Moebius Dark Incal (L'Incal Noir) p 39

Written by Alexandro Jodorowsky, this epic collaboration between Moebius and Jodorowsky grew out of their work together on a film version of Dune, which they developed for several years. Originally published in Métal Hurlant issue 62 in 1981, originally as 'Les Aventures de John Difool' and reprinted later that year in 'Heavy Metal Presents Moebius.' This page is from the 'Meta Baron' chapter (yes, it was originally two words, then hyphenated, and then a single word) in what became known as 'L'Incal Noir' (The Black Incal), which is the first book of the original six book series. Here the Metabaron matches wits with Tanatah over the fate of Solune. Tanatah leads a rebel group known as Amok (hence the oh-so-stylish throne with the "A' shapes). Tanatah is also the guardian of the Dark Incal, and originally hired the Metabaron to kill John DiFool. The Metabaron is the greatest bounty hunter in the known universe, and is the adopted father of Solune. Solune is the key to it all.

Many consider L'Incal as Moebius's crowning achievement (I'd argue it's one of literally half a dozen crowning achievements). Giraud/Moebius is responsible for everything on the OA page, including lettering (the story was printed in black and white, and colored when collected into albums). The first coloring was by Yves Chaland, though in later album reprints Moebius redid the coloring. Select the color additional image to read the translation (by Justin Kelly).

I could write a thousand words on why this page is so amazing, and hopefully at some point I'll have time to do that. Briefly, what I particularly love is the incredible visual storytelling, the page design, the expressiveness, the stunning blend of pen and brush work, the sense of movement... It's easily one of my favorite pieces.

I noticed in scanning this that the page shows as being page 40 originally, no doubt from the Métal Hurlant version. For now I'll stick with the attribution that this is page 39, since that's what it shows in the first English-language album.

Image area 11 x 15, page 12 x 16