INCAL, THE 309
to help his sister’s battle with lupus; he would later put out Wetworks through Lee’s
Wildstorm line.
While the Image imprint was originally fashioned in order to provide creators
with greater control over their properties, the partners eventually splintered over
time. Unrest over fi nancial matters led to Liefeld’s exodus, and Lee sold Wildstorm
to DC Comics while maintaining editorial control. Gradually, Image came to pub-
lish a wide array of creator-owned titles, including Brian Michael Bendis’s Powers ,
Eric Shanower’s Age of Bronze , and Kirkman’s Invincible , among numerous others.
Especially considering its relative youth, a large number of Image properties have
been adapted to other media. Top Cow’s Witchblade has been turned into a TNT
series, a cartoon, anime, and manga titles. Likewise, Spawn was transformed into both
an animated series for HBO and a major motion picture in 1997. Larsen’s Savage
Dragon ran for 26 episodes as a USA Network cartoon, and Sam Kieth’s Th e Maxx
was shown on MTV from 1994 to 1995 as part of the show Oddities.
With the departure of Lee and Executive Director Larry Marder in 1999, Valentino
assumed the role of publisher, later followed in 2005 by Larsen. In 2008, that offi ce
was passed to Eric Stephenson, creator of Nowhere Men. According to 2007 Diamond
Comics Distributors data, Image remained the fourth-largest U.S. direct market comic
book publisher as of that year. Th eir approximately 4 percent of total comics purchases
places them closely behind Dark Horse at 5.61 percent. DC Comics and Marvel
Comics continued to dominate the landscape with a combined 72 percent.
A. David Lewis
INCAL, THE. Th e Incal is a French science-fi ction comic book series written by Ale-
jandro Jodorowsky and illustrated by Moebius. Th e original series comprised six
issues, which, in their English translation, are collected in trade paperback form as
Th e Incal: Th e Epic Conspiracy , and Th e Incal: Th e Epic Journey. Th e series was then
expanded ( justifying the designation “epic”) via a prequel, a sequel, two spin-off s,
and a role-playing game.
Th e story, featuring protagonist John Difool (whose name clues readers in to the
tarot card motif in the series), takes place in a future world that has come to be called
both the Jodoverse and the Metabarons Universe, where dystopian conditions are
facilitated by oligarchical rule, a conspiratorial media, and mind-numbing drugs. Th is
world is established in the prequel, entitled in English-language trade paperback form
Th e Incal: Orphan of the City Shaft. Th e people of the City Shaft on the planet Terra
#2014 run the gamut of social status, with the hedonistic Aristos, characterized by the
halos they are supposedly born with, at the top. To achieve Class “R” Detective status,
Difool begins to uncover the mystery of how the halos are actually created, which car-
ries over into the next trade paperback, Th e Incal: John Difool, Class “ R ” Detective. Difool
solves the mystery, but is kept from exposing the truth, which he soon forgets due to
brainwashing. He then fi nds himself newly established as a Class “R” Detective, and just
as emotionless as the rest of Terra #2014. Meanwhile, events are taking place to help
