The Black Incal

The Black Incal is the first issue of The Incal and part of the first volume of The Incal saga. It's divided in five chapters and serves as an introduction to the world of the Jodoverse. Aside from John DiFool and Deepo, important characters like The Metabaron, Tanatah and the Prezident are also seen here for the first time.

It was published in 1981 by Les Humanoïdes Associés. It was written by Alejandro Jodorowsky, illustrated by Moebius and colored by Yves Chaland.

Night at the Red Ring
The story begins in media res, with John DiFool being thrown out into Suicide Alley by a group of Amok guards who are searching for the Incal. DiFool, afraid of coming into contact with the deadly Great Acid Lake at the bottom of the Alley, quickly promises to confess everything, and is thus “saved” by the Amok craft at the last second. Due to all the commotion the cybo-cops appear and order the Amok craft to halt, but instead the Amok guards start shooting at the cybo-cops with a Cogan 38. The cybo-cops respond by launching a mini-nuke at them, destroying the Amok craft and rescuing John in the process. The cybo-cop P-Y recognizes DiFool, and starts to interrogate him about the incident while on their way to the Police Central.

John explains to P-Y only part of what happened: The day before, an aristo named Lady Nimbea S. Quinq, had hired Difool for a bodyguard job while she partied at the Red Ring that night, with the only condition of being back before midnight. However, at the Daredevil Club she had met the mercenary Kill Wolfhead, and was hoping to sleep with him, despite John’s warning against it. Predictably, the midnight time limit went by, and Nimbea's Holo-mask worn off, revealing she was actually an old lady in disguise. Kill went mad after John shot him in the left ear, and started chasing him through the club. DiFool managed to narrowly escape by entering a ventilation shaft. Then something strange happened, (which DiFool doesn’t divulge to the cybo-cops): John got lost in the ventilation shaft, and encountered a mutant that had been backstabbed, followed by a group of other hostile mutants, which John paralyzed using his inhibitor. The backstabbed mutant, in his dying breaths, recognized John and handed him the Luminous Incal, saying that “the fate of the universe depended on it” but without explaining what the artifact does. Upon touching the Luminous Incal John felt physically shaken, and the mutant started to melt, revealing that he was actually a Berg in disguise. Eventually John found an exit and returned to his conapt, when suddenly a group of armed Amok guards broke in searching for the Incal and kidnapping him. They were the ones who had through him down the Suicide Alley.

Dance of the Incal
Despite not being completely honest with the cybo-cops, they let DiFool go. After a crazy morning John decides to visit a Homeo-brothel in the French quarter, where he has sex with a homeo-whore, and thinks about what happened the previous night. After paying for her services he returns home using the public transport.

When he arrives a crowd of people are inside his conapt, worshipping Deepo (John’s pet, a concrete sheagull), who has swallowed the Incal and now has a magical aura around him and the ability to talk and heal people. DiFool makes Deepo spit out the Luminous Incal but at that moment a Berg assault squad storms the conapt and start shooting (essentially beginning the Berg invasion of the planet), in search of the Incal. At the same time the mutants also storm John’s home, and the cybo-cops send three anti-emotion squads to the place. Local holovid reporters start reporting on site, as a Techno Combat Robot also starts attacking. John gets away from all the madness escaping through the bathroom, but he’s immediately detained by the Prezident’s hunchbacks, flying him in their slidercraft out of Shaft City.

His Supreme Highness
DiFool is carried into the Floating Palace, just in time for the prezidential clonage. His highness treats John as a guest, and he is taken to the orgy chamber. John makes himself comfortable in the chamber’s cushions of light, when suddenly he starts mysteriously glowing, feels a burning sensation and barfs, disrespecting the Prezident, who orders his arrest. However, John manages to escape once again, stealing his supreme highness ship. An interceptor squad chases him but he loses them by hiding in a funeral train headed to Techno City. John feels his situation is helpless, but the Luminous Incal starts communicating with him and showcasing its power, making DiFool question his own self and reality. The Luminous Incal miniaturizes inside him and puts him on a new path: Acquiring the Black Incal that’s inside Techno City.

Techno Science
Once there, DiFool discovers that the Technos are using a bio-extrator to build a “Shadow Egg”, but he’s apprehended by the Techno-pope. He is then taken to the Shadow Egg Generator as part of a holy darkness ceremony that is about to take place with the Technobrotherhood.

The Metabaron
Meanwhile, in City Shaft, just above the Great Acid Lake, the Metabaron is being carried into the Lair of the Amok, where the Queen of the Amok, Tanatah is going to blackmail him: The Metabaron must bring DiFool to her (dead or alive) if he wants his son (Solune) back. Simultaneously, above the Lair, riots have broken out in the City Shaft after the incident in John’s conapt, and the worried cybo-cops have contacted the Floating Palace asking for the city to be “sealed”.

The Second Page
The second page of this first issue, showing John DiFool falling down Suicide Alley has become an iconic image of the science fiction genre and for the series as a whole, being recreated in some way in all subsequent continuations of ''The Incal. For Jodorowsky this page is the "essence" of The Incal'', and the comic wouldn't exist without it.

Moebius had already designed a futuristic city for The Long Tomorrow (1975), but the vertical City Shaft depicted in this page is impressive for its level of density and originality, perfectly encapsulating the world of The Incal and is absurdistic sense of humor: John finds himself falling down Suicide Alley multiple times throughout the series, as if it was a Sisyphean struggle, and the citizens of Shaft City are always either indifferent to his suffering or eager to shoot him. Due to the unconventional way Jodorowsky and Moebius worked (without writing the script pannel by pannel) Moebius actually forgot to illustrate this page, hence why the "1 BIS" appears on the lower right corner. The page was added by the time the issue was released in Métal hurlant.

Other Issues

 * 1) The Black Incal (1981)
 * 2) The Luminous Incal (1982)
 * 3) What Lies Beneath (1984)
 * 4) What is Above (1985)
 * 5) The Fifth Essence: The Dreaming Galaxy (1988)
 * 6) The Fifth Essence: Planet DiFool (1988)