The Incal (Humanoids)

(Humanoids, 2001)

An acclaimed French series of graphic novels finally makes its appearance on American soil. Alexandro Jodorowsky and Zoran Janjetov’s epic The Incal first hit European newsstands 20 years ago but now appears in the U.S., remastered in a brand new comic book.

Save for a brief reprint in the late 80s, American audiences have had no exposure to this series featuring a nightmarish futuristic dystopia. Created by Jodorowsky and the better-known French creator Moebius, the original series The Black Incal ran for seven years, which Jodorowsky followed up with a prequel adequately entitled Before The Incal. When Humanoids Publishing secured the rights for a translated American edition, it wisely decided to run the prequel first, allowing the events to unfold chronologically for the first time.

Also, taking advantage of artistic technological advances since the series’ inception, the American edition has been completely recolored and is a vast improvement over the garish coloring of the original European edition. But the smartest move of all was to provide the series in an accessible, relatively inexpensive comics format rather than a graphic novel, making it more enticing to new readers. The only drawback of this is that the story doesn’t necessarily lend itself to being broken into 22-page chunks, and the end of each issue is somewhat jarring.

American audiences may feel that the future urban backdrop is inspired by Ridley Scott’s Blade Runner but would do well to remember that the film came out the year following the initial release of The Black Incal. This is an excellent piece of work showcasing two of Europe’s many excellent and overlooked creators and shouldn’t be missed by fans of true comic-book storytelling.

— Jim Johnson

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