Take a photo of a barcode or cover
When, as a reader of novels, you dip your toe into respected comics, you'll first be recommended stuff like Watchmen and Maus; graphic novels which have been accepted by the mainstream literary establishment. Look for things which are less well-known outside the comics world but worshipped within it, and The Incal will be first cab off the ranks.
This is a collected hardcover which didn't come cheap, so when I ordered it online I was careful to make sure I got an English edition (it was originally published in French). The funny thing is that I probably needn't have bothered. Goodreads credits Alejandro Jodorowsky as the author of this book, but the illustrator is Moebius, and it's for the illustration that The Incal is beloved in comic circles. Jodorowsky's story, on the other hand, is a nonsensical space opera mishmash about a galactic threat, an all-powerful glowing crystal and a hapless messiah figure surrounded by more competent space warriors, with plenty of half-baked Biblical allegories. I doubt I would have got any less out of The Incal if I "read" it in the original French; I could have ignored the dialogue, which mostly consists of lines like "The star vessel has become one with the portal; now we are entering the theta dream itself," and just let my gaze wander across the art.
I can see why this is considered a seminal work and a masterpiece for people predominantly focused on comics as a visual medium. Those of us who prefer a more coherent narrative can give it a miss; it's not really meant for us.
This is a collected hardcover which didn't come cheap, so when I ordered it online I was careful to make sure I got an English edition (it was originally published in French). The funny thing is that I probably needn't have bothered. Goodreads credits Alejandro Jodorowsky as the author of this book, but the illustrator is Moebius, and it's for the illustration that The Incal is beloved in comic circles. Jodorowsky's story, on the other hand, is a nonsensical space opera mishmash about a galactic threat, an all-powerful glowing crystal and a hapless messiah figure surrounded by more competent space warriors, with plenty of half-baked Biblical allegories. I doubt I would have got any less out of The Incal if I "read" it in the original French; I could have ignored the dialogue, which mostly consists of lines like "The star vessel has become one with the portal; now we are entering the theta dream itself," and just let my gaze wander across the art.
I can see why this is considered a seminal work and a masterpiece for people predominantly focused on comics as a visual medium. Those of us who prefer a more coherent narrative can give it a miss; it's not really meant for us.