Page 45 Review by Jonathan
"Got him! He's falling towards the great acid lake!"
Which, as devotees of the original THE INCAL material will know, is precisely where we left class R detective John DiFool, and indeed also where we first met him, due to the cyclical nature of said work.
Now, given how perfectly and magnificently complete THE INCAL is, with its expansive metaphysical themes, you might think I would have reflected before now, why did Jodorowsky ever feel the need to write this sequel? I didn't, simply because I was incredibly excited to read it, this material never having been translated from the French before. I'm sure you can guess where this is going...
So, I am now left wondering if the real reason Moebius quit the project was his heart just wasn't in it. Yes, he did complete about half of it, originally released as one album-sized book entitled AFTER THE INCAL in French, but then the project languished until Jodorowsky brought Ladronn on board, and decided to completely rework the story, and so Ladronn drew the whole thing starting from scratch.
If THE INCAL did not exist, I would be extolling the virtues of FINAL INCAL to high heaven, for it is intelligently and hilariously written, and is certainly an absolute visual feast, this material being just as beautiful in its own right as anything else produced within the INCAL / METABARONS / TECHNOPRIESTS milieu. But - and it is a big but - it feels like such an unnecessary, watered-down sequel when compared to the magnificence of the original that I just couldn't help feeling disappointed upon completing it. It has little of the philosophical sophistication or multi-layered elegance of the original. Yes, Jodorowsky throws a couple of very minor devices of that ilk in, but overall it just feels like an incredibly slick and beautiful speculative action comedy adventure.
Is it wrong for me to feel disappointed by a work of such an incredibly high standard? If it is, it's only because Jodorowsky pushed the bar so impossibly high for himself with THE INCAL. I do get the impression from what I have read about him that he doesn't like to leave any idea unused, and I just wonder whether this isn't a case of a sequel simply for the sake of it, entirely to satisfy himself. Also, the foreword is provided by Kayne West...? But given how much of an egomaniac Jodorowsky allegedly is, Yeezus himself is possibly the most apposite choice!
