A comiXologist recommends…Layered Craziness
THE INCAL by Jodorowsky and Moebius
Reading The Incal is akin to dancing all night to the sound of techno-music. You leave the club as the morning sun rises, exhausted, deaf, but enthralled. It Is also heard to explain this kind of party to your friends, except in very simplistic terms: lots of dancing, alcohol, strobe lights.
Well, after reading the six installments of The Incal, I am at the same loss for words when people ask me what it is about. I could explain it as a sci-fi space opera in which a private investigator (and big loser) John Difool is suddenly entrusted with the Incal, the most powerful entity in the galaxy. What follows is a lot of drama – sexual and spiritual – intergalactic combat, massive jellyfish rising from the sea, a fight against a President-robot, fooling around with some kind of Queen of Parrots, [insert the most foolish thing you can think about here]. All this layered craziness works so well, like a precarious construction that, instead of collapsing brutally, keeps expanding and strengthening volume after volume.
The story fuses with art so smoothly because Jodorowsky’s fantastic writing is supported magnificently by Moebius’s drawings and Chaland’s coloring. Ditch the dull, dark and pale colors. The Incal doesn’t thread with realistic colors and realistic drawing. On the contrary, it is all free-form and pop. From the first panel, the reader gets sucked into a parallel universe swirling with blindingly colored unknown beings. After a few pages you do not even try to apply any rational thinking to what you see (if you ever tried). You just go with the flow of the scenography, letting twists and turns surprise you, floating into the “Jodoverse.”
The Incal is probably one of the masterpieces of the graphic novel sci-fi genre, and with good reason. Too often I read a comic and I think “hum this could have been better as a novel”. With The Incal, no chance.
Camille Fabre is on the marketing team at comiXology.
The Incal by Moebius and Jodorowsky is on sale now (plus you can read Vol. 1 with comiXology Unlimited)!
A comiXologist Recommends:
Mike Isenberg recommends The IncalOh man I don’t even know where to begin. Today is super exciting. We’re launching a huge number of awesome books from French publisher Humanoids, in both French and English languages, including several classic books drawn by the legendary French cartoonist Moebius.
Jean “Moebius” Giraud is one of the most influential cartoonists in the history of the medium. That his comics haven’t been more readily available in English has always really bummed me out. But now we have them! And you can read them! And they’re really reasonably priced! And I’m worried that I might wear out my exclamation key before the end of this article BECAUSE I AM REALLY SERIOUSLY THAT EXCITED!
The Incal is a collaboration between Moebius and Chilean filmmaker Alejandro Jodorowsky. If you’ve never seen any of his films, you should know right off the bat that Jodorosky is totally off his rocker crazypants, in the most magnificent way. His work is brilliantly psychedelic, totally uninhibited, manically imaginative, and (perhaps surprisingly, given everything else) extremely fun and entertaining.
All of those qualities are brought to bear, along with Moebius’s gorgeous artwork, in the manic roller-coaster ride of science fiction psycho-shamanism that is The Incal. In this comic series you’ll find galactic intrigue, alien invasions, space jellyfish, devious techno-priests, mystical enlightenment, and a wise-talking bird made of concrete.
What more could you possibly want? Go read this!
[Read The Incal on comiXology]
Mike Isenberg is an Associate Production Coordinator at comiXology, and the co-writer of First Law Of Mad Science. He lives in Harlem with his cats, Tesla and Edison.
If you haven’t read Moebius & Jodorowsky’s Incal yet, or just want to add it to your digital collection, now’s your chance.
We’ve got an Incal sale featuring 5 bundles that will save you up to 58% off now through 5/21/15.
A comiXologist Recommends:
Mike Isenberg recommends The Incal
Oh man I don’t even know where to begin. Today is super exciting. We’re launching a huge number of awesome books from French publisher Humanoids, in both French and English languages, including several classic books drawn by the legendary French cartoonist Moebius.
Jean “Moebius” Giraud is one of the most influential cartoonists in the history of the medium. That his comics haven’t been more readily available in English has always really bummed me out. But now we have them! And you can read them! And they’re really reasonably priced! And I’m worried that I might wear out my exclamation key before the end of this article BECAUSE I AM REALLY SERIOUSLY THAT EXCITED!
The Incal is a collaboration between Moebius and Chilean filmmaker Alejandro Jodorowsky. If you’ve never seen any of his films, you should know right off the bat that Jodorosky is totally off his rocker crazypants, in the most magnificent way. His work is brilliantly psychedelic, totally uninhibited, manically imaginative, and (perhaps surprisingly, given everything else) extremely fun and entertaining.
All of those qualities are brought to bear, along with Moebius’s gorgeous artwork, in the manic roller-coaster ride of science fiction psycho-shamanism that is The Incal. In this comic series you’ll find galactic intrigue, alien invasions, space jellyfish, devious techno-priests, mystical enlightenment, and a wise-talking bird made of concrete.
What more could you possibly want? Go read this!
[Read The Incal on comiXology]
Mike Isenberg is an Associate Production Coordinator at comiXology, and the co-writer of First Law Of Mad Science. He lives in Harlem with his cats, Tesla and Edison.