The premise is of course ultra-Jodorowsky. But then a huge circus rolls into town, and his protégé, the beautiful mime Alma falls in love with a trapeze artist… Developing a new, much cruder act, he starts a small circus and is less miserable for a while.

Unable to express himself through his art, Pietrolino succumbs to despair until after the war he finds a pair of boxing gloves. Nazis enter and Pietrolino is whisked off to a concentration camp, but not before they have crushed his hands, robbing him of the ability to mime. Boiscommun, it is the tale of the titular mime who we first meet in Nazi-occupied Paris, putting on a patriotic show for the customers of a cafe. Pietrolino, the most recent Jodorowsky release from Humanoids, is one of his “reality” based series. This never stops him from ramming in as much violence, sex, blasphemy, deformity, and mysticism as he can, but I find it more fun to watch it all unfold in more realistic surroundings. Whereas in the fantastical world of The Incal everything is possible, in a book like Madwoman (or ultra-violent incest-packed series like Son of the Gun and Borgia), Jodorowsky is constrained by the need to conform to an at least semi-recognizable reality and is thus forced to contain his berserk inventiveness within a relatively strict set of parameters. It is justifiably revered, a work of science fictional holy madness spawned from the wreckage of Jodorowsky’s equally outrageous Dune movie.īut as great as The Incal and its various spin-offs are, the Jodorowsky comics I enjoy most are probably those set in the “real” world, especially his religious satire/metaphysical farce Madwoman of the Sacred Heart. His most famous comics work remains The Incal, created in collaboration with Moebius, and frequently reprinted in ever more expensive iterations by Humanoids. Alejandro Jodorowsky is one of the most unique creators in comics, drawing upon a biography, range of interests, and incredibly fertile imagination that makes him truly inimitable.

Los Borgia by Alejandro Jodorowsky