in some form or another in many sci-fi stories. The 5th element came to mind a few times and the story does borrow some elements from Dune, one of the greatest sci-fi books of the 2oth century. Many of ...more

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Dec 25, 2018 Konstantine Paradias rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

The definition of sexy sleazy space opera, the Incal is what every rubbery sf book should be. A hell of a thrill ride from start to finish, even if it does suffer from inconsistencies.

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Dec 24, 2019 Oleg Tipa rated it it was ok · review of another edition

Art is gorgeous, but plot is little bit plain and illogical.

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Feb 27, 2017 Mykle rated it liked it · review of another edition

I've been trying to get into the comics of Jodorowsky, because I seem to only want to read comics these days, and I do so adore his insane, beautiful, eyeball-exploding movies. And who doesn't love the rapturous SF landscapes of Moebius? So I finally got around to reading this classic.
It starts out gritty and fascinating and funny, detailing the woes of John Difool, a low-budget private detective who's only trying to get paid and laid and not entirely killed, in a future fantasy world even more I've been trying to get into the comics of Jodorowsky, because I seem to only want to read comics these days, and I do so adore his insane, beautiful, eyeball-exploding movies. And who doesn't love the rapturous SF landscapes of Moebius? So I finally got around to reading this classic.
It starts out gritty and fascinating and funny, detailing the woes of John Difool, a low-budget private detective who's only trying to get paid and laid and not entirely killed, in a future fantasy world even more gorgeous and unfair than our own. At first it's basic hardboiled SF-pulp: some astro-heavies throw him off an astro-balcony, some astro-cops hassle him, he shoots a dog-person he shouldn't have shot ... but then, in the process of running after and/or away from one or several of those guys, John Difool stumbles quite randomly upon a tiny jewel containing a mystical God-like sentient plot device called "The Incal". From there the story grows increasingly wilder and more epic ... a cavalcade of superhuman metabeings wander onstage, enacting dastardly interstellar plots from the cockpits of their insanely cool spaceships ... soon the fate of the universe hangs in the balance, and The Incal is the thing everybody wants, needs, or insists upon destroying.
Jodorowsky's visual imagination runs at full-throttle here, and Moebius brings it all to life magnificently, adding humanizing details and awesome levitating techno-architecture throughout, but much to my own surprise, about halfway through the story it all started to get tedious and boring. Because characters and plot complications and cool spaceships ... they just keep coming! The Emperoress! The Necrodroid! The Metabaron! Jodorowsky keeps adding more and more of these mega-powerful proper nouns, any one of which could have rated its own comic. Eventually the "protagonist" as such becomes a crowded interspecies talk-therapy encounter group of about a dozen characters, all visually amazing yet behaviorally indistinct badass-types who spend the second half of the book thoroughly disempowered, just going along with whatever The Incal tells them to, because The Incal is good and all powerful and knows everything and has a plan. (Although that plan makes no sense at all, because The All-Knowing Benevolent Mystic Being called "The Incal" is really just The All-Knowing Benevolent Mystic Being called "Alejandro Jodorowsky" in mumbo-jumbo mystic mode, muttering his semi-coherent theories of personal development and pyramid power while lecturing all of humanity on its inability to grow up. )
Meanwhile, the ostensible hero of the book, John Difool, exhibits exactly one character trait: whining about everything. He doesn't ever change -- he's always arguing with The Incal, he's always wrong to do so, he never learns, nor does he ever get killed, beautiful brainless heroines fall in love with him anyway ... and he's the most interesting character. Near the end of the story we meet a whole planet full of him, a million whiny and unchanging clones. He saves the universe (again? or for the first time? tl;dr) by convincing them all to take a nap. Which isn't like him, or like them, and makes no sense anyway ... but by that point I was just excited about finally reaching the ending. (Spoiler: there isn't one.)

I'm pretty sure Jodorowsky shuffled a tarot deck and drew a card every time he wasn't sure what to write next. And in a way that worked brilliantly for him. But it's not enough; it's a font of ideas, but it's not a story in itself. His film THE HOLY MOUNTAIN had exactly the same problem, probably due to the same writing technique. Both works are undeniably cool in their sheer visual and symbolic power. Neither work ends up containing more than that. But in Holy Mountain, any expectation of a comprehensible plot is gone in the first ten minutes or so. After that, if you're still watching, it's because your dealer gave you really good acid. Whereas The Incal starts out with a promise of hot, meaty storytelling, but then slowly, agonizingly changes its mind, wimps out, and serves up only a taco salad of New-Agey SF -- cold, meatless, lacking even the tofu of a happy ending. ...more

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About Alejandro Jodorowsky

Alejandro Jodorowsky

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Also credited as Alexandro Jodorowsky

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.