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L'Incal. Integrale (1988)

by Alejandro Jodorowsky(Favorite Author)

4.28 of 5 Votes: 5

ISBN

8861231780 (ISBN13: 9788861231788)

languge

English

genre

Science Fiction

publisher

Edizioni BD

series

The Incal / L'Incal

review 1: Here's the short version: The Incal is a metaphysical phantasmagoria of a space opera that offers a world you can get lost in, without ever quite feeling truly connected to it.First of all, the most obvious thing about The Incal is that it looks gorgeous. I'm sure I don't have to tell anyone that Moebius' art is excellent, but it really, really is. With Moebius, Elements you see in the work of artists like Windsor McCay, Steve Ditko, Dave Gibbons, or Katsuhiro Otomo combine to produce crisp, sumptuous landscapes, intricate designs, and mind-bending thoughtscapes. Multiple pages elicited an audible "wow" from me, especially near the end when the panels start to bleed out to the edges of the page and the layouts really get a chance to shine.The world of the Incal is another ... morestand-out. Jodorowsky and Moebius pull out a multitude of bizarre and varied structures, locales, and organizations over the course of the book. With a novel like this one, where most of the pleasure comes from experiencing each new oddity in turn, it's easy for the setting to feel less like a fleshed-out world and more like a series of self-contained odd little islands, but the world of the Incal feels impressively alive, with all the different kinds of weirdnesses interacting and coexisting at once. You can tell lots of thought went into the world and how it works, including a deep and imposing amount of metaphysical lore.The weird thing about the Incal, though, is the story. It follows John Difool, a lowlife detective whose main interests are booze and hookers, as he stumbles onto the eponymous Incal, which is something along the lines of an incarnation of the godhead. From there, Difool blunders and gripes his way through an increasingly complex and epic set of journeys and battles for the fate of the universe. John Difool very much lives up to his name. Though at first you might think he's a detective in the vein of Sam Spade, competent and well-versed in street intrigue, throughout the entire book he's virtually useless. I kept thinking there'd be a moment where he gets to grow and save the day and prove himself a hero, but he never gets one; someone else always saves him instead, often actively using him as a puppet by posessing him or manipulating his neurotransmitters to force him to get himself out of trouble. He's like Jack Burton in Big Trouble in Little China: it looks like he's the protagonist, but there's always someone more competent around who knows more about the situation.Really, all the characters lack a lot of relatable or characteristic details. They feel much more like grand archetypes than complex individuals, and it makes all the dazzling action feel more abstract and inconsequential when you don't feel tied to it by any strong character conflicts. Especially since most of the action is so metaphysical you can only take the book's word for it that any given struggle is difficult. There's a lot of heart-opening and mortal plane-transcending going on, but the plot keeps going so fast it's hard to ever detect a meaningful change in any of the characters. It feels like a roller coaster. It dazzles you and exhilerates you, but when it's over you're not left with a whole lot except the experience.But what's interesting is that... that seems like it's on purpose. The book feels like it's really not very interested in connecting with you and bringing you into its story. It's much more interested in building this world that you, like Difool, get to experience, dragged along b the seat of your pants, barely keeping up. The book feels alive in a way that doesn't give a damn about the audience, if that makes sense. It's got its own universe that's separate from ours, and we just get to spectate from the sidelines. Which I think is really interesting, in an odd way.So the Incal is definitely a great showcase for a bunch of wonderful and influential sci-fi ideas and visuals. It's also an interesting, hard to penetrate, parable of sorts. It feels like a book that holds more things than it shows you. This is a book that isn't here to entertain you, you're here to experience it. Luckily, it's a great experience.9.0/10
review 2: 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 degenarate galaxy. Being true to the sci-fi genre, it also dealed 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 to creep.It was then, as I mentioned, a story of epic proportions, but the storytelling was lacking. The characters seemed to accept very easily every absurd idea that the Incal had, losing their individuality and, one could say, their own free will. The only one who revolted was John Difool, but in an incoherent, chaotic and seemingly unjustified way. Further, the pacing seemed rushed and there were many times where large jumps were made within the same page.For last, I left the dialogues who seemed for the most part quite uninspired and bland. Perhaps that was due to the translation from French, but unfortunately, unless I dedicate four years of my life to achieve mastery over that language, I will not learn first-hand if the quality in the dialogues was literally lost in translation.To sum it up, I enjoyed it, but it fell short. The three stars are for the general story, the universe and the artwork. Perhaps it was my high initial expectations. Perhaps I wasn't careful enough when I was reading it. Perhaps...I don't know. What I know is that I will certainly give it another chance.PS. In this particular edition, the typed text seemed too poor in oversized bubbles that were designed for the original (French) letters. Please, be more careful the next time. less

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Reviews (see all)

dipal

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 Hurlant" into "Heavy Metal"- but then coming to full fruition as designer for "Alien", "Tron", Blade Runner" and "The Fifth Element". Arguably, while the techno-fetish side of cyber-punk was influenced by Japanese Manga (Otomo's "Akira")- Giraud gave it the "film-noir" aspect. And of course- cyber-punk went and informed everything else.To re-read The Incal- is to revisit and artist at his creative prime, working with his best life-long collaborator - Alejandro Jodorowsky. The result is a great visual jazz riff between the two. Moebius lays down sheet after of stunning visual layouts and details- while Jodorowsky's plot twists and turns keep you running with the momentum. Reading this now, 30 years after it's launch, a lot might seem familiar- the work influenced a lot of current science fiction - "the Fifth Element" and even the Matrix- but that's because this is the source material for what we see now.TBH- a feel this piece time-travels a lot better than "The Watchmen" or "Dark Knight"- it maintains a fresh, vital take on the world around it. Hopefully, more of Moebius work will finally make it to the US. In the meantime don't miss this.

trakk1

Alejandro Jodorowsky has a very vivid and clever imagination and I greatly enjoyed his work paired with the legendary art of Moebius. There were points where I felt the story lost it's pacing and the suspension of disbelief was broken with the repeated use of Deus Ex Machina but ultimately it worked to it's own twisted psycho-dream trip adventure. Absolutely worth reading if only for the art.

ilio

Epic sci-fi, cosmic, comic, profound

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