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.

## Plot

### **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 thecybo-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 Bergin 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)