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The Complete Ballad of Halo Jones (2000 Ad)

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All of it beautifully illustrated by Ian Gibson. Gibson uses a style here that reminds me of Moebius, Walter Simonson, June Brigman, and Bret Blevins, fine-lined with some interesting curved shapes for clothing and faces, with some very beautiful cross-hatched shadows. Maybe even a little Joe Staton, because Gibson’s characters are fairly unique in shape and facial features, they’re exaggerated and fascinating. It only gets better as the series progresses, with some very interesting layouts in book three.

In a 2011 interview for 3:AM magazine Alan Moore stated "the next adventure would have probably been when she was a female space pirate with Sally Quasa", "I would have been basically going through all the decades of her life, with her getting older in each one, because I liked the idea, at the time, of having a strip in 2000AD with a seventy or eighty year old woman as the title character ... it would have ended up with Halo Jones upon some planet that is right at the absolute edge of the universe where, beyond that, beyond some sort of spectacular lightshow, there is no space, no time, and it would have ended up with Halo Jones – all the rest of the people on this planetoid because, actually, time is not passing; you could stay there forever, potentially – and what would have happened is that Halo Jones, after spending some time with the rest of the immortals, would have tottered across the landing field, got into her spacecraft, and flown into the psychedelic lightshow, to finally get out." [3] But I persevered. And since that seems to be the moral of “The Ballad of Halo Jones” by the end – something about there being more to life, so don’t give up – maybe Alan Moore knew what he was doing all along.We Will Have Euthanasia in the Future: The first volume notes that the upper levels of the Hoop contain pleasant gardens that prospective euthanasiacs can visit before dying. The protagonists use them as a shortcut, and plan to say the garden's beauty made them want to live again if they get caught. And the Adventure Continues: The ending of the series/book three. Halo boards a ship she has stolen, to continue to explore outer space and build upon the legend that we learn she will blaze through history at the end of book two. Try to Fit That on a Business Card: The Proximen acquire extra words in their names as a sign of increased status. Also: “Ice Ten” is the name of a musical group in the comic. That’s a hilarious Kurt Vonnegut joke, maybe. (The “maybe” refers to the level of hilariousness, not that it isn’t a Vonnegut reference, because it clearly is. Still, “Ice Ten”? That’s the level of humor in here?) Book Three begins after another Time Skip, showing various occupations Halo was in after she left the Clara Pandy. She ends up, ten years later, on the planet Pwuc "where the Catsblood never runs out but the dreams do." There, she meets Toy again, who persuades her to join the army, currently engaged in brutal guerrilla war in the Tarantula Nebula. As a part of Platoon B, Halo sees the horrors of war, as most of her platoon mates die, culminating in the death of Toy. Halo quits the army after that, but with nothing to do and no job, she starts to go crazy and reenlists. And then gets sent to Warzone 1, the planet Moab, where the intense gravity does strange things to time, where the battles last five minutes and two months, and where Halo meets General Cannibal. As the war ends, Halo discovers her inadvertent complicity in Gen Cannibal's war crimes, kills him and is last seen stealing his spaceship to take her off to new adventures.

Excellent. I thought the actors really brought the characters to life and sounded pretty much as I used to imagine them. I liked the addition of Halo narrating certain parts (It was a comic strip!) but doing it as she was writing letters. Helter Skelter", a Judge Dredd story written by Garth Ennis (12 episodes Progs 1250–1261) features cameos from a myriad of previous 2000AD characters including Halo Jones in episodes 6 & 7. Artwork by Carlos Ezquerra and Henry Flint. Halo Jones is bored. Trapped in The Hoop, a futuristic world where jobs are scarce and excitement non-existent, Halo sets out to see the galaxy any way she can and to rewrite her destiny. From drudge work on a glamorous cruise liner, to serving in a brutal war zone, Halo experiences love and loss and she grows up into the woman who will change the course of the galaxy’s history. Coming of Age: A really dark coming of age story. Halo's journey into maturity is forced by Brinna's death.

Whether this really is the last book remains to be seen. While there are currently no plans to continue the series, due to external circumstances and considerations, I think it's fair to say that, were these circumstances to alter, both Ian and myself would be only too pleased to resume The Ballad and continue to relate the history of a character to whom we've both grown very attached over the couple of years that we've worked with her. You know how it is ... We've been out with her a couple of times and the chances are that if she's free, one day we might go out with her again. Who knows? Maybe we'll let you come along too. Space Marine: Averted. Most of the soldiers are hapless conscripts with inadequate training. Even those who prove competent fighters have no capabilities beyond those of a contemporary soldier. The bulky power armor that Halo and the others wear isn't standard, it protects them from the devastating effects of gravity in the Crush. Johnston, Rich (29 December 2011). "The Ballad Of Halo Jones - The Play". bleedingcool.com . Retrieved 18 July 2022.

