Several people in this group recommended The Incal, and I didn’t have any Jodorowsky or Giraud, so I remedied that by getting The Incal. I read the whole thing last night. 310 pages, but the word density is not high. It’s divided into six large sections, but apparently it was originally published in Metal Hurlant in much smaller chunks between 1981-1988. I can see some evolution in the art toward a simpler style over the course of that period; compare these two early pages:



With these two later pages (sorry about the glare):



It was certainly a very “European” experience, with a selfish hedonist anti-hero oddly paired with a comic relief talking animal sidekick. Sort of like if Tintin grew up and turned out bad? They are both redheaded private investigators… The Herge influence was evidence in the background detail, and Moebius certainly shone brightly on the cityscape scenes and at least the early crowd scenes.

Jodorowsky was best at the world-building; he’s apparently been thinking about this mythos since he was a kid. We start with one detective on a case, then he’s being chased by various gangs of local toughs, then by a whole faction of society. Progressively larger endangerments (the president of his world, the emperor of his galaxy, an extradimensional threat to all of creation) gradually come into play, and I credit Jodorowsky with gradually pulling back the camera to reveal larger and larger elements of this universe in a clear way. World-builders, take note!

He was less successful on some of the interpersonal plot elements. The Incal itself is part exposition device to artificially push the plot forward, and part deus ex machina to rescue the heroes from the messes that its advice causes. Both of those moves tend to rob our heroes of agency, though perhaps the Buddhist Jodorosky did that on purpose to send the message that agency is an illusion, and we are all just facets on the great diamond of creation, helpless before the light as it refracts through us. Whether philosophical commitment or just easy way out, it’s not a structure that Americans tend to like. We need our freeeeedom!

The Manic Pixie Loincloth Girl seemed pretty fan servicey, and I guess Jodorowsky must have thought so too eventually, since without comment she wears a full-body jumpsuit for the second half of the story. The other characters (tough anthropomorphic dog, calm assassin, maniacal killer droid, innocent child) were fine.
The Incal also seems to have influenced at least two major movies. The less talked about film of the two is Pixar’s animated film Inside Out, in which people are depicted as having color-coded spirits inside, representing four (in The Incal, but five in the movie) emotional states:




The four spirits of The Incal are also themed after the four elements of earth, wind, fire, and water.

Second, The Incal’s final two large books (the last 100 pages of the story) are titled parts 1 and 2 of “The Fifth Essence.” This was pretty obviously the inspiration for Luc Besson’s 1997 film “The Fifth Element,” which also featured a selfish noir anti-hero who must protect a magical innocent who is the key to stopping Eternal Darkness from covering the universe. Giraud also provided conceptual art for that movie, making it impossible for the publishers of The Incal to win their lawsuit against the makers of the film for copying Giraud’s similar work on The Incal.

All in all: A fun read, mainly for Jorodowsky’s world-building and Giraud’s justly famous sci-fi cityscapes, aliens, and machines.

I always found Jodorowsky's non-sci-fi work to be more coherent: Bouncer Son of the Gun, White Lama.