The Forbidden Planet International Blog Log

Any of you who are old hands from 2000 AD or are Alan Moore fans (or both) will get the reference in the title to Moore and Gibson’s brilliant Halo Jones. A lot of us still have a tremendous soft spot for Halo Jones, it was quite an unusual tale for a weekly Brit comic which mainly had a young, male readership back then (and it’s a good example of the way 2000 AD has been flexible in trying out different works and styles and subjects over the years). Alongside Moore’s script art droid Ian Gibson’s work stood out; as with his RoboHunter artwork it just seemed perfectly suited to that story and the world it was set on. Jason Garrattley posted some of Gibson’s concept art (taken from the Arken Sword fanzine) for The Ballad of Halo Jones – go and enjoy.

(early concept art for The Ballad of Halo Jones by Ian Gibson, written by Alan Moore, published Rebellion)

You know looking at this again I can’t help but wish Rebellion would give some of 2000 AD’s classic tales the deluxe hardback treatment. I know there have been hardback editions before (I have some of the B&W hardbacks Titan did years ago), but whenever I see the often lovely deluxe editions of classic material the US market is producing of classic strips, I can’t help but think it would be nice to have the same for some British comics, full treatment, oversized hardback, high quality reproduction, include extras like concept art and notes and the like. I’m sure quite a lot of collectors here would spring for those sorts of deluxe editions – not just for 2000 AD archive material either, there’s a treasure of Brit comics history from other publishers which should be given similar treatment, although I’d imagine certain 2000 AD strips would probably be a best bet for starters.