The first Book on the Hoop (a circular floating city) shows a welfare society with rampant unemploymeny, not unlike the familiar Mega-City One, and uncomfortable racial friction with the alien Proximans (who are themselves no saints). There are typically 2000AD concepts like the Different Drummers, a menacing androgynous gang/cult who are neurally networked with a hypnotic beat going through their brains. Books influence your outlook on life, and I know now this was one of the big influencers on mine. Science Fiction has no shortage of powerful female protagonists, but it has very few everywomen. I only later managed to get my hands on the full story. While the raw emotional power is in Book Three, the really interesting worldbuilding and character setup is missed out on. It's a pity that Halo Jones never got continued, because there was a grand story just beginning to hit its stride. It got further than Firefly, and I am happy with what there is. Alan Moore and Ian Gibson's groundbreaking feminist icon is celebrated in this stunning, lavish, full colour omnibus, featuring bonus content! Halo Jones is bored. Trapped in The Hoop, a futuristic world where jobs are scarce and excitement non-existent, Halo sets out to see the galaxy any way she can and to rewrite her destiny. From drudge work on a glamorous cruise liner, to serving in a brutal war zone, Halo experiences love and loss and she grows up into the woman who will change the course of the galaxy's history. As you would expect of a classic, this graphic collection has been in print virtually continuously since the 1980s, first as three separate volumes (one for each part) in 1986 and then, as with these editions, in a single collected volume first published in 1991. The surprise for us is that nobody on the Concat team has reviewed this before: especially as Tony is well into Moore, and Graham and I are into 2000AD. This Rebellion edition (2007) is in the new, slightly reduced format: so purists may wish to seek out an earlier full-sized edition such as The Complete Ballad of Halo Jones (2001 from Titan Books) that also has introductions from Moore and Gibson. Alas, the 2013 edition's new cover does not have Gibson's distinctive artwork.Ian Gibson’s cover for “The Ballad of Halo Jones” Book Four – or at least, a might-have-been cover; a commission for a fan, Ian Leonard, had the character’s stories continued beyond ” The Ballad of Halo Jones” Book Three. In Book Four, Halo is on her way to becoming Halo Jones – Pirate Queen, a theme Ian recalls might have extended into Book Five. Reproduced here with permission of Ian Gibson This book leaves most comics and shounen manga in the dust when it comes to realistic depiction of people - Alan Moore's writing combined with the Ian Gibson art droid's panels make a subversive and accessible mix. Radical and revolutionary, Rebellion is proud to present Alan Moore and Ian Gibson's ground-breaking feminist space opera and science fiction classic in a full colour omnibus for the first time. Everyone speaks highly of Alan Moore’s “Watchmen” but rarely do I ever hear anyone [other than those of us in the know] discuss “The Ballad of Halo Jones” which I still consider his greatest work in the field of comics/graphic novels.

When a series falls short of even Hot Shots! Part Deux, there’s a problem, even when Alan Moore’s name is on the cover. Then, Book Three hammers it all home. All of the Adamsian satire falls away in favor of much bleaker anti-war fare, and after having two full stories establishing that this vision of the future is pretty dark already, it really feels earned. This feels like Moore coming into his own and taking things a little more seriously, taking a knife to Robert Heinlein's jingoist Starship Troopers in the process. In the 1980s, a computer game was developed for the Spectrum and Amstrad computers, based around the shopping trip that Halo takes. It was unreleased due to the Piranha Software being closed down by its parent company. [9] Distant Finale: There was foreshadowing that this device would be used, with a scene set in a university history lecture several thousand years after the events of the main story discussing Halo's significance as a historical character/folk hero. However, the comic was, unfortunately, never finished. Book Three nods toward making Halo a viable lead in an action series by throwing the sci-fi trope of the future-soldier into the tale. What we get is kind of a proto-Martha-Washington-Goes-to-War, or Alan Moore’s twist on the Joe Haldeman kind of Vietnam-in-space novels. Halo, now a whole lot more grizzled, becomes a gun-toting lead for the first time, and yet, to stay true to the premise of the series, she constantly struggles against her own compulsion towards violence.Eye Scream: It's apparently standard military training to learn how to put an enemy's eyes out with your thumbs. Things become much more livelier by the second book and there are some intriguing premises and classic story devices used here that kept my interest. Of course, almost anything would have been an improvement over the first one. Here, near Shakespearean or classic Greek drama of love, betrayal, and something called a rat king are introduced. Also, by this time the jarring and unfamiliar slang starts becoming more understandable and for me even warmly embraced. Possibly the first feminist heroine in comics", wrote The Observer of Alan Moore's epic tale of one woman's search for her place in a galaxy out of control. "Originally published in 2000AD and then collected by Titan Books, this classic tale of future alienation and an individual's struggle remains a timeless testament to the genius of Moore. Beautifully illustrated by artist Ian Gibson, this is the ultimate sci-fi opus. Don't dare miss it!" Halo Jones practices a certain dialogue convention in comics that drives me nuts. Two or three random words in every word balloon are heavily bolded for no apparent reason. It looks like simple emphasis, but too often emphasizing the bolded words makes no sense. And like the rest of the illustration, the bolding is overdone.

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