After the Incal

***After the Incal*** is a one issue graphic novel, which is part of *The Incal* saga. It was published by Les Humanoïdes Associés in 2000. It was written by Alejandro Jodorowsky and illustrated by Moebius (Jean Giraud), who hadn't worked together since *Le Coeur couronné* in 1992. It was colored by Fred Beltran (who had already worked on *Megalex* with Jodorowsky).

The story of *After the Incal* was meant to be continued in other issues, but Moebius left the project after the first one was completed. The basic plot of *After the Incal* was eventually rebooted for *Final Incal*. Les Humanoïdes Associés would later repurpose the three issues of *Final Incal* to "complete" the story of *After the Incal*.

## Overview

*After the Incal* is an unfinished sequel to *The Incal.* It was meant to have more than one issue, but only the first one was completed. *The New Dream* begins exactly were *The Incal* had left off, with John DiFool falling down Suicide Alley. However, it's quickly revealed that all the events of *The Incal* had been a dream. Moebius wasn't interested in continuing illustrating *After the Incal*, so the project was left on hold. Eventually, Jodorowsky decided to "retell" the story of *The New Dream* in the first 50 pages of the first issue of *Final Incal*.

1. *The New Dream* (2000)

## Repurposed sequels

With the aim of "completing" the unfinished series, eleven years after the release of *The New Dream*, the publisher Les Humanoïdes Associés repurposed several pages from *The Four John DiFools* (2008) as well as the second and third issues -*Luz De Garra* (2011) and *Gorgo the Foul* (2014)- to release *After the Incal* as a trilogy of three tomes, which works as an alternative take on the same basic plot. Currently this repurposed edition has only been published in french.

## Main Characters

* John DiFool
* Deepo
* Elohim
* Benthacodon
* Techno-pope
* The Prezident

## Differences between *The New Dream* and *The Four John DiFools*

In *After the Incal* the events of *The Incal*
seem to have taken place inside one of John’s dream, essentially rendering them nonexistent. When *After the Incal* was eventually abandoned Jodorowsky realized that he wasn't content with the dream concept, so he scrapped it. Thus, in *Final Incal* the basic plot points of *The New Dream* remain, but instead of considering the events of *The Incal* a dream *Final Incal* takes place in a different reality, the one Orh projected John into at the end of *The Fifth Essence: Planet DiFool*. Either way, both continuations seem to negate the loop-like structure of *The Incal*.

Although *After the Incal* and *Final Incal* seem to contradict each other, the publisher Les Humanoïdes Associés has said that both works "coexist as two variants". Either way, it could be argued that the events of *After the Incal* are simply taking place in a parallel universe (*The New Dream* hints at the existence of multiple realities and *The Four John DiFools* actually shows DiFools from different dimensions), or that everything that happens in *After the Incal* is itself a dream (the title *The New Dream* might suggest this, and DiFool also wonders if he's dreaming).

In any case, these are the main differences between *The New Dream* and *The Four John DiFools*:

* In *After the Incal* metallic spiders appear in the corpses of the infected people, while in *Final Incal* only a small piece of coal remains. *Final Incal* seems to rework the idea of robotic spiders with the Goungas.

* In *After the Incal* Elohim takes the form of a blonde little girl, a shape-shifting robot and Kolbo-5, which doesn’t happen in *Final Incal*.

* In *After the Incal* the Meca-prezident gives Deepo the ability to talk, which doesn’t happen in *Final Incal*.

* In *Final Incal* the war is more clearly divided into metallic robots against bio-creatures, while in *After the Incal* the metallic robots are fighting scarabs that are Bio-techno.

* In *After the Incal* Elohim is a female being, while in *Final Incal* is male.
* In *Final Incal* the aristos seem to be less willing to be cloned into metal bodies.

* Everything that happens after John is launched into space doesn’t appear in *After the Incal,* unless it is read as part of the trilogy released by Les Humanoïdes Associés (*See: repurposed sequels*)