The Ballad of Halo Jones (2013)
Author: Alan Moore | Illustrator: Ian Gibson | Page Count: 208
"I go out and buy a gun, second-hand. I tell myself it’s for self-defence, but that’s not true. It’s because I’m bored. […] I take the gun and go sit by the window."
Halo Jones is an average eighteen-year-old. She likes clothes, shopping and parties. Halo likes to live. The problem is that living in the year 4949 isn't easy, especially in the Hoop, a cramped and dangerous ghetto created to house the unemployed. People of the Hoop have never even seen a tree.
Halo wants to escape, to see the outside. Quite often when someone experiences those kinds of feelings it's themselves they're trying to escape from, but that's just not possible, is it?
The Ballad is split over three Books separated by time and degrees of depth and poignancy. Without having an insight into Moore's mind I can only guess at the pitch he gave to the comic's publishers, and his reasoning for structuring the three parts like he did. Whatever it was, I'm glad they fell for it.
Book I is a safe entry point. Whilst reading, you'll maybe wonder why Halo is so well-loved by so many people. The drama revolves around a shopping trip. Huh? It feels like a soap opera taking place inside the mind of a fickle and diaphanous head. But that easy-life conceit was necessary to establish a parallel with the organic structure that follows.
Book II ups the game, the danger level, and the emotional content. Bridging narratives are traditionally difficult, but Moore overcomes the difficulties.
By Book III, it's possible to be be fully invested in Halo's story, feeling the pinch and pains of her situation. It delivers the kind of experience Moore's famous for. The journey to and through that third and final part is the reason Halo Jones has endured for so long, and will surely continue to do so for years to come.
The 2013 edition has a page size taller than what the original 2000 AD format had, but there's no distortion of the image. That means there's empty space at the top and bottom of each page. It also retains the beautiful black and white art. The reprint by Quality Comics that coloured and skewed the perspective to fit the traditional American-size comic book format is now just a bad, bad memory.
- Production Sketch -
