Alejandro Jodorowsky’s adaptation of the novel Dune by Frank Herbert never bore cinematic fruit, but it did lead to the inception of the saga The Incal in the 1980s. The creation of this graphic novel world — The Incal is also the title of the first volume in the series — fleshes out some elements already present in the science fiction novel. This article explores how Jodorowsky develops these aspects by exploring two themes, that of the androgynous god, whether manufactured or revealed, and that of the memory curse. This latter theme intersects with the Chilean-French writer’s work as the inventor of psychomagic, a form of therapy seeking to heal inherited trauma. The theme features prominently in another of his graphic novel series, The Metabarons. We will also examine how Jodorowsky took advantage of the possibilities offered by the graphic novel to illustrate our chosen themes by literalizing certain metaphors.
