Since the publication of Book Three in 1986 fans of the series have been speculating on the possibility of Halo returning for further adventures. In his introduction to the Titan reprint of Book Three in 1986 Alan Moore seemed to be leaving an open door for Halo's story to return to the comic: 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. With danger on one hand and boredom on the other, Halo eventually decides she wants 'out': she has got things to do (she knows not what) and places to go (she knows not where) and so works her passage off planet on a starship. This in turn leads to many adventures, not least of which, for a while, involves becoming a marine fighting a war on an ultra-high gravity, hence time-distorted planet... She has to get 'out'; she has things to do and places to go. The artwork is kind of a mixed bag. On one hand the artist is the master of drawing the contrapposto figure, but on the other he seems to have skipped all head-drawing classes. Every character has the same unappealing face and the same stiff expression: hooded eyes, catfish frown, and oddly-rendered cheeks. The alien designs are pretty cheesy too. Because for me, it’s Alan Moore’s version of a futuristic female Forrest Gump. And just because he wrote the series a decade before that abominable film (and a year or two before the release of the novel upon which it was based) he still should have known better.

Johnston, Rich (29 December 2011). "The Ballad Of Halo Jones - The Play". bleedingcool.com . Retrieved 18 July 2022. Moore tries to future up the language--which I approve of--but does so with simplistic word substitutions. I found it grating.

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published "The Ballad of Halo Jones" in individual "Progs" between August and October 1986 and issued a more recent reprint, as a three-book collection. Written by Alan Moore (who wrote Watchmen in the same year) and illustrated by Ian Gibson on less than stellar form. Halo's facial expressions range from the pouty-grumpy to the pouty-surprised. The plot didn't grab me, and the main character is rather dull. Book 1 is Halo and flatmate going shopping. This sounds like the most boring book, but was actually the most entertaining. Book 2 follows Halo as she escapes the Loop for a waitressing job on a space cruiser. Book 3 has Halo join an invading army. It must be because I first heard of Halo Jones in the 90s – can't for the life of me remember where (I also didn't connect the name with Alan Moore until recently) – so I assumed she was from the 90s too. But no, she was written in the mid-80s. Her character and look reminded me of my theory that Britain in the 80s was a great time as a kid to see fewer traditional stereotypes of girls and women than before or since (I once wrote, but never finished, a long blog post about this which included examples like Bananarama videos and Supergran). Barbara Nosenzo’s sensitive and enthralling colour work on Gibson’s art was a revelation when published as three separate volumes on 2018, and the omnibus is an opportunity for fans old and new to experience the worlds of Halo Jones afresh. The project was the first major English language work by the Italian colourist, who was talent-spotted by Rebellion at the Angouleme comics festival in France, and has since gone on to work on the science fiction series Deep Beyond from Image Comics. In book three the tone shifts again, following Halo's mood and psychological state. The art regains quality, but is now more realistic than before. The protagonist is now twenty-nine year old and extremely disillusioned with the galaxy that she has been exploring for a decade. At the bottom of her depressive state, she gets enrolled in a very dirty war. The rest is the best antimilitaristic comics that I have ever seen. The sci-fi side of the story regains prominence with the relativistic war that Halo and her all-female platoon are obliged to fight, on a high gravity planet where things runs in slow motion compared to the time of the rest of mankind. But again, this sci-fi element serves the purpose of denouncing the inhumanity of wars where soldiers are used as dispensable meat. The final twist nicely ties the war plot with a previous apparently non-sensical episode from book two. Halo is now a thirty-three veteran that, despite the PTSD, is in control of her existence, and burns every bridge with her past to leave for other galaxies and other adventures that we will never get to see. I was lent this in the form of old 2000AD issues, all printed on newsprint before I was born. It was quite a special reading experience.

One of 2000AD’s best-loved and most honoured artists, Ian Gibson is responsible for the co-creation of “ The Ballad of Halo Jones“, with Alan Moore, and created Bella Bagley, an unfortunate character in Judge Dredd’s world who fell head-over-heels in love with ‘Old Stoney Face’ himself! He Knows Too Much: Discussed in book two, as the Rat King warns (or threatens) Halo that if she tells anyone else about the King's existence, she will be killed.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.

Sassy, streetwise, feminist, wryly witty and battle-proven, Halo Jones' escapades are one of the SF comic strip classics of the late 20th century. The first episode was published July 1984 in 2000AD prog 376. However it was not long before her adventures became known beyond 2000AD's readership and the story even in 1988 inspired a fairly nifty Transvision Vamp song (see below). Alan (The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen) Moore wrote the script and there is his usual dry wit. For example, when Halo and Toy are on war games there is this exchange: The writing isn't always so subtle as it is in portraying the worldbuilding; some things are overstated - dialogue that goes on emphasising the way Halo and her roommate aren't even aware of Glyph's existance amongst them - though Glyph saves Halo twice. It's the comment on what's going on that overdoes it. It happens with the war too, the telling when all we really need is to be shown what happens. There's no fear of killing people off, certainly. But you can excuse the occasional heavy-handediness because it mostly is very well told. In Book Two we learn that Brinna, Halo’s murdered friend, was actually killed by her own robodog. And we get a high-octane confrontation when Halo learns the truth and…someone else comes in to save her. Because she’s Halo Jones, and we can’t have her doing anything that might make her seem the least bit worth reading about. 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.

Love Makes You Evil: Toby the robot guard dog murders his owner Brinna, staging the scene to look like a break-in gone wrong. When Halo listens to audio from his old memory tapes and hears Brinna dying, she asks herself why he did it. Toby promptly appears in the room and says it's because he loves Halo, and because Brinna left him to Halo in her will. Where did she go? Out. What did she do? Everything.A cultural icon and a high water mark for British science fiction, this timeless tale of one woman’s tenacity amidst a sea of dead-end jobs, war, despair, love, and hope, remains one of Moore’s most beloved sagas. Restored and lovingly coloured by Barbara Nosenzo, and featuring a new introduction and bonus content – including scans of two of Moore’s original scripts – The Ballad of Halo Jones remains essential reading and this is its essential collection. A cultural icon and a high water mark for both science fiction and British comics, this timeless tale from the writer of Watchmen and V for Vendetta follows one woman’s journey through dead-end jobs, deadly wars, and personal tragedy, as she changes from an innocent teenager into a world-weary woman.