Halo Jones and Toby by Glenn Fabry

Art by Glenn Fabry

Above, a stunning Halo Jones & Toby commission piece by the extraordinary Glenn Fabry.

Celebrating 2000AD 46th birthday

Art by Chris Weston

Few days ago, the extraordinary British artist CHRIS WESTON posted the above, fantastic illustration on his Facebook page. He added: "Happy 46th Birthday to the comic that changed my life and  paid a good chunk of my mortgage! Cheers, 2000 AD!" The first issue dated 26 February 1977.

You can recognize some familiar faces: Halo Jones and Waldo "D.R." Dobbs.

Halo Jones by David Hitchcock

Art by David Hitchcock

Above, a fantastic illustration featuring Halo Jones, General Luiz Cannibal and cyber-canine Toby by British comic book artist DAVID HITCHCOCK. 

For more info about Hitchcock: blog - Facebook page

Ian Gibson on Moore and Halo Jones

Excerpt from an interview with artist Ian Gibson, co-creator of Halo Jones, about his long career in comics, published on Tripwire Magazine and conducted by contributing writer Paul N Neal.

The complete interview is available HERE.

Paul N Neal: [...] how did Halo Jones first originate? Did you have much story input into it?

Ian Gibson: After a signing session at Forbidden Planet, Steve MacManus came up to me and said: “You’ve just done a long stint on Dredd and an even longer stint on Robohunter. Is there anything you’d like to do next?” [...] I told Steve: “I want to work with Alan on a girl’s story.” So, he introduced me to the hairy one and I told Alan: “I want a story without thought bubbles or explanatory captions, as I never see signposts proclaiming ‘Little did he know’ or shit like that. I wanted the story to be experienced by the reader the way we go through our daily lives – we figure it out as we go. Alan said fine and he went away, coming back six months later saying: ‘We have a winner! Girls, Rockets and Monsters!” Sadly, I had to put him right on a few things, but I’m sure you’ll ask what those were.

Paul:  Ian, you dangled a carrot there. What were the things you managed to correct Alan Moore on?

Ian: His first plotline had Halo out in space on some asteroid discovering a mysterious ship. I asked him what her motivation was, and he said “Escape”. So, I said “Well then, we have to show what she’s escaping from, and the best way to show what a world is like is to go shopping in it. If Tesco has been firebombed, Sainsburys has a hostage situation etc, then you have to plan your shopping expedition like a military campaign.” Then he suggested the story was set on a floating island called the hoop which was powered by Manhattan. I said, “Don’t be silly. If this is an island out in the ocean it would be used as a wave/energy producer that supplies Manhattan. Not the other way around.” I sent him sketches of how the Hoop would look and the fact that it would need to open to allow mega waves to pass through without it busting apart, which he managed to incorporate into the story. It was just simple stuff like that. 

Paul: Would it be fair to say your career has been marked by working mostly with the incredible John Wagner and Alan Moore? I’m told their scripts vary in detail and style a lot. Is that true and can you compare them at all? As an artist, which of the two approaches do you find more rewarding?

Ian: My preference has always been John. He’s a great writer with a wonderful sense of humour. He doesn’t waste pages of picture descriptions that he knows I’m going to ignore, whereas Alan runs off at the typewriter.

The complete interview is available HERE.

The Ballad of Halo Jones stage productions

Flyer for Halo Jones Play, 1988

The Ballad Of Halo Jones has been adapted for the stage on a number of occasions. The first adaptation was performed by In The Red Theatre Company around the UK in 1988, the second one at the Edinburgh Festival in 2001, a third one at the Lass o' Gowrie in Manchester in 2012, then another in Leeds in November of 2012. 

 

You can get essential info HERE and HERE. Additional info here and here. Enjoy!

In The Red Theatre Company stage production programme (page 2)

Hula from The Hoop

Art by Ian Gibson

Above, a fantastic page by the great Ian Gibson paying home to Moore and their fabulous creation Halo Jones, published in George Khoury's The Extraordinary Works of Alan Moore (2003, TwoMorrows). Well, I love Alan's suit!

The Ballad of Halo Jones audio adaptation

The Ballad of Halo Jones audio adaptation.

Few days ago, Penguin Audio released the audio adaptation of Moore & Gibson's classic masterpiece The Ballad of Halo Jones.

"Featuring Sheila Atim as Halo Jones, alongside Ellie Kendrick, Kemah Bob, Michael Fenton Stevens and Yaz Zadeh, with an exciting accomplished cast, existing fans of Halo and newcomers alike will be transported to The Hoop and beyond in an immersive listening experience like no other."

More info about the character HERE.

Halo Jones in colour

Halo Jones: Alan Moore (writer), Ian Gibson (artist), Barbara Nosenzo (colorist).

Excerpt from an article published in 2000 AD site, here.

2018 sees a 2000 AD classic remastered and in colour for the very first time.

[...] Originally published in black and white, the re-releases will feature extensively remastered artwork and, for the very first time, will be published in colour. Italian newcomer Barbara Nosenzo is responsible for bringing colour to the world of Halo Jones. [...] 

Barbara Nosenzo: Halo is a perfect example of black & white balance, and I constantly felt the responsibility of adding colours where there was no need for them!
[...] While reading the books for the first time, I started imagining atmospheres and details, and tried to put those on paper. I used some covers as reference, and then I worked on my own palette to bring Halo's world to life. I focused on creating colors for atmosphere, and I decided with my editor (Matt Smith) to choose different background tones for each book, to help define the three different stages of Halo's life (the Hoop, the Clara Pandy and the War).

Book one has a green, dirty background color to give you a feeling of uselessness and deterioration, that perfectly matches life on Hoop. Book two has a pale yellow tone, because its Clara Pandy time, apparently an age of luxury surrounding Halo. And finally, red tones for book three because it's all about the war. To obtain these effects, I used background layers, with a wrinkled paper texture turned in three different colours, each one for the specific book I was working on.

I think that colour is like soundtrack in a movie: it should enhance the feelings and underline particular moments. That's how I tried to use my palette, often using weird colours to define feelings (blue for sadness, green or purple for fear.)

The complete article is available here.

AM Portrait: The Moore the Better!

Art by Duncan Fegredo

From Alan Moore: Portrait of an Extraordinary Gentleman (Abiogenesis Press, 2003), page 118 of the sold-out volume.

Above, you can admire an amazing illustration featuring Halo Jones, one of Moore's best creations, realized by British Master artist DUNCAN FEGREDO.

The illustration has been posted on this blog with the author's permission.

For more info about FEGREDO visit his site: here.