History ComicBook / TheIncal

John Difool is a low-ranking private investigator in the slums of the dystopian planet Terra 2014. After escaping the aftermath of a butchered job, he encounters a Berg, a member of an once imperial alien race that has now passed into myth. The Berg reveals that it had been looking for him and entrusts him with a mystical object, the Light Incal. This naturally makes Difool the target of multiple interplanetary factions that seek to use the artifact's powers for their own goals, not the least of which include the Incal itself.

* AngelicTransformation: Seraphim

**

* FungusHumungous: The Johns find Tortuga Island overgrown with giant mushrooms.

* INeedAFreakingDrink: When riding the giant rats, John says he wants a hit bath and a tall glass of whiskey.

* VillainousHarlequin: Diavaloo is dressed and painted to be more like a clown but the story isn't long enough for him to be any more than KentBrockmanNews.

* UnwillingRoboticisation: The Benthacodon wants to turn the population of the universe into robot spiders.

* WolfMan: Kill Wolfhead, who resembles a dog despite his name in the English translation, and a few others. The sequel and prequel reveal that they are actually [[LegoGenetics genetically modified humans]].

* WolfMan: Kill Wolfhead, who resembles a dog despite his name in the English translation, and a few others. The sequel and prequel reveal that they are actually [[LegoGenetics genetically modified humans]].
!!Before The Incal provides examples of:

