A review by hoguelikewoah
The Incal by Alejandro Jodorowsky

adventurous dark emotional funny hopeful inspiring mysterious sad tense fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? It's complicated
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.5

If you're a lover of surrealism, science-fiction and a story so interesting that it's difficult to not complete in a single sitting - this may be added to your reading list.  My only complaint is that the hardcover gets so heavy over time, I was creating new ways to shift my hands and body - in bed or reclining - to manage reading for more than an hour at a time.  This won't take too many sittings in order to complete though.  The book precedes more graphic works like Game of Thrones, and there's a sense of where some of the sexuality and stylized violence for that and more may have derived.  It also often feels like an imagining of "what if Vonnegut steered more-so in the direction of Science-Fiction" - which is at times that doesn't always age well, can be as intelligent as it is campy, but overall so full of life and characters that you want to know more about.  In some pages - for my liking - there are some major character shifts and conflict resolutions that seem to occur in the matter of a couple of panels, rather than pages that may have served to create some sense of gestation for sometimes large scale events.  To juxtapose that - time passes in different ways across the later pages, so perhaps the changes are intentional or the characters really are able to make complex decisions on the fly because of what's at stake.

Overall - I'm very glad this was my first Graphic Novel and perhaps it can be yours too.  The art by Moebius alone is an absolute dreamscape on certain panels and pages.  It's not surprising that his style was looked upon for art direction in films like The Fifth Element.