"The Incal" has aged well.
Maybe it's a comment on the state of American comics, but "The Incal," originally published in the early '80s, feels just as fresh as any modern science fiction book. Alexandro Jodorowsky and Moebius' French comic about a seedy detective and his adventures is full of the mad ideas and sly humor found in any good "cutting edge" comic today.
John Difool finds his life turned upside down when he acquires the mysterious Incal, an ancient artifact that turns him into the most wanted man around. After stumbling onto the Incal by chance after a case gone wrong, John finds himself hunted by just about every major player in his twisted, futuristic world.
With his trusty pet bird, Deepo, John embarks on mad flight to escape everyone from the queen of the criminal underground to the rabid, mystical technopriests. Along the way, he finds himself in conflict with The Metabaron, a famous warrior who is blackmailed into finding John.
But it's not necessarily the plot that makes "The Incal" special. The "Joe Normal accidentally gets hold of a powerful artifact" plot isn't exactly groundbreaking material.
But Moebius and Jodorowsky manage to create an entirely alien yet familiar world. That's where the mad ideas come in.
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Take the television airing of the ninth prezidential clonage. People everywhere tune in to watch the figurehead leader, the Prezident, get a new body. Massive outdoor television screens aren't unusual in futuristic settings, but Moebius and Jodorowsky take those familiar concepts and fill them with imaginative, crazy content.
Then there's the art. Everything from the layered, sky-rise setup of the city to the violent riots against the Prezident is beautifully rendered in crisp detail.
American comics just don't look like this, and maybe that's why the book feels so fresh. The American market has been saturated with cookie-cutter superhero yarns for so long, it rarely sees original, hyper-creative science fiction.
"The Incal" was published in France 25 years ago, and you can see how Moebius' art has influenced today's comic artists. Everything is full of detail and texture, with well-executed settings and fully-expressional figures and faces.
DC Comics and Humanoids Publishing have re-released a 25th anniversary edition of "The Incal" in a trade paperback format.
The Incal: The Epic Conspiracy has new coloring by ValÇrie Beltran, and the lush colors only add to the art, making it pop right off the page.
Europe has a long comics history, and with the DC Comics and Humanoids joint reprinting agreement, those of us on this side of the pond will finally have better access to some of that work.
Books such as The Incal are proof the medium can be more than spandex yet still be full of explosive action and other crazy fun.
Just as the wide availability of manga has influenced American comics, the publishing of European work over here could further grow the medium.
At the very least, American comics readers will get more really fine reading.