* {{Autocannibalism}}: A technopriest threatens to skin Luz's father with a kitchen knife and force feed him his own flesh (lightly salted and grilled of course).
* BirdPoopGag: Deepo craps on one of the prime minister's goons when rescuing John.
* BodyBackupDrive: [[spoiler:Diavaloo]] has countless clones that he can transfer his consciousness into when he dies. The only upside is it's the only way he can orgasm so he wouldn't be annoyed at you for killing him.
* BrainMonster: The Supra-Divinoid is a large cybernetic vmbrain that acts as a central computer for the techno-priests.
* BrotherSisterIncest: A pair of aristo siblings in the hospital are unashamedly having a baby together.
* ChekhovsGun: The fake aristo halo John's dad invents comes in handy as a disguise later on.
* ColonizedSolarSystem: One of Diavaloo's reports mentions the manager of the Bank Of Pluto misappropriating state funds.
* CryoPrison: John's father was offered a choice between going into stasis for 30 years or having his memory erased. [[spoiler:He chose the latter.]]
* DarkerAndEdgier: ''Before the Incal'' as it explores the kind of circumstances that would produce a NominalHero like Difool and how he wound up miserable and alone apart from Deepo.
* DeadlyDisk: A secret of the aristos is that they can make their halos fly off as deadly projectiles.
* DisguisedInDrag: John infiltrates the prostitute baby ring by dressing as a pregnant sex worker with Deepo hiding inside the bump.
* DrivenToSuicide: [[spoiler:John's mother]] ends up jumping off Suicide Alley.
* EyeBeams: When Animah takes the place of John's homeo-whore, she has her rat Raphaela blow it up with eye beams.
* {{Faceship}}: Diavaloo's harem satellite is a giant recreation of his own head.
* FantasticGhetto: Mutants on Terra 2014 live in an enclosed ghetto called the G.T.O. which they don't leave until they're 21 because it's legal to kill them before that age.
* FreudianExcuse: ''Before the Incal'' reveals the many horrific and complex roots of Difool's cynicism and selfishness.
* FutureFoodIsArtificial: After [[spoiler:having his memory erased]] John says he's going home to eat a big, bloody bio-vitasteak.
* GrievousBottleyHarm: John's mother narrowly misses him with a thrown bottle when he distracts her when she's with a client.
* HolographicDisguise: Luz uses one when she first meets John that makes her look ugly.
* InterruptedSuicide: John waits a few seconds to see if anyone stops him from jumping off Suicide Alley. He ends up getting rescued mid-fall by [[spoiler:Snailhead]].
* ItIsDehumanizing: A jealous member of Diavaloo's harem keeps referring to Luz as "it".
* LongLived: John's nanny Sofiah was a Shellback from Mea-Mex. They can live to be over a thousand.
* LukeIAmYourFather: The hunchback that drags John off reveals [[he's John's brainwashed father but his mind won't last much longer.]]
* AManIsNotAVirgin: John's friends bulky him into getting with a homeo-whore, saying he'll never be a man if he doesn't get laid.
* MoneyFetish: A girl in Diavaloo's harem says she adores being whipped with thousand kublar bills.
* MultiArmedAndDangerous: a couple of similar four-armed mutants or aliens called Kaganu and Loh-Loh work in the Red Ring as a bouncer and a pump respectively. Difoll gets punched by both.
* NarratorAllAlong: The end strongly implies [[spoiler:Deepo]] has been narrating as the last word is his catchphrase "[[spoiler:croot]]".
* NewNeoCity: Planets called Nova Mars, Nova Pluto and Nova Venus are mentioned.
* ParentalIncest:
** John's mother's holographic will strongly implies she has been [[spoiler:Animah]] in other lives. Backed up by WordOfGod.
** Zig-Zagged when a hunchback drags John off to rape him but admits [[spoiler:he's John's brainwashed father and wanted to get him to safety but says his memory is about to go permanently and John needs to run or he will get abused.]]
** The aristo having her brother's baby is thinking if having her father's next.
* PettingZooPeople: A lot of mutants look like anthropomorphic animals.
* PinealWeirdness: The reason aristos have halos is because [[spoiler:pineal glands are removed from the heads of the babies if sex workers and inserted into the brains of baby aristos.]]
* PlanetTerra: The odd time Earth is mentioned, it's called Terra-Prima. Seems to be common to name colonies after it as Difool's home planet is Terra 2014.
* PoweredByAForsakenChild: John's trying to find out what happens to the babies of sex workers. Turns out [[spoiler:their pineal glands are removed and inserted into baby aristos to give them halos.]]
* ReassignedToAntarctica: Luz's father is assigned to working to gorilla natives of a jungle planet near the end.
* ReincarnationRomance: The prequel implies that Animah's soul [[spoiler:knew John in his various lives often as a mother, friend or lover.]]
* ReligiousRobot: Kolbo-5 prays for John's safety and quotes fictional holy texts.
* RidiculouslyFastConstruction: An army of specialist robots rebuild the prime minister's house in half an hour after Kolbo-5 rescues John.
* {{Sexbot}}: Homeo-whores are sex robots with mix and match parts that their customers can select.
* SlapSlapKiss: Luz slaps John after he kisses her then tells him to kiss her again but do it properly.
* SmallUniverseAfterAll: One of the aristos at a party suggests trying a marsupial pâté from Galaxy 10945 and the president says he's thinking of making his next body an Andromedan dwarf.
* SonOfAWhore: The prequel reveals John's mother was one. A rare case of the child being on board with it and guiding upper class tourists to her brothel.
* SpacePirates: Luz gets rescued/kidnapped from Diavaloo's harem by a pirate called Kaimann and [[spoiler:ends up staying with him when John doesn't recognize her.]]
* StopOrIShootMyself: Luz threatens to cut her throat with her own halo if John gives the psycho-anarchists any information.
* SuddenNameChange: Difool's home planet was referred to as Terra 21 a couple times in the original series but was called Terra 2014 in the prequel onwards.
* TapOnTheHead:
** Kaimann knocks Luz out with his tail when he kidnaps her.
** Tanatah gets knocked out by the techno-priests when they betray her.
* TookALevelInBadass: ''Before the Incal'' shows how John went from being a helpless orphan to a not-quite-as-helpless Class-R detective. He does this sporadically when he possesses the Incal, but even without it he takes a few on his own by the time ''Final Incal'' ends.
* TraumaCongaLine: Unlike the one he undergoes in ''The Incal'', the horrors that befall Difool in ''Before the Incal'' aren't nearly as funny. The whole story is about how John becomes the cynical, distrustful, bitter man we met at the beginning of ''The Incal''.
* UsedToBeASweetKid: Difool.
* VerbalTicName: Deepo is named after a sound his dying mother kept making
* ZeroGSpot: Luz De Garra teases John in her anti-g bedchamber but switchs the gravity back on at the last second.
----

A 6-part prequel '''Before the Incal''' (''Avant l'Incal''), detailing episodes from Difool's life prior to the events of The Incal, was published between 1988 and 1995. It was illustrated by Zoran Janjetov in a style very similar to Moebius'. (Although the recoloring of the first, censored English release gave it a more distinct look). A sequel to both the original Incal and Before, entitled '''After the Incal''' (''Après l'Incal''), began in 2000 with Moebius back as artist, but the series only lasted one volume before it was discontinued. The project was rebooted with Mexican artist José Ladrönn (ComicBook/{{Elephantmen}}) in 2008 as '''Final Incal''' and finished with 3 volumes in 2014.

* {{Sexbot}}: Implied with the homeo-whores as the patrons seem to be able to design in advance what they're going to look like.

* NewNeoCity: Planets called Nova Mars and Nova Pluto are mentioned.

* DeadlyDisk: A secret if the aristos is that they can make their halos fly off as deadly projectiles.

* ColonizedSolarSystem: One if Diavaloo's reports mentions the manager of the Bank Of Pluto misappropriating state funds.

* HolographicDisguise: The aristo John takes to the rough area turns out to be an old woman using one to look young. It wears off after a while hence she wanted John to get her home by a certain time.

%%* SmallUniverseAfterAll:

* ParentalIncest: John's mother's holographic will in the prequel strongly implies she has been [[spoiler:Animah]] in other lives. Backed up by WordOfGod.

* BirdPoopGag: Deepo craps on one of the prime minister's goons when rescuing John.

* CryoPrison: John's father was offered a choice between going into stasis for 30 years or having his memory erased. [[spoiler:He chose the latter.]]

* DarkerAndEdgier: ''Before the Incal'' as it explores the kind of circumstances that would produce a NominalHero like Difool and how he wound up miserable and alone apart from Deepo.

* DisguisedInDrag: John infiltrates the prostitute baby ring by dressing as a pregnant sex worker with Deepo hiding inside the bump.

* DrivenToSuicide: Difool lives and grew up near a suicide spot so popular it has just been named Suicide Alley. ''Before'' the reveal that [[spoiler:his mother was one of its victims and a young Difool tried doing the same.]]

* FantasticGhetto: Mutants on Terra 2014 live in an enclosed ghetto called the G.T.O. which they don't leave until they're 21 because it's legal to kill them before that age.

* FreudianExcuse: ''Before the Incal'' reveals the many horrific and complex roots of Difool's cynicism and selfishness.

* MultiArmedAndDangerous: a couple of similar four-armed mutants or aliens called Kaganu and Loh-Loh work in the Red Ring as a bouncer and a pump respectively. Difoll gets punched by both.

* ParentalIncest: John's mother's holographic will in the prequel strongly implies she has been [[spoiler:Animah]] in other lives. Backed up by WordOfGod.
* PettingZooPeople: A lot of mutants look like anthropomorphic animals.
* PlanetTerra: The odd time Earth is mentioned, it's called Terra-Prima. Seems to be common to name colonies after it as Difool's home planet is Terra 2014.

* ReincarnationRomance: The prequel implies that Animah's soul [[spoiler:knew John in his various lives often as a mother, friend or lover.]]

* RidiculouslyFastConstruction: An army of specialist robots rebuild the prime minister's house in half an hour after Kolbo-5 rescues John.

* SlapSlapKiss: Luz slaps John after he kisses her then tells him to kiss her again but do it properly.

* SonOfAWhore: The prequel reveals John's mother was one. A rare case of the child being on board with it and guiding upper class tourists to her brothel.

* SuddenNameChange: Difool's home planet was referred to as Terra 21 a couple times in the original series but was called Terra 2014 in the prequel onwards.

* TookALevelInBadass: ''Before the Incal'' shows how John went from being a helpless orphan to a not-quite-as-helpless Class-R detective. He does this sporadically when he possesses the Incal, but even without it he takes a few on his own by the time ''Final Incal'' ends.
* TraumaCongaLine: Unlike the one he undergoes in ''The Incal'', the horrors that befall Difool in ''Before the Incal'' aren't nearly as funny. The whole story is about how John becomes the cynical, distrustful, bitter man we met at the beginning of ''The Incal''.

* UsedToBeASweetKid: Difool.

* FutureFoodIsArtificial: John's drink if choice is synthetic whiskey.