This year marks the 40th anniversary of the classic European science fiction comic, The Incal, and as part of the festivities, publisher Humanoids is celebrating Incal writer Alejandro Jodorowsky with a new book, The Seven Lives of Alejandro Jodorowsky.
The book is edited by Vincent Bernière, and it’s an all-new hardcover appreciation of all things Jodorowsky, giving readers and fans a thorough overview of his films and his comics, as well as his life in the theater, his rebirth in the 1970s as a cinematic cult figure, and his now-legendary work on an unfinished film adaptation of the novel Dune.
The Incal, for the uninitiated, is a classic piece of science fiction storytelling, written by Jodorowsky and illustrated by one of the greatest comics artists of all time, Moebius. I myself had been meaning to read it for years, and I finally did, motivated as I was by all the 40th anniversary talk about the book. I was thoroughly struck not just by how electric and well-done the story was, but by how much of science fiction as we know it had been inspired by themes, ideas, and imagery within this book.
In the interest of celebrating all things Jodorowsky, it is perhaps also worth noting that the director’s films also got a really cool new 4K restoration this year. This of course includes the experimental cult classics Holy Mountain and El Topo, as well as his earlier film Fando Y Lis and his newest film, Psychomagic, A Healing Art. Most of these are new 4K restorations from original 35mm film, approved for the new set by Jodorowsky himself. These came out in September.
The Seven Lives of Alejandro Jodorowsky is slated to hit bookstores on Oct. 13 and comic book stores on Oct. 14. You can check out the trailer below…enjoy!
