Metabarons Genesis: Castaka Hardcover – September 20, 2016

Short and sweet. Good story but ultimately unneeded in the Metabaron universe.

This was my introduction to the metabarons and I loved it.

Badass

Excellent addition to the metabarons

Should I have read Metabarons first? Well I sure didn’t. Since this is the prequel I figured it would be okay to start here, I think it was. I sure enjoyed it at any rate. This story recounts the origin of the Metabarons, part of the universe by the wildly imaginative Jodorowsky which encompasses other stories of his that I love, namely the Incal trilogy.I had never heard of this artist, Das Pastoras, but wow, this is a sumptuous and gorgeously illustrated story. I suppose this would still be classified as a comic, but it’s really more of a fully realized series of painstakingly rendered paintings. Check out pages 24 & 25, a two page spread with no dialog or captions but still epic, beautiful and crazy violent. An amazing work of art and I’m sure, even cooler, if you’ve already read the grand Metabarons book which I am about to do.

Everything seems to be converging to form a career rebirth for Alejandro Jodorowsky. Not that he ever really went through a decline, in any way; he's remained one of the most prolific writers of bande dessinee since the early 80's, and has written books on various subjects, such as the Tarot and ritual magic. But with the critical acclaim garnered by the fascinating documentary 'Jodorowsky's Dune', and the long-anticipated conclusion and collected edition of 'Final Incal', he seems more vital now than he has since creating the cult film 'El Topo' over forty years ago. 'Final Incal' completes the central trilogy in the massively complex series of graphic novels that share a continuity dubbed 'The Jodoverse'. Moebius, who illustrated the original Incal, creating one of his most important and visionary works around Jodo's brilliantly eccentric story, also completed one chapter of 'Apres L'Incal' before abandoning the project. Retitled as 'Final Incal', Ladronn started over, and spent nearly a decade crafting some of the most gorgeous artwork in comic history.With so much attention devoted to 'Final Incal', another corner of the Jodoverse, based on an enigmatic character from the original Incal -- The Metabaron -- has almost been overlooked. 'The Metabarons', lavishly illustrated by Spaniard Juan Gimenez, was the dark companion to 'The Incal', a brutal, incredibly violent, multi-generational epic relating the bloody history of the Metabaron caste. Like a futuristic, technologically advanced version of the medieval Samurai, adhering to a warrior-code -- Bushitaka -- very similar to the Samurai's battlefield philosophy of Bushido, the Metabarons were the most feared men in the Jodoverse.Following Juan Gimenez, Travis Charest matched Ladronn's sublime artistic perfection in the all-too-brief, 64-page follow-up to the 550+ page original in 'Weapons of the Metabarons'. Although he is excruciatingly self-critical, and this demand for perfection makes for slow work, it provides a showcase for what the Canadian artist is capable.While 'Final Incal' takes us to the end, Jorowsky's 'Metabarons Genesis: Castaka', takes us to the beginning. While Charest is an incredible talent, producing this 112-page volume would have taken far too long. In his place. Das Pastoras was the choice to illustrate this prequel to 'The Metabarons' -- which was itself a prequel -- taking the story back to Castaka, the home world,before the Metabaron caste had been established. If The Metabarons represent the Tokugawa Shogunate of Edo-period Japan, then this gorgeously rendered story takes us back to the Sengoku period, the era of the warring states, which culminated in the battle of Sekigara, and after a short time of struggle between the generals of the victorious army, a stable, unified Japan ruled by the Shogunate. The correlations are obvious, after reading it.'Castaka' is another masterpiece for Jodo, and an ending. It has been taking us backwards -- the 'first' Metabaron is introduced simply as 'The Last Metabaron', and the MB saga begins with the first. This final installment is a prequel that tells us how their horrific traditions began, stemming from a long conflict between the two tribes that originally populated Castaka, both fighting for control of the marble-planets meager life-sustaining resources. Das Pastoras establishes himself as an artist of the highest order. His fully-painted art is every bit as awe-inspiring as Ladronn's, and is worth it for the art alone.These two artists have helped Jodorwsky realize his vision perfectly, and it will be interesting to see what he does next, both in the Jodoverse and out. 'Castaka' is a stunning book, both for it's art and its' design. It's a deluxe limited edition, numbered somewhere between 0001 and 1500 (mine was 0351), and is an over-sized !0" x 13" hardcover, complete with slipcase. Don't ignore this book for Final Incal, go ahead and buy both, because prices will skyrocket soon on both (I pre-ordered a copy of the original deluxe, slip-cased, edition of 'The Incal: Classic Collection' in 2010, just as Humanoids was stepping up its English translations for the US market again. It had the same over-sized dimensions as 'Castaka', and announced on the slipcase-cover that it was limited to 750 copies. If you didn't pre-order it through a comic-shop, you were out of luck -- the 100$ USD book never made it to the shelves, selling-out fast enough that even the later pre-orders never got their copy. I have yet to see one for sale).

Brutal and beautiful all in one, just like everything Jodorowsky does. If you're a fan of the original Metabarons then you'll love this addition to the cannon.

Jodorowsky and Das Pastoras have teamed up for a cracking spin-off from the much-acclaimed Metabarons series. This particular installment is an 'origins' story, focusing upon the initial boiling-pot of conflicts and events that transformed the Castaka tribe of the planet Marmola into an elite lineage of uber-powerful galactic warlords (ie, The Metabarons). The first part of the book reads almost like an Akira Kurosawa samourai epic, with warring clans fighting for supremacy and then transmutes back into space opera for the latter half, making for an epic experience. Jodo's writing is as stylised, scandalous and spicy as ever and is superbly supported by Pastoras' incredibly detailed and oddly unsettling artwork. For those that are unfamiliar with his art, refer to the cult graphic novel series 'Deicide' for a sense of his credentials. His attention to detail and design is often outstanding and there are literally endless examples of frames in Castaka that you could posterize (including an impressive two-page spread of a busy battle scene that you could spend hours picking apart). His texture-work is strangely muted, gritty and earthy (a wash-and-stipple mixture of watercolour, acrylics, pencils) and punctuated by delicate, fine lines of 'hairy' inking, which combine to create scenes that are both ultra-clear and yet utterly organic. This is a very 'hand-drawn', 'hand-painted' style and is ultimately more impressive because of it. Don't expect any futuristc CGI-work here. Fans of the Jodoverse will love this book, but be aware that this particular story is already covered to some degree in The Metabarons. Although Castaka elucidates much further, certain parts of the script and events are full reproductions of the original Metabaron scenes. This left me scratching my head a bit at first, but the new material soon makes up for it. If you are new to Jodorowsky's twisted universe, then Castaka may not be the best place to start reading. Some prior background knowledge may be advisable if you wish to get the most out of it. On a final note, though, it's yet another fantastic masterwork by Jodo and 'friends' and worth every penny. A heads-up: this particular oversized, limited edition print is from a run of 1500 copies. It looks incredible and will definitely increase in value down the line, so get in there...Enjoy.

I was disappointed by the lack of originality. The story seems to borrow heavily from Japanese Samurai culture and I found the characters uninteresting and the plot has nothing of the cleverness or pace of The Metabaron.

Fabulous art and a great story that stands alone, but fills in the Metabaron story background and contributes to a richer understanding of the "Jodoverse" of the Incal/Technopriest/Metabaron/Megalex. If you're interested in Jodorowsky this is a must.

i have the books in english from metabarons universe simply because is hardcover and normal french size...and i can see and feel the story like a movie (cinema in english have this power) ......shame about others humanoids and others publishers comics with smaller size....they ruin the bd....they have some problem about the size of .....papers